Last Saturday, the collaboration between terre des hommes schweiz and the MNA Center Lilienberg reached a preliminary climax: at a peaceful and beautiful autumn festival, the young asylum seekers presented their home countries to visitors.
The open day of the MNA Center Lilienberg was held last Saturday under a good omen: After the morning fog had cleared, the autumn sun shone from a cloudless sky on the mini village with country huts, information stands and festive refreshments in the center’s garden. From 12 to 17, a light but steady stream of visitors found their way to the Lilienberg, where 64 young unaccompanied asylum seekers aged 11 to 17 from 25 different countries live.
Exciting experience
terre des hommes schweiz invited visitors to morphing in a classroom at the center, which was met with great interest. Anyone who wanted to could have their face merged with the face of a person from our project countries. At times, the rush was so great that the terre des hommes schweiz team could barely keep up with taking photos.
Informative journey
In the garden, four country huts took visitors on an exciting and informative journey to the home countries of the young people who had designed the huts themselves. A wide variety of experiences awaited the travelers: In their best German or English, the young people talked about their home countries and their customs and answered the many questions from the visitors.
Insight into home life
But the young people who did not present themselves with a country hut also made an important contribution to the success of the autumn festival. For example, one group prepared tasty curry dishes for sale in the kitchen. Others guided visitors through the house every hour, showing them where and how they live. The rooms are sparse, furnished only with the bare essentials. Anyone who thought that the young people were living in luxury here was impressively proved wrong.
Opens up new perspectives
The collaboration with the MNA Center Lilienberg was an exciting and important experience for terre des hommes schweiz and the young people from imagine – the festival against racism,” said Stefan Studer, Co-Managing Director of terre des hommes schweiz, that afternoon. “As development policy organizations, we work to debunk migration myths and bring new perspectives and the situation in southern countries into the sometimes unspeakable migration debate. The joint project with the unaccompanied young people from Lilienberg was not only a new challenge, but also opened up new perspectives for everyone involved.”
