Girls and young women from refugee backgrounds belong to a highly vulnerable group. They usually have to navigate multiple challenges, both within in their places of origin and throughout their journey as well as upon their arrival Germany. Gender-based violence, responsibility for younger siblings and discrimination are just a few examples.

Refugee camps with many inhabitants usually have very little room for privacy and can be very stressful for girls. The project “Mädchen.Machen.Mut.” focused on building psychosocial support and resilience by developing a variety of empowering projects together with the girls. Based on a needs assessment and participative workshops, these projects mirror the diversity and unique talents of the girls.

A web-based toolkit aims to raise awareness and provide professionals with psychosocial knowledge and skills for their work with refugee girls. At the same time it encourages the girls to develop a sense of agency in claiming their rights and and using their own resources. The toolkit contains video clips, a printed brochure for girls and web-based information for professionals.

Within my role as a psychosocial consultant for Save the Children Deutschland e.V., I developed a concept for the toolkit and created the content (design, text and illustrations) together with a multidisciplinary network of colleagues. Find out more on www.maedchenmachenmut.de.

The videos clips were developed for Save the Children e.V. with kijufi Landesverband Kinder- und Jugendfilm Berlin e. V. – check out the following example for a short video clip about one of the micro projects.