By Pauline von Pezold
The fight against racism and anti-Semitism is more important than ever. To educate people about this in schools, there are so-called respect coaches who teach democratic values there. Now, of all times, the nationwide program budget is to be cut by 25 million euros.
A project week ended on Friday at the Fritz Karsen School in Britz: The children spent a week together with Daniel Kleinhans (35) from “buntkicktgut”, who have made it their mission to use football for encounters and integration dealt with racism in football.
The students played on the pitch and dealt with the topic in theory units – including example cases from professional football.
Project supervisor Daniel Kleinhans, teacher Gabi Elverich, members of the Bundestag Erich von Malottki and Ana-Maria Trasnea (both SPD) and student Dennis Photo: Olaf Selchow
Dennis (13) has had bad experiences in sports himself: “Once my team was insulted in a game, I didn’t think that was that great.”
In order to avoid discrimination in everyday life, the Fritz Karsen School has been working with a respect coach since 2018 – teacher Gabi Elverich (51) explains the planned budget cut, which would no longer allow the coaches to work in Berlin schools. Worries.
“The Respect Coach program is incredibly important for us because it allows us to better respond to school classes based on their needs,” she says.
SPD politician Ana-Maria Trasnea (29) is also committed to preserving the project: “The schools cannot cover such offers from their budget. It is important that the respect coaches remain permanently as external contacts.”
Just now! Teacher Elverich: “Of course, the situation in the Middle East concerns a lot of people. There are some students who have family ties to the region. This is a mixed situation that cannot be ignored by the students.”