The anteroom to the kitchen in the restaurant on Rheinische Straße in Dortmund is packed: with students, but above all with sleeping bags, sleeping mats, shoes, clothing and hygiene articles. Social work students at Fachhochschule Dortmund have been collecting donations in kind for weeks under the motto "Together against the cold". The campaign was supported by the Nordstadtliga and the BVB foundation "leuchte auf".
"We are really happy that so many donations have been collected and that so many people are willing to help," says student Lena Thormählen. Her fellow student Freddy Arning adds: "Many Fachhochschule Dortmund students, but also employees and many people from Fachhochschule Dortmund who have nothing directly to do with the university, responded to our appeal." The result: the Nordstadtliga's large van was so full that a second vehicle was needed to transport it from the Fachhochschule Dortmund campus on Emil-Figge-Straße to the restaurant opposite Dortmunder U.
Contact with homeless people
The campaign was part of the streetworking seminar by Prof. Dr. Dierk Borstel and Mirza Demirović, lecturer at the Faculty of Applied Social Studies and project coordinator of the Nordstadtliga. "In the seminar, we were out and about on the streets. We spoke to people living on the streets and asked them what they needed most urgently for the winter," reports Mirza Demirović. The results were incorporated into the appeal for donations.
"Thanks to these donations, we can make better provisions for our guests," says Katrin Lauterborn, manager of the restaurant at Rheinische Straße 22. "Warm clothes, sleeping mats and sleeping bags are now the means to survive on the streets." The guesthouse is a daily point of contact for up to 600 homeless people. Pastoral and medical care is available here, as well as the opportunity to warm up, take a shower or change clothes. The Fachhochschule Dortmund students have therefore also collected many hygiene items, from shower gel and razors to tissues, and brought them to the guesthouse.
"We accept donations in kind here every day between 8 and 11 a.m.," says Katrin Lauterborn. There is a detailed list of items needed on the website (www.gast-haus.org)(Opens in a new tab) .