Today (5 July), the „Preis des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung für herausragende studentische Initiativen im Programm Welcome – Studierende engagieren sich für Flüchtlinge“ was awarded in Berlin. The student initiative IDA (Initiative Deutschkurse für Asylsuchende) at TU Dresden was awarded the second prize, which is endowed with 5,000 euros.

"We are very pleased that the jury chose us as the award winner. The prize money helps us to maintain our numerous activities to better support refugees in arriving in Dresden. In the future, we want to create more offers for refugee women," says Victoria Gulde, a student project worker from the IDA organisation team, commenting on the award. Torsten König, a TUD staff member, says: "The award is not only an acknowledgement of the excellent work of the IDA student coordinators and volunteers. It also draws attention to possible practical ways in which intercultural exchange and integration can succeed."Eight student representatives of IDA received the prize in Berlin together with Prof. Antonio M. Hurtado, Prorector for University Development, and Dr. Karoline Oehme-Jüngling, academic coordinator at the ZfI.

IDA will use the prize money to further develop existing services and initiate new projects. For example, it is planned to expand the language support services for students with a refugee background in line with demand. In particular, support in learning specialised languages as well as in language-oriented preparatory events for individual disciplines has emerged as a need. "In order to implement this offer, we not only have to coordinate the volunteer language assistants, but also make them professionally fit," explains Victoria Gulde. "To do this, we are planning workshops in which the necessary expertise will be imparted to the helpers by professionals."

IDA emerged from a student group that voluntarily organised language courses for refugees in the initial reception facilities on the TU Dresden campus from September 2015 to April 2016. In the meantime, the initiative organises and coordinates several projects, including the sponsorship programme „Buddy-Programm – Refugees Meet Locals“, language courses by refugees for students, in which refugees impart basic knowledge of their languages and cultures of origin to students, and German language learning opportunities. These include low-threshold German courses in initial reception and transitional facilities as well as a homework meeting. For this purpose, a separate course booklet was developed to teach everyday knowledge and can be downloaded free of charge for use by initiatives and individuals. In addition, IDA organises a monthly series of events for political education and intercultural sensitisation of students. In order to maintain these offers, the initiative is constantly looking for volunteer supporters who want to work as German teachers or mentors.

IDA has been funded by the DAAD in the programme „Welcome – Studierende engagieren sich für Flüchtlinge“ and by the "Studentenstiftung Dresden" since April 2016. IDA is supported by the International Office of the TUD, the Centre for Integration Studies of the TUD and by committed staff members of the Faculty of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies. The network of IDA activities currently includes about 150 students from Dresden universities who volunteer as teachers or mentors and reaches about 300 refugees per month.

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Academic Exchange Service offered this prize for the first time in order to make particularly innovative initiatives visible and to encourage their further development.

Information for journalists
Dr. phil. Torsten König
Tel: 0351 463 -36286, -32038
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https://initiative-deutschkurse.de