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A group of 40 women and 18 children from Berlin/Brandenburg are excitedly looking forward, after the corona lockdowns to our summer bus tour. We will do this in a way, that will try to keep us all safe from Covid.
The Bustour will start in our homeground (Potsdam) with a kick-off action on the 21.07. at 11:00 in Front of Brandenburg Parliament with a rally against Lager and racism. Potsdam Seebrücke is organizing with us the Demonstration. Everybody is welcome to join and support the fight for freedom of movement, for the abolishment of all Lager and against racism. We know: Solidarity wins. On the 4.8. we will come back and hold a standing rally at Oranienplatz in Berlin. In 2019 we claimed back Oranienplatz for the refugee movement in our “Building Bridges Festival”. That is why we will end our tour there with a press conference and food, that will be served. Warm welcome to join us there too and hear of our experience.
In this mood, we will move to Hamburg, Bremen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. We will visit the Lager, do demonstrations against racism and Lager, encourage each other and facilitate empowerment workshops. We will encourage and network with other refugee women*, groups and individuals working with refugee women*. On this tour we will bring into public the isolation, racism, sexism, reports on traumas on those experiencing sleepless nights for fear of deportation and the effects of the corona pandemic. To abolish this racist Lagersystem, we will break borders preventing our participation and build bridges to connect us to other communities. So that refugees will be given the opportunity to choose where we want to live in dignity.
Women in Exile & Friendshave been making summer tours to different German federal states to connect with other refugee women*, especially those living in lager.
We ask for your financial support and solidarity for this Tour. So that we can work for the empowerment of refugee women*, bring the systematic violation of our rights to the public and work together with other communities for an open and solidarity society. Abolish all Lager! Freedom of movement is everbody’s right!
The 2021 Feminist Connect (Femcon) took place this summer again, from the 25.- 30.6.21 in Meuchfitz. Femcon is a refugee women feminist festival organised by Women in Exile, NINA-women in action Hamburg, Flit Solidarity Africa and their BIPoC and white supporters. We use this space for reunion, to learn, to inform, to chill and to get to meet women joining for the first time.
Last year, this festival took place in a smaller way in Hamburg because of the corona lockdown rules. This year around 60 women and children gathered in Meuchfitz again and enjoyed the countryside with a full programme of empowerment workshops.
This networking’s meeting goal is to provide a space for women who are negatively affected by racism to exchange, debate and gain knowledge on politics.
For many years Women in Exile & Friends have been making summer tours to different German federal states to connect with other refugee women*, especially those living in lager. This summer we will move to Hamburg, Bremen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
We want to empower refugee women* to become politically active, in order to fight for their rights as women* living in this society. We also want to address the question of opening political structures to refugee women*. Our main political fight is against the lager system. We believe the shared and isolated accommodations work as a catalyst to sexual violence, traumas and depressions leading to (attempted) suicides.
We want to:
bring into public isolation, racism, sexism, reports on traumas on those experiencing sleepless nights for fear of deportation and the effects of the corona pandemic.
encourage and network with refugee women*, groups and individuals working with refugee women*.
break borders preventing our participation and build bridges to connect us to communities.
be given the opportunity to choose where we want to live in dignity.
connect with the refugee women* fighting for their children`s right to birth certificates.
It is two years now since our sister Rita disappeared and her charred body was found 200 metres from the Lager away where she lived for 7 years.
Rita, we will remember and fight for your dignity as a friend, refugee sister and woman. Remembering you is easy. We do it every day, as we continue to live in Hohenleipisch lager. The trauma of your death lives in us.
It’s the heartache of losing you, that will never go away, as we continue to remember the circumstances of your disappearance.
Some of us know what you went through as you struggled to find a way for a dignified future for you and your children.
They say that time heals, but neither time or reason will change the way we feel, as long as the perpetrator(s) of your death are free.
Some may forget you, now that you are gone, but we as your friends, we will remember and treasure the memories of you.
We, from Women in Exile and Friends, too, will keep you in memory and fight to see justice brought to the criminal or criminals of this heinous act. Every woman* in this society needs to be protected from femicide
regardless of their residential status.
