For the hungry customers who bought their "Schrippen" for breakfast at "Bäckerei und Konditorei Johann Mayer" in Schöneberg on Saturday morning, it was a morning like any other. However, anyone who took a look behind the door of the bakery could see with their own eyes that something was happening that day that had never happened there before.
Twenty young people from Germany and Ukraine joined forces in the bakery and, motivated by Ukrainian pop music, baked hundreds of cookies under the guidance of master baker Karsten Berning. Together, they pursued one goal: to bake 720 cookies in 72 hours and then distribute them to refugees and homeless people in the name of peace, giving them confidence and hope. From the bakery, the team went straight on to a soup kitchen and a Berlin City Mission facility to distribute the packaged cookies with individual messages.
"On the way to the facilities, we have already met numerous people whose faces we have put a smile on with our self-baked cookies. "- Olga Osinnya (coordinator of Agents of Change)
In this action group, the social action of the BDKJ came across intercultural youth exchange. In 72 hours, young people from the parish of St. Josef in Treptow-Köpenick and the Ukrainian NGO "Agents of Change" made the world a little bit better, explored Berlin and gained unforgettable insights into the culture of the other country.
It is amazing how close friendships were forged between the participants in such a short space of time. When the event ended in the parish garden and they sat around the campfire and sang karaoke together, it felt as if they had known each other for ages.
"The fact that the Agents of Change are back is not a matter of course, perhaps a sign from heaven, but in any case an expression of our joint commitment to peace, freedom and solidarity in Europe. Opening up spaces of experience for young people is more important than ever. We are convinced of this."- Marcel Hoyer (Chairman Ludwig Wolker e.V.)
Many thanks to Renovabis for supporting and making this intercultural encounter possible!
