Words of Welcome
Berliner Stadtmission
Issue 41 | December 2016
Agency
DDB Berlin
Creative Team
Creative Managing Director: Myles Lord Executive Creative Director: Tom Hauser Senior Art Director: Marlon von Franquemont Head of Design: Mahmoud Fathy Senior Copywriter: Reinier Gorissen Client Service Director: David Barton Account Director: Catrin Schmid Account Management Assistant: Sara Pedroncelli Moving Image: Matthias Grebin, Julian Bruns, Ilka Groeneweg
Production Team
kapacht GmbH, Berlin Web Agency: MediaMonks, Amsterdam Linguistic experts: text&form, Berlin
Other Credits
Photographer: Timo Stammberger Camera: Maik Reichert Verein für Berliner Stadtmission: Majdi Laktinah Caritasverband für das Erzbistum Berlin e. V.: Catalin Hartwig Moabit hilft e. V.: Diana Henniges TAMAJA Soziale Dienstleistungen GmbH: Tobias Pschierl Verein Deutsche Sprache e. V.: Dr. Holger Klatte
Date
September 2016
Background
Germany has welcomed over 1 Million refugees displaced by conflicts in the Middle East.
After their dangerous trip, these asylum seekers face new challenges in Germany.
Many of them cannot understand German or English and cannot read the Roman alphabet. The German government state that integration and basic communication are essential in providing meaningful support.
Idea
Without the ability to work asylum seekers rely on aid donations to survive. But what if we could make these essential items even more enriching – and help them to integrate into their new environment?
Words of Welcome was introduced – a design concept that combines German language and the Arabic script.
With language experts a Phonetic System was developed and transcriptions were created for the names of the most essential articles. By printing these transcriptions on a simple tape volunteers and refugees can easily repackage the donations on site.
When asylum seekers receive the products and read out aloud the phonetic transcription in Arabic, they pronounce the product's name in perfect German.
With every product, a new word is added to their vocabulary, and the words can be taught to others.
The Words of Welcome system is available in three of the most common Arabic languages: Arabic, Farsi and Urdu. Colours help to differentiate 28 essential products, from hygiene, to baby, and food items.
An online platform enables people to get behind the project by help spreading the word to other citizens, brands and companies.
Results
Thousands of meters have been shared attracting the attention of manufacturers and brands to lend their on-going support. To date over 70 kilometres meters of tape has been produced making hundreds of thousands of products twice as valuable – and giving scores of refugees feel more welcome and more understood.