Make a Difference: Volunteering with Arrival Aid
Recently, our CROZ DACH team dedicated an afternoon to volunteering with ArrivalAid in Munich. This inspiring organisation has been helping refugees arrive in Germany since 2015 by helping them integrate and build their new lives. In addition to Munich, this non-profit organisation offers support in Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Cologne and Düsseldorf. Their network of professionally trained volunteers and full-time staff help people with the various steps of integration – from arriving in Germany to coping with traumatic experiences and finding a job or training. If you want to hear the story firsthand, we suggest listening to their 3-part podcast series Jobs&Careers where you can learn more about different roles and responsibilities within an association. In all these years, they have helped over 1500 clients, carried out over 5000 language mediation assignments and deployed over 2000 volunteer mentors.
How do we fit into this story, you may ask?
Supporting integration through corporate volunteering
One of our lovely colleagues suggested and presented us this association. People agreed on the idea since immigration is a big part of our everyday society and everyone wanted to help with community work. One poll and a few meetings later, 10 of us decided to spend a day at the association helping and talking with people there. Fortified with good coffee and delicious cake, armed with pens and folders, we listened to life stories, discussed future aspirations and helped sort documents for job applications and other important things. We kept everyone busy and entertained and had a good and productive time together!
This enriching experience gave us valuable insights into the reality of refugees’ lives – a perspective that few people get to see. One of our colleagues summed up the essence of our experience very nicely:
“Volunteering often gives back more than we give. This afternoon I brought back some reflections on what it means for a refugee to gain a foothold in society, let alone integrate, which is a much more difficult and long-term process. They need courage, perseverance, social skills, language skills, technological skills (ideally, as many applications are online) and humility to start from scratch and often from the bottom…”
Inspired by Volunteering
Ultimately, this volunteering experience left a lasting impression on us and showed the mutual understanding and benefits that can come from a single afternoon’s commitment. Last but not least, it was a great opportunity for us to reaffirm our social commitment to the long-term goal of providing a broad group of people with access to education and personal development, while spending a great afternoon as a team and getting to know great people! This won’t be our last collaboration with Arrival Aid.
A big thank you to Arrival Aid for an unforgettable afternoon! If you want to be a part of this incredible story, visit ArrivalAid’s website for more information on volunteering or financial support for the community. If you are interested in helping others in Croatia, check out this blog!
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