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Reflexion EQ 2021|2022
We are already deeply in the new school year. As always, we evaluated, adjusted and started full energy with a new team of men. Who they are and how it’s going, you will find out later on this school year. I have taken some time to reflect on the last school year after the whole intensive transition happened, so here it is!
Our school year 2021/22 was filled with dreams, hard learning, hard work, determination and fun moments with laughter.
Yankuba stole all our hearts, to the point where we could not imagine he would be leaving us within a year. His sense of humor combined with reliability, his ability to have all tools ready, think a project well through lighted our whole team up. I remember when it came time to recommend him to his dream company, the manager had not call to schedule the internship week like he said he would after the interview with Yankuba. I offered to follow-up, Yankuba agreed, as I talked on the phone with the manager, he told me he got the impression that Yankuba was disappointed by seeing the tasks that he would have to do, so that is why he was hesitant to offer him the internship week. I of course reassured him that his impression was wrong, told him we wanted to keep him for our team, he would not regret it giving him a chance. He was convinced and we quickly agreed on a week where Yankuba could show he is serious. Of course Yankuba did more than to show his enthusiasm, he landed the contract by the end of the week and as much as we were happy for him, he were sad he wasn’t staying.
Samba and Yankuba are not just friends, they are more like brothers. It was fun having both that one year. Samba had his own external factors to fight with and was very indecisive which Ausbildung he actually wanted to do. He knew very well which ones he didn’t want to do, but what he actually wanted to do was hard for him to decide. His personality and high level of German in speaking and writing opened him a lot of options, but of course it’s important that he chooses also what his heart wants. In the end, he was the last one to sign but we never worried he would make it, we know it would take just time. We all rejoiced as the news came that he signed.
Austine was our steepest learn curve and as the curve developed we were the lucky ones to meet more of Austine, his humor and hard work. He lived deep in the Black Forest during his time at p3, took more than an hour to arrive, but he always managed to be 30-45min earlier than start time, which is 7.45h by the way…
If our days aren’t long enough (until 17.30), he would also stay a few minutes later to make sure he wrote everything from the board, asked his last questions or to ask if we needed extra help with something else. My favorite memory is this video here, which happened around late November after German class and before math class. It reminds me that the guys last year truly understood their chance at p3: of course they would tell me math would make their heads hurt and we would laugh about it together, but they pushed through everything, through their pains, their tiredness, their walls, their stereotypes and invested every minute in the morning in the Werkstatt and in the afternoon in the classroom.
Romeo. He impressed since the first day that he ended up in an external course we offered for a different group of men. He clearly let us know his interest after hearing from our men what they were doing with us. After explaining him the whole program, the deal and the options, we decided to add him to our EQ team. That was one of the best decisions we made last year, because Romeo does not only deliver, he always decided to stay with us for the Ausbildung. He is the only one that stayed from the team last year and he continues to learn every day with his determined, quiet self that also enjoys from time to time fun inside jokes with the team. We are thankful that he is still with us and we get to keep going together for at least 3 years!
Azad. At the very beginning he was the most indecisive and took the longest to confirm his spot for the preparation year with us. He wanted to direct work and make money to send to his family and also for himself. The preparation year at p3 does not have a financial motivation as incentive, only the men that realize what a huge chance it is for them for the future, it is the reason they apply and accept the year with us. Throughout the year, Azad understood and got to experience what p3 actually is, he was every day more and more thankful and with his own learn curve with the language, he was also able to explain more and more how thankful he was. He even brought some of his friends to apply for the next year. Azad was such a huge success story. Based on his background and goals, he was in the area of Metall & Electro with us from the very beginning and when the time came to figure out what he wanted to do, he had many options. Once he figured out his ideal company, we prepared him specifically for the position and supported his application. The manager explicitly said that this year he could only take one Azubi and he already had multiple applicants, but he still agreed to give Azad a weekly internship as an equal chance based on our support. At the end of the week, Azad called with the biggest smile, almost speechless, asking if we could send his Anleiter from p3 for the meeting with the manager. Of course we sent someone as soon as possible and it was set: Azad had beyond impressed, Azad had the spot, directly in the middle of Freiburg at a well-known company, exactly where he wanted to be. I have rarely seen someone more happy than Azad those next weeks. His smile could not get any wider, his eyes more sparkly. He came back a few weeks after starting his Ausbildung to say hi and thank you one more time in his new work uniform, extremely proud and humble at the same time.
Ruhollah started very strong motivated and hard working—we were sure we would find a company that would love to have him as an apprentice. He quickly told us about his dream of moving with his whole family to Düsseldorf. His wife also wanted to move closer to family members to raise their two young children along other family members also with children. This is when we learned how difficult it could be for a whole refugee family to move cities, let alone Bundesländern. Hard and with too many steps, we agreed to prioritize companies in Düsseldorf. We did find a few options that were also were interested and even offered a week Internship for Ruhollah. The timing was perfect, we would even have time to do all the infinite paperwork alongside his advisor from JobCenter and Integrationsmanager from Caritas. We had a great team supporting our efforts and behind us that we knew everything was lined up to go the next steps…when it happened. Ruhollahs family back in his country went through an unfortunate series of events, his family here in Freiburg went through a series of events as well. It felt like the whole world was coming down on Ruhollah und as much support as we could and did provide, a hit is a hit and we lost Ruhollah for the rest of the year. We visited him a few times and could tell he was still just dealing with life. We had to cancel his internship in Düsseldorf and put on hold all the other steps we had planned to make the dream a reality. We realized how fragile situations can be and that we really don’t know the complexity behind the history, present family situations and Bureaucracy. This new school year, Ruhollah wanted another chance to pick up where he left off and we usually don’t do this, but we have decided to give Ruhollah the chance he felt was taken from him. He is still dreaming, so we are happy to have him.
Dustin & Thomas- unfortunately they did not make it through the end of the year. As much as unfortunate events also happened to them, we really had higher expectations of what they could achieve and sometimes is just the motivation to bounce back and give not just the 75% from one self enough, but we need that 100% and at p3, we actually even need the 150% to make a year possible. The people that make it, do literally the impossible with their motivation and determination, they understand this is their only chance for their dream, for their goals. We still wish Dustin and Thomas all the best for their journeys going forward and we know that they did learn a lot in their time with us and we hope they continue believing in themselves and aiming high.
