by Hannah from India. Backpacking is a form of low-cost, independent travel. It includes the use of public transport; inexpensive lodging such as youth hostels; often a longer duration of the trip when compared with conventional vacations; and typically, an interest in meeting locals as well as seeing sights. Ever since my visit to Germany I have done few backpacking trips with my travel partner/ best friend Rachel Lee. We have traveled to Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Italy. Here are our few tips we learned during our backpacking Europe journey.

by Carol from India Hello Everyone, My Name is Carol Naidu and I come from a city called Nagpur in Central India. I live with my parents and my younger sister Zoe and an even younger brother Ethan. Currently I am pursuing my Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. Being in the final year did not bind me to attend the college. When this volunteering opportunity came along to me I was very ecstatic and immediately contacted my university for permission which I received.

By Josephat Seleman Hema from Tanzania. “What is home to you? Do you think you can have more than one homes?” Interesting. I was asked this questions promptly one day in an interview after a Sunday Service. However, I had a different thought that day; I was not thinking the same way as I usually think when I think about home. Yes, I come from Tanzania, Eastern Africa, from the World’s Southern Hemisphere, Southern of the

Community garden on the premises of the volunteer house.  Guest blog from Lokal Wilkommen. Creating meeting places in the neighbourhood is an important task for the Dortmund Integration network „Local Wilkommen“. Lokal Wilkommen is operated by the City of Dortmund and the Caritas, the main focus lies in the integration into the city society to people who already live in their own apartments in Brackel and Aplerbeck areas. This includes support in all areas of life, e.g.  search for a German course or the possibility to do Voluntary services in language cafés, leisure activities or tutoring. Another main focus is to strengthen neighbourly coexistence. „Local willkommen“ works with different organisations such as church congregations, associations, and with sports clubs. With new offers and a warm welcome by the city of Dortmund the integration of the refugees is ensured. 

by Josephat Seleman Hema from Tanzania SEXY KILLERS was the first movie in our monthly movie night series. We watched it at Referat Ökumene office (Petrikirchhof 7 in Dortmund) on 11th September from 18:00 hours. It was selected by Dika, one of the volunteers in the volunteers’ house. He is from Indonesia.

On the Saturday of 3rd of August 2019 I was very anxious. It would be my first day to watch a live football match in the Borussia Dortmund home stadium. It was a DFL-Supercup match between Borussia Dortmund (BVB) and Bayern Munich. The DFL-Supercup, or German Super Cup is a one-off football match in Germany that features the winners of the Bundesliga championship and the DFB-Pokal.