Solidarity with Ukraine - Support services for refugees from Ukraine and their helpers
"If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse
and you say that you are neutral,
the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."
Desmond Tutu - Human Rights Activist, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, South African Clergyman.
The war against Ukraine brings immeasurable suffering to people every day and drives millions to flee. As members of an open-minded university, we cannot stand idly by.
Many of us have been volunteering to help refugees from Ukraine since the first days of the war, and some have even taken in families. The networking opportunities on the part of the TU Dresden were very helpful, for example in the mailing list "WeCare" or in the spontaneously founded matrix group "Help for Ukrainian Refugees". First of all, we had a wider reach across the faculties and could thereby help many people in a very concrete way. Last but not least, it was also important to many of us that the help should not remain in the private sphere alone, but that our academic community should pull together as a social actor across all groups. In the meantime, the "WeCare" contact point of the Prorectorate for University Culture has become an irreplaceable coordination point for offers of help.
As the Faculty of Education, we have a special responsibility that also gives rise to a moral and professional obligation. With us, students want to prepare for social professions, teaching in general education and vocational schools, social pedagogy, further education - what better way to take this into account than by being proactive role models.
Some activities of colleagues have received media coverage: Our fellow and alumna Ianina Scheuch is a TUD Regional Ambassador and is conducting research with us at the Chair of Adult Education, focusing on continuing vocational education and comparative education research. In an interview with our graduate officer Susann Mayer, she talks about her involvement. Professor Anke Langner, together with scientists and students from the GSW department, brought together the university school and the educational companies of TUDAG to provide Ukrainian children and young people with a supportive structure in the form of a teaching and play workshop.
The war against Ukraine affects each and every one of us. Emergency aid has now been professionalized and anchored in civil society structures, where many of us remain committed. However, the need does not disappear, it only changes its face. In the long term, the Faculty of Education will have to contribute and coordinate its special competence with regard to Ukrainian pupils, their families, students and scientists. Increasingly, this also involves trauma-sensitive work and support services for helpers, such as intervision and burnout prevention. These longer-term tasks and issues are addressed by the matrix group EW_Ukraine, which is equally open as an instant messenger for quick immediate help:
- "Who can help with the translation of applications according to AsylbLG?"
as well as for longer-term and conceptual questions
- "How can we integrate Ukrainian colleagues with relevant qualifications at the faculty?"
- "Who among us has teaching opportunities on trauma-sensitive work or labor market integration? Let's set up a virtual lecture series!" or
- "How can we support our students to engage academically with migration and acculturation?".
This group has also been maintaining a virtual whiteboard since early March and gathers there, updated daily, a curated list of links, low-threshold collaborative brainstorming opportunities, and a reference library of forms, handouts, and literature - from Ukrainian textbooks to psychological materials on trauma-sensitive work and professional self-care. The matrix group and its knowledge base on the whiteboard sees itself as a one-stop-shop on all issues related to support services for Ukraine under the focus of educational sciences.
You are looking for help or you want to help?
Do not hesitate and write us,
gladly also in Ukrainian, English or Russian.
Якщо ви хочете (подальше) навчатися у нас, будь ласка, дізнайтеся більше тут. Ми докладаємо всіх зусиль, щоб студенти, які постраждали від війни, змогли продовжити навчання в Дрездені.
ТУ Дрездена пропонує різні варіанти підтримки, щоб полегшити біженцям вступ до університету: наприклад, безкоштовні підготовчі фахові та мовні курси, вступ за гнучкою програмою обміну для студентів-біженців старших курсів, а також індивідуальні консультації з питань навчання i Buddyprogramm.
У нашій інформаційній системі (SINS) ви знайдете інформацію про навчальні програми ТУ Дрездена.