Deutschlandstiftung Integration
For ten years now Deutschlandstiftung Integration (DSI) has been working to foster tolerance and exchange between people from different national, cultural and social backgrounds. The foundation celebrated its tenth anniversary on 5 December at Deutsche Telekom’s Berlin headquarters. The Chancellor has been a patron of the foundation for many years, thus demonstrating her respect for and appreciation of people with a migrant background.
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Helge Braun, Head of the Federal Chancellery, was the main speaker at the anniversary celebrations
Photo: Deutschlandstiftung Integration/Marcel Dykiert
DSI is particularly active in its work to give young people from migrant families better opportunities, with a special focus on education and training, and gaining a first foothold on the labour market. The foundation supports talented young people in various ways, including its grant and mentoring programme GEH DEINEN WEG (go your way).
Anniversary celebrations in Berlin
To celebrate the tenth anniversary, 600 invited guests from the realms of politics, business, public authorities and culture made their way to Berlin, along with current and former recipients of foundation grants and the mentors who work with the foundation. Helge Braun, Head of Federal Chancellery stood in at short notice for Chancellor Angela Merkel, long-standing patron of DSI, and was the main speaker.
Christian Wulff, former Federal President and Chair of the DSI Foundation Council, presented the campaign "Mein Deutschland. Ich lebe hier auf guten Grund". To mark the 70th anniversary of the German Basic Law or constitution in 2019, people with a migrant background are to represent individual articles of the Basic Law within the scope of this campaign.
DSI has been supporting committed students with its mentoring programme for five years
Photo: Deutschlandstiftung Integration/Marcel Dykiert
GEH DEINEN WEG
The grant and mentoring programme GEH DEINEN WEG was launched in 2012 to support talented young people from a migrant background. More than 900 young people with family roots in almost 80 countries have benefited from the programme over the last five years.
Along their professional and personal paths, they have had the support of almost 600 high-ranking mentors from the realms of politics, business, the media, culture and the science and research community. Federal government spokesperson Steffen Seibert is one of the mentors actively involved in the GEH DEINEN WEG programme.
Deutschlandstiftung Integration was founded in 2008 by VDZ, the Association of German Magazine Publishers. With its partners Deutsche Telekom, EDEKA, Coca-Cola and Deutsche Postbank, as well as other sponsors and supporters, it has set itself the goal of making a tangible contribution to making integration work in Germany. The foundation, which is based in Berlin, aims to "foster tolerance and exchange between people from different national, cultural and social backgrounds".