{"id":44867,"date":"2022-05-03T10:50:45","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T08:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.steinmuehle.de\/blog\/2022\/05\/03\/day-care-for-children-and-teens-steinmuehle-the-rotary-club-of-marburg-and-das-lernteam-help-young-people-from-ukraine\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T17:35:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T15:35:32","slug":"day-care-for-children-and-teens-steinmuehle-the-rotary-club-of-marburg-and-das-lernteam-help-young-people-from-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/blog\/2022\/05\/03\/day-care-for-children-and-teens-steinmuehle-the-rotary-club-of-marburg-and-das-lernteam-help-young-people-from-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Day Care for Children and Teens: Steinm\u00fchle, the Rotary Club of Marburg, and Das LernTeam Help Young People from Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marburg. As part of a joint project between Steinm\u00fchle, the Rotary Club of Marburg, and the Marburg-based educational institution Das LernTeam, children and teenagers from Ukraine have been receiving daytime care at Steinm\u00fchle for several weeks now and are being gently introduced to the German language. Now, the mothers of these young refugees are also receiving German lessons at Steinm\u00fchle\u2014as a \u201ctransitional course\u201d\u2014until they are able to attend a regular, federally funded German course for adults. <\/em><\/p>\n

“Sport has the power to unite people in a way that little else does”\u2014this line from Nelson Mandela\u2019s famous quote proved true even amid the turmoil of the war in Ukraine. Just outside Marburg\u2014more precisely, at the home of the Gerkau family, who run the Seepark Niederweimar\u2014a network of sports organizations came together shortly after the war began. Thanks to this effort, many families from Ukraine had already been placed with host families throughout Germany and Europe. Some, however, still had no place to stay. This was a situation the Rotary Club of Marburg wanted to change quickly. <\/p>\n

“We brainstormed ways we could help,” says Alexei Padva of the Rotary Club of Marburg\u2019s press office. \u201cWe also have a network that came into play here.\u201d Rotary member Bj\u00f6rn Gemmer, principal of Steinm\u00fchle School, pulled out all the stops to set up daycare for young Ukrainian refugees on the school grounds. The Marburg-based educational institution Das LernTeam, led by Christiane Konnertz, the wife of the school\u2019s executive director Dirk Konnertz, came in handy. \u201cIt\u2019s a small world\u2014and that can be helpful sometimes,\u201d he noted. Within a short time, the entire school infrastructure at Steinm\u00fchle was made available, along with LernTeam staff equipped with educational expertise. About 20 young people are currently being cared for at Steinm\u00fchle. The Rotary Club of Marburg is covering the financial costs. <\/p>\n

Liv Brandenstein, along with Fynn Konnertz and Nora Theurer, is part of the LernTeam\u2019s support staff. The student assistants describe the young people from Ukraine as highly motivated: \u201cThey want to learn German.\u201d Their language proficiency levels\u2014even in English\u2014vary, but somehow they manage to communicate. Sometimes someone else translates, and sometimes it\u2019s Mr. Google. They\u2019re comfortable using digital media. <\/p>\n

“The cell phone is their only remaining link to home,” observes Bernd Holly. Bj\u00f6rn Gemmer\u2019s fellow principal has welcomed a child or two, a teenager or two. \u201cWe\u2019re also here to provide a distraction,\u201d he says. Being far from home and the uncertainty about the fate of a father or older brother are a heavy burden. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

No Prior Knowledge Required: German Courses for Mothers<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the Ukrainian mothers, who are staying with host families along with their children, had previously had no daily activities, that changed last week. That\u2019s when a German language course for adults was launched specifically for them. \u201cThis course is also being held at the Steinm\u00fchle,\u201d reports Alexei Padva. It is initially scheduled to last three months and is led by retired teacher Regina Kirchner, who is working on a freelance basis. <\/p>\n

“What we’re trying to do,” says Padva, “is teach basic German.” Most of the mothers started the language course from scratch. Currently, there are nine participants, most of whom have academic degrees; two people are currently on the “waiting list” due to a lack of daycare spots. “We would like,” Padva said, “to use this joint initiative to help bridge the understandable waiting period until they are assigned to state-run courses.” This subsequent course can then be put to better use.<\/p>\n

Gisela Falk, the current president of the Rotary Club of Marburg, thanked everyone who had made this rapid response possible. The Rotary Club of Marburg funded both projects using its own resources and a so-called Disaster Response Grant. This grant provides funds from Rotary International to support clubs\u2019 disaster relief efforts. Once it became clear that the situation of the refugees here locally was covered by this grant, the board member responsible for this matter, Prof. Dr. Bernhard Maisch, promptly drafted the necessary application and ensured that the lion\u2019s share of the total amount of 25,000 U.S. dollars, namely 10,800 US dollars, was allocated to the Marburg Rotary Club.
\nAdditional substantial funds have been and continue to be raised through the RC Marburg\u2019s appeal for donations and its subsequent application for financial support from Rotary Community Service Germany, with a potential maximum amount of 10,000 euros. Alexei Padva: \u201cWe want to continue helping as long as it is necessary.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marburg. As part of a joint project between Steinm\u00fchle, the Rotary Club of Marburg, and the Marburg-based educational institution Das LernTeam, children and teenagers from Ukraine have been receiving daytime care at Steinm\u00fchle for several weeks now and are being gently introduced to the German language. Now, the mothers of these young refugees are also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":44875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-social-engagement"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49309,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44867\/revisions\/49309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}