When you think of inclusion, you think of wheelchairs and trisomy 21, but it’s an issue for a lot of people. Seven people from Mllheim tell us what participation means for them – an amazing amount.
Having fun in old age and maintaining contacts“We won’t get bored. We’re busy here.” Maintaining contacts, having fun in meaningful activities with others – this is important for Irmgard Hehr and Rosmarie Scholer, especially at an advanced age. The two of them think that their current home, the Gevita residence in Mllheim, where they live in assisted living, offers them good conditions for this. Excursions, house music (from outside in Corona times), asparagus, memory training, fall prophylaxis and, of course, coffee croissants – the appointment calendar can get really full unless a pandemic calls for restrictions. The two hope that they will soon be able to spend evenings on the terrace again, order a pizza and chat with other residents. One of the highlights of the excursion program in recent years has been the Rhine boat trips near Breisach. A social affair for which it is worth getting really chic. Irmgard Hehr does not know whether she can be there again when these trips are offered again. The 88-year-old has lived in the Gevita residence for ten years. She is currently curing a broken arm. She has already survived other broken bones and pneumonia – and has picked herself up again and again. “A real stand-up man,” says her friend Rosmarie Scholer, who is eight years younger, and laughs. Both are involved in the home advisory board and clearly feel comfortable in their place. “I haven’t regretted being here for a minute,” says Rosmarie Scholer.
Not fiction, but reality“For me, inclusion is something that doesn’t just happen in films – you can be affected sooner or later.” Tom Reisich is 30 years old. In his mid-twenties, like all young people, he thought he was the strongest in the world. Then came cancer in the middle of my studies. “This means I know firsthand what it is like when you need help and rely on other people,” he says. He was in the hospital, in rehabilitation, completed the entire program. His family was always there for Tom Reisich.
The 30-year-old is a numbers person and works as a controller at the Christophorus-Gemeinschaft, an association that offers people with disabilities work and support as well as living space in Mllheim, Badenweiler and Kandern.
If you see him like that, it would never occur to you that he has a severely handicapped ID card. But he does, and the document is very practically linked, for example, with more vacation days, special protection against dismissal and possible subsidies for employers to make employing disabled people more attractive.
In his case, he did not need such a grant for the company, but the temporary disability also makes it easier for Tom Reisich to reintegrate into working life.
Bring your own skills and become more self-confident
Standing up for others, helping them – figuratively as well as literally -: That was and is the purpose of life for Angela Lingard. The trained remedial teacher is still socially active during her retirement, she helps with the Red Cross in Staufen. The 67-year-old herself went through a severe emotional crisis in which she was dependent on outside help, for which she is grateful to this day. What helped her were rehabilitation and therapy measures “where I could use my skills”. Last but not least, it was also about getting your self-esteem back on track. The support from the “Start” association in Mllheim was also helpful – when she was feeling really bad, they made sure that everyday life was not completely confused. “None of us is immune to crises,” emphasizes Angela Lingard – and it is good that there are people and institutions that have the time and the attention to help effectively in these crises. But she still sees a need for expansion in society – beyond professional help. For example in the world of work. She would like to see more employers who understand people with mental health problems and get involved with them. “Because these people often have special skills that are valuable,” says Angela Lingard.
Have a job and be self-employed
What is important to you? “To have work,” says Bianca Helmstdter spontaneously. “I have nice colleagues here and we are a big community.” The 42-year-old works in the branch of the Christophorus Community in Mllheim. The workshop carries out industrial assembly for local companies and, for example, screws small pipelines. When the visit from the BZ comes by, she is actually taking care of her time management, more precisely: how long it will take before the current order can go out.
Because of the corona pandemic, Bianca Helmstdter is currently not working full, the workforce splits up the week and works in two separate groups. In this way, employees can keep a greater distance from one another.
Bianca Helmstdter has around 30 colleagues, and she works for them, passes on her wishes, but also criticism: “I’m on the workshop council,” she explains. When there are elections again in October, she would like to be re-elected.
Her partner also works in the community’s carpentry shop, with whom she lives alone despite her cognitive limitations. This independence is not a matter of course. At first she lived fully in a residential building belonging to the community, she explains, then in a shared apartment and finally more and more independently. Today someone only visits them on Tuesdays to see if everything is okay.
Tolerance and diversity
“For me, inclusion is tolerance and diversity.” And it is also part of his job: Takis Mehmet Ali is head of administration of the Christophorus Community, teaches law and economics at the Baden-Wrttemberg Cooperative State University and is doing a doctorate on the Federal Participation Act. But otherwise, too, is participation for the 29-year-old everyday life, although it does not stop at the weekend, as he says: “I am a migrant Saturday and Sunday too.” His parents are Greeks from Turkey, Takis Mehmet Ali was born in the Ruhr area, has Greek and German citizenship and is running for the SPD in the Lrrach-Mllheim constituency for the Bundestag, main topic: social justice.
“Everyday racism has become socially acceptable,” observes Mehmet Ali – in political debates in which a poisonous mood arose with the rise of the AfD, and in careless comments from friends. One of them asked himself whether he should give his new cleaning lady the key to his apartment even though she was a Rumin, the 29-year-old says: “That was certainly not meant to be angry, but that is an example.” Another: Speak out against migrants like “They are taking our living space away”. While it is clear to his parents’ generation that they will return in retirement, this is not an issue for his generation, he says. They want to buy property, but then there are voices that say: not here. “And you think you’re not so welcome after all.” Inclusion, Mehmet Ali thinks, ultimately live through Europe. “Europe is the answer for tolerance and diversity.”
Be in the community and be busy
Ilknur nl takes a couple of wooden sticks out of a red box and carefully places them in an empty mold, then takes a handful again and adds them to it. When the mold is full, it pulls a paper banderole over the mini wooden bundle. With a wick and a little beeswax, you can turn it into a lighter for the grill or the tiled stove, explains your supervisor in the manufactory, an intermediate area between the promotion and the workshop of the Christophorus community.
The activity makes Ilknur nl fun. “Yes, wood,” says the 46-year-old and smiles. Her cognitive impairment prevents her from expressing herself easily, but it can be seen that she enjoys coming to the facility. “Team,” says the woman with carefully pinned back hair and nails painted in a warm shade of red.
She spends three days a week in the factory and two days in the support and care area, explains social worker Catharina Mller. It is very varied, sometimes Ilknur kills nl letters in the administration, sometimes she knits a scarf, folds assembly instructions or she packs sets of screws for the furniture assembly – a board with empty shapes helps to sort the right ones here too. In the morning she takes the bus from the dormitory to the Mllheim plant center. The first thing the 46-year-old likes to do is say hello to employee Sandra and: “Coffee for everyone”.
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