Our official program started at 10:30am though it was meant to start at 10am, because we decided to wait for the women who were coming from Halle and Magdeburg to join the program.
We started with two pararel workshop, one exclusive for refugee women only and the other one for friends and supporters. The one for refugee women was an empowerment workshop „from personal problem to political activism“.
The supporters workshop on „how to break barriers when organsing with and for refugees“. This workshop was to look into problems on why activists engaged in refugee work find it difficult to organise together and why it is difficult to join groups which are already existing. After discussions and exercises on trying to find a right structure, we agreed it was difficult to find a role model organisation, but decided actvists have to stay focus on their aims and be ready to work together when necessary to make a political impact.
Open question:
Is this not what the system want, to have a divided movement?
At 4pm, we gathered for a rally at the Ausländerbehörde where we made and read speeches against deportation in different languages and translated into German. Open mic speeches from women condemned the German goverment on deportations and separation of families. After the rally, around 200 of us started a lively demonstration which ended at the city centre. After making speechs and building a carrton wall with the words „stop deportation“, women and children decide to destroy this creative art as a „breaking border“ action by going through it.
We promised fun on this „Breaking Borders II“ summer bus tour, this was it!!!
On the 25.7, after more than 50 0f us took breakfast, we decided to divide into two groups to make the evaluation. One group evaluated the events in Leipzig and the other group which was for those going on with the tour decided to talk on how to go on.
Everybody was happy that all went well in Leipzig and was amazing that so many women from different cities participated in the events. There were women and children from Hamburg, Göttingen, Magdeburg, Halle, Leipzig, Berlin and Brandenburg. After eating lunch some women left and promised to join the bus tour as soon as they can because they had previous appointments.
