Equal Opportunities for Older Women

The immigrants who came to Germany in the sixties through worker recruitment contracts have now reached retirement. For both economic and social reasons, their plans to return to their "homelands" in their old age have proved impracticable. Their children have been born in Germany, and their grandchildren go to school here. This foreign land has become their home, just as their home country has become a foreign land to them.
The idea for our initiative arose during a walk that I took with a Turkish friend. She spoke to me of her mother, a 70-year-old woman who had just entered retirement and who did nothing but sit around at home all day. We considered which public institutions engaged in helping the aged might be able to help her, and we came to the conclusion that there were none.
Such institutions are inaccessible to immigrant women. The reasons have to do with language barriers, prejudice, and differing needs - reasons which apply particularly to women. Men can meet with other men in Turkish cafés. Women do not have similar opportunities to meet together.
So we set out to create an initiative that would have something to offer to older Turkish women. The idea was born in the spring of 1997, but it was not until September 1998 that we were able to start to put it into practice.

At the moment, the Open House for older immigrant women takes place every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. During these hours the participants eat breakfast together, listen to music, and talk...

Our most important activities are as follows:
Education - the core of the meeting is our course offerings. The women requested a literacy course in their own language, since many of them did not have the opportunity of learning to read and write when they were children. They are now making up for that deficit with great enthusiasm. A German course is offered for women who can read and write and who wish to improve their German.
Leisure time activities - these encourage the women to help themselves and increase their enjoyment of life. In addition to the weekly meetings, at the request of the women a weekend get-together is held several times a year. Twice a year we organise a trip. Women who cannot attend the weekly meetings also come to the weekend get-togethers and on the trips.
Information - part of our overall concept includes inviting women who work in public institutions such as in the city administration, at the job centre, or similar to our meetings. This helps the immigrant women to overcome their fear of government institutions by making them more transparent. In addition we organise presentations on topics such as pensions, unemployment, the new citizenship law, and health. These are either held in Turkish or simultaneously translated.
Counselling - the atmosphere of trust at the meetings allows personal problems to be aired there and help to be offered.
Accompanying the women - this is often a consequence of counselling. In order to get help and claim their rights, the women have to overcome institutional barriers. This is often only possible if someone who is bilingual accompanies them on their visits to the authorities.

Our biggest success has been the positive feedback we have received from our target group. At least 20 women come to each of our meetings, and even more on weekends and to the festivals. Most women attend regularly, and their numbers are increasing.

Like most small projects we have financial problems. We live from hand to mouth, from month to month, and never know how long we can keep going. Despite very positive feedback from our sponsors, who praise the content and success of our project, we have to fight for every penny we can get.

The Open House's offerings are tailored to suit the needs of the women who come to it. Thus right at the beginning we started offering literacy and German courses. The women want to be active. It's not enough for them to come to the Open House and sit around drinking tea. Education and information are very important to them. They help choose the content of the courses and help organise them.
The women bring food from home to the weekly breakfasts and other events. We provide the tea.

Even before the group was founded, we worked together with the "Elele. Hand in Hand" women's group from Darmstadt, which helped to set up our project and still participates in many of our activities.
The City of Darmstadt's representatives for women's issues office provided us with moral support from the beginning and since 1999 has helped us to find funds. We plan and carry out information events in co-operation with the Women's Office and the Intercultural Office.
The "NOW-Projekt. Praxisfeld Interkulturelle Altenpflege" (NOW Project. Practical Intercultural Care of the Aged) is our contact for conceptional questions and provides supervision for our work.
The Ausländerbeirat (Immigrants' Advisory Committee) finances the literacy courses held in Turkish.

We are available for people interested in receiving more information on our initiative by phone or post.

2 salaried employees at the initiative.
The total number of hours worked for the initiative is approx. 16 hours per week.

We have an annual budget of DM 24,000 (c. 12,000 Euro). We really need DM 33,000 (c. 16,500 Euro) to do our work.

Leaflet, short report.

Our combination of Turkish-speaking and German-speaking directors has proved its worth. The Turkish-speaking director has been able to activate existing contacts and it is to her that the women first turn. The German director has been able to establish contact with the women from Turkey via communal group work and thus to gain their confidence. She can also liaison with German institutions.
We have discovered that it is better not to concentrate too much on a specific age group in working with the immigrant women. Young women bring older women along and are important mediators in establishing contact with the "real" target group. A rigid division into young and old is not appropriate in this situation and contradicts the social customs of the Turkish immigrants.
Sitting together, talking and drinking tea is very important, but is often not enough. The women must have a reason for coming to the centre. This is provided by the courses we offer. They legitimise the women's taking time for themselves. They don't just sit around talking; they do something.
In negotiating with potential sponsors a great deal of patience and tenacity is called for, and long periods of initial preparation must be taken into account.