Realschule and Gymnasium Hochdahl showed great willingness to help. They spontaneously joined a fundraiser in Cologne and collected for the victims of the earthquake in Syria.
Boxes upon boxes were piled up in a room next to the canteen of the Hochdahl secondary school, which had been quickly converted into a “donations acceptance point”. The crates were picked up by a truck on Tuesday. “The fundraising campaign for Syria is run through a lucky contact from my family environment. We were allowed to get involved in this campaign,” says Maren Hartwig, German and history teacher at the secondary school: “If I hadn’t seen the appeal for donations in my sister’s Whatsapp status, the whole campaign probably wouldn’t have taken place at all.”
Marwan El Haj Hassan from Cologne is the one who ensures that the donations in kind reach the areas in Syria that were particularly hard hit by the earthquake. Hassan himself comes from Lebanon and has been organizing private fundraisers in his old homeland since 2018. His goal is to set up an official fundraising organization. Since the catastrophe in Turkey and Syria, he has already “sent” four truckloads by container ship to Syria via Lebanon. His sisters take care of the onward transport on site. All four charges have received entry permits from the Syrian government. However, there were problems importing a donation truck that was supposed to go to Turkey.
The fact that the Hochdahl secondary school took part in Marwan El Haj Hassan’s campaign was decided and organized quickly and easily, says Maren Hartwig: “I told our headmaster Uwe Heidelberg about it on Friday. He was immediately enthusiastic and informed the students about the campaign with an announcement. The parents were informed as well as possible by the class teachers.” So many donations were brought in over the weekend that Hartwig and the numerous helping teachers and students were worried that they would no longer be able to store all the boxes and would have to work night shifts. “Most of the donors complied with our request to bring the items already sorted and labeled. However, we had to unpack a few donations, rearrange them and label them, but thanks to the energetic helpers it actually went quite quickly.” Turkish-speaking schoolchildren helped to label the packages in their native language, while a neighbor of Hartwig did the Arabic part.
and Ömer Tümen) also has the mother of a student (in the foreground) with her
tackled. Photo: RG
Everyone was overwhelmed by the enormous willingness to help and what was donated. “You’ve really seen a lot on social media and some seem to confuse ‘donate’ with ‘clean up’, but the things we received were partly new and boxed, everything was intact and from the baby sleeping bag to shoes, toys, clothing and food, of course, up to drinking cups, new blankets from a kindergarten in Erkrath and pet food, everything was there. We were particularly pleased with the amount of medical and hygiene items,” says Hartwig. Donations were also made via the school’s website and Instagram account from people who actually have no contact with the Realschule. The neighboring Gymnasium Hochdahl also joined the campaign and collected diligently. “I felt nothing but enthusiasm and accommodatingness from all sides,” says Hartwig: “The sympathy went far beyond material donations, so that we also had discussions at school, for example, and the catastrophe was discussed by colleagues in class.” Class 9b also organized a break sale on two days, with waffles and pastries fetching more than 300 euros. The money was also used to buy baby food and hygiene items.
The fundraising days were exhausting, especially since the lessons had to continue, “but it was incredibly important for us to help at this point. We have people with roots, family, friends or acquaintances in Turkey or Syria in our teaching staff and at school as well as in our private lives. Almost everyone knows someone who has been affected by this earthquake,” summarizes the dedicated teacher: “It was nice how everyone suddenly wanted to lend a hand and help. A fifth grader came up to me and asked if we would like some stuff from her dad. He died a few years ago and doesn’t need her anymore…” And that’s just one of many examples, she adds, touched, “that made you ‘Pippi’s eyes’. Joy and sorrow are sometimes just very close together…“