Young bridge builders
People who go out of their way to help others in Frankfurt can become “neighbourhood ambassadors”. They include many young people from immigrant families.
Kenza and Hamad Khan are a bit like the Brothers Grimm, who collected fairy tales to preserve them for posterity. The Khans listen to stories from their home district of Preungesheim in Frankfurt-am-Main – and write them down in what they call a “family book”.
The Pakistan-born siblings are being supported in their project by the Polytechnische Gesellschaft (Polytechnic Society). This Frankfurt-based foundation offers “neighbourhood ambassadors” like Kenza and Hamad a grant of €3,000 and provides practical guidance on how best to put their ideas into practice. For example, they can attend additional seminars on such topics as project management, convincing others, and dealing with the media. “We are at home in Preungesheim and are taking on responsibility,” say Kenza and Hamad. Both only left Pakistan a few years ago. “In our home district it’s like a house: if there’s a big stone lying in the hallway, we clear it away.” The ambassadors’ message is clearly to show commitment instead of turning a blind eye.
All the “neighbourhood ambassadors” are between 15 and 27 years old and see themselves as “bridge builders” – in a great variety of fields: Julia Flick has created a new information portal for children and adolescents in 2012; Faruk Bozkurt has launched a film project to look into what “home” is and how the people living in his neighbourhood define it. The 20-year-old man of Turkish origin has discovered that even smells can create identity. One interviewee told him: home smells like apple pie.”
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