Aug 27th, 2016
VIENNA: In June, some significant changes in the pavilions of the GZW are constantly evolving. The residents now have two kitchens on each floor. Every resident receives an allowance of 190 € each month from 40 €. They provide and cook their own food and no longer depending ready cooked hot meals.
As they celebrated Ramadan, people in the camp abstained from eating meals and drinks until 9:00 in the night. Many of them were awake eating until 2:00 in the morning in order to prepare for the next day of fasting.
Our German and integration course is going very well. We hired a German teacher and a volunteer who give classes every week. The volunteer is a psychotherapist and had worked for Caritas for 20 years. Occasionally, we have other volunteers helping with our courses. The participants said that they are very happy with their teachers. We see a lot of progress in their German language skills. In our program, we give much attention and time to the women according to their necessity. We have noticed that they are also studying a lot on their own. Unfortunately in this month because of Ramadan, not all are participating regularly in the classes.
Since our program is doing well and much appreciated, we started to expand to a new group of women. Many commented that our German language course is the only successful classes done at pavilion 10 and 12. The coordinators of the center are very grateful for our work.
We also had a men conversation group. In July, we will start the conversation group with those men who need more practice in speaking and to those who have not done the German course last summer.
We are grateful for the good relationships we have built with the residents and enjoy their hospitality and friendship in our everyday work.