We thought of you today, as we made a three-minute silence in front of the lager in Hohenleipisch. But that is nothing new, as we keep your memories alive as we fight for “No lagers for women and children”! We keep your memory alive, when we demand prevention of sexual violence against refugee women. We thought of you yesterday, as we sat together to plan ways of how to have our rally registered despite of corona lock downs. And will think of you tomorrow too, because we will not accept that refugee women charred remains will turn into cold cases. We will keep on looking for truth and justice as we fight against femicide.
Our request for a rally to honour the memory of the day our sister Rita went missing, was refused by the police. The reason was the high rising Corona infection cases in the district of Elber-Elster.
For us, to mark this day this day was and still is very important because of the many unanswered questions surrounding the disappearance and for our campaign “No Lager for women and children, Abolish all Lagers!”. We will not accept that refugee women should simply disappear into thin air and the next thing you know is that their charred remains are found 200 meters away from these isolated lagers.
This is why we decided to involve a lawyer to appeal for the rejection. Time was not on our side at that time. Nevertheless, a small group of us decided to travel to Hohenleipisch, hoping that the court would grant permission to hold a rally in front of the camp before we got there.
“When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.” That’s why we invite you all to join us on 07.04.21 for the memorial rally for Rita Ojunge in Hohenleipisch.
As we continue to focus on helping women gain full and equal participation in the global development, the memory of our loved ones who were discriminated and eliminated are still fresh. Our question is “how will we shape a more equal future for Women while refugee women are silently dying in the isolated camps, perpetrators still enjoying their freedom and no Justice to the victims? AREN’T WE WOMEN?
We continue to demand justice for Rita, the continuation of the investigation and the abolition of all camps!
We need adequate prevention, law enforcement and sanctioning of feminicides. The lives of refugee women count!!
On April 7th, 2019, our sister Rita Ojunge disappeared. Rita was living with her children in a Lager for refugees in Hohenleipisch, Brandenburg. After her disappearance, Rita’s family wanted to know what had happened. The refugees living in her Lager demanded justice for Rita and the closing of the Lager – which is still in very bad condition and absolutely isolated, surrounded by a forest.
The police were reluctant to search for Rita’s whereabouts. Finally, two whole months after Rita had disappeared, the police started to search for her. They found her remains just 200m away from the Lager, in the forest. The racist lack of investigation continues.
Now, two years after Rita’s murder, the prosecutor’s office might close her case and the Lager in Hohenleipisch is still not abolished.
That is why Women in Exile & Friends are inviting you to join our antiracist and feminist Demo in Cottbus on March 8th, the International Women’s Day. The meeting point will be Cottbus Hauptbahnhof Northside at 10am.
Let us commemorate Rita Ojunge and may she rest in perfect peace and power!
Let us all continue to demand justice, the continuation of the investigation and the abolishment of all Lager!
We need proper prevention, prosecution and sanctioning of Feminicides. Refugee womens lives matter!
Lets come together, be many who care and support each other!
We condemn the European Union for its war against refugees!
We condemn that Moria was build in order to neglect basic human needs.
To quote an NGO worker. “At a time when we hear from the European Union: ‘no more Moria’, a new Moria has been built and the conditions – as far as we hear from the people inside – are worse than at the previous camp.” “There seems to be a very clear agenda linked to the migration pact and the European Union’s direction, which is of containment”.
Moria is not an exception.
Refugee camps are scattered all over Europe in line with the policy of militarised extrnalisation of borders and fortress europe.
Women*, minors and people from the LGBTIQ* community are particularly vulnerable to these harsh conditions. The refugees living in the camps at the european border are going through all types of harships in the heart of Europe: living outside, suffering the winter draughts and instead of being given dignified accommodation they are being pushed back.
We call for the immediate evacuation of all people from the camps on the EU’s external borders and for dignified accommodation in host countries and municipalities.
For Women in Exile; it is not a secret, how it feels to live in camps.
We have no privacy, live isolated and the risk of getting sexually and physically abused is so much higher.
Please donate to help us keep our own Safer Space – a meeting place for refugee women* to break the isolation in the camps! We would like to be able to keep it in 2021.
In the link-video, you are able to see why this place is a very important meeting place especially for the refugee women*, and what activities took place in 2020 despite Corona.
Women in Exile e.V. is looking for sustaining members!
Through many small but regular donations we can ensure the continuity of our work! There is a lot to do!
A monthly money transfer order is the best way to support us. Please inform us by sending a short email to info@women-in-exile.net, including your address for donation receipts. We are also happy to send you the print version of our newsletter!
