Please read all the rules carefully. If anything is unclear, you can always ask us.

Everyone is welcome here. Therefore, protecting people from any form of discrimination is very important to us. Discrimination means that some people are treated worse than others based on certain characteristics. It excludes people and deeply hurts those affected. Unfortunately, people are often discriminated against – both consciously and unconsciously.

For example, people are labelled as a group of „others“. This has been happening for a long time and still has serious consequences for many people today. That is why discrimination is also a social problem.

At Wir sind Paten, we want everyone to feel safe. For this reason, we reject all forms of discrimination, such as:

• • Racism, including:
    o Anti-Muslim racism
    o Anti-Black racism
    o Racism against Sinti and Roma people
    o Anti-Asian racism
    o any other forms of racism
  • Anti-Semitism
  • Sexism
  • Homophobia, queerphobia, and transphobia
  • Ableism (discrimination against people with disabilities)
  • Classism (e. g. discrimination against people because they are poor)
  • Ageism
  • Body discrimination (e. g. lookism, fat-shaming)

At Wir sind Paten, we are and will remain open to everyone. To do so, it is important to regularly reflect on our own attitudes. Sometimes we form an idea about someone without even knowing them. If this idea is negative, it is unfair. It is important to recognize people as individuals. Every person is multifaceted.

We treat each other as equals. Treating each other as equals means taking other people seriously. It means trying to understand the other person – or at least making the effort to understand them. It also means we realize that we do not know everything about another person. This is especially important when working with and for people who have experienced migration or displacement.

We are culturally sensitive. This means we recognize that every person is shaped by influences. These include personal and family behaviour patterns, personal values, and worldviews, which may in turn be shaped by someone‘s culture of origin.

But you do not have to agree with everything. How does that work? For example, you can try to imagine yourself in the same situation and try to understand how it feels to be in that situation.

Your guiding principle could be: I respect another person, even if I have a different opinion.

We ask questions and listen. But we do not ask specific questions about sensitive topics such as a person’s experience of flight or displacement!

For us, all of this means equality.

If you become a mentor at Wir sind Paten, this Code of Conduct is important.

If you experience or observe discrimination, please contact the Wir sind Paten team. As a project team, we are also open to feedback and criticism if we express ourselves or behave in a discriminatory manner. We are constantly learning and are not free from mistakes.

You can also contact the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes).
You can find them online or call this number: 0 30 – 0 800 546 546 5.

Let’s create a place of equality together!