Culture and international diversity festival Prizes awarded for integration in sport and youth work

Bonn · The culture and international diversity festival attracted hundreds to the city centre on Sunday. 80 organisations showcased their work.

Hundreds of visitors crowded between the stands and tents in the Marktplatz and Münsterplatz on Sunday as more than 80 organisations took part in the culture and international diversity festival. They showcased their work and offered activities in which visitors could take part. Many groups also sold food from the regions they were representing and dance and music groups performed on the stage in front of the Old Town Hall.

The Caritas association for the archbishopric of Cologne built a living library on the Marktplatz, using people as books. “You can borrow our ‘books’ for a discussion,” explained Sabine Kern from Caritas. “Through the discussions we want to break down barriers by bringing people into contact who otherwise would not have contact with one another.” For this reason they were careful to use people with the most varied backgrounds possible as books. “We have a former homeless person, a trans man and a student from Syria.”

In the afternoon, Lord Mayor Ashok Sridharan and the head of the integration council, Rahim Öytürker, awarded the Prize for Integration 2017. There were three prize winners: Bernd Müller for his voluntary youth work in Medinghoven; Peter Udelhoven, head of the Bad Godesberg Sport Association LAV for his work on various integration projects within the association; and an art project by the Carl-Schulz secondary school.

On the Münsterplatz, the NGO Amnesty International provided information about its work. The German-Mongolian Society put up a traditional tent in which fairy tales were read, members of the German-Cuban Friendship Society mixed cocktails and in front of the German-Israeli Society stand, guests and hosts were deep in discussion.

Bernd Smuder also had a stand on the Münsterplatz. He and his wife founded the Helferkompass (Volunteer Compass).The website is intended to bring together volunteers and professionals in Bonn. “You can then see, where you can perhaps make a contribution in the neighbourhood,” says Smuda. In the long term, projects from all over Germany will be on the website. Smuda has been taking part in the culture and international diversity festival for fifteen years.

Original text: Alexander Grantl. Translated by Kate Carey.

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