The Society for Intercultural Coexistence e.V. (GIZ) has been a registered association since 2000, and from the beginning has been a non-profit association. GIZ e.V. is a certified youth welfare organization (since 2009), a certified BAMF integration course provider (since 2012), as well as a certified educational institution (since 2012). The association is located in Berlin-Spandau.
The main goals of the association are the promotion of international mindedness, tolerance in all areas of culture, the advancement of international relations, and the improvement of the situation of children, adolescents, families situation of children, young people, families, the elderly, the handicapped, and disadvantaged persons, with special consideration of migrants. The organization is neither confessional nor politically tied and is open to all people of any background, regardless of gender or social class. The organization defines itself as intercultural.
A key task of the association is to create a forum for intercultural encounters. It is important for people to communicate and get to know each other in order to be able to discuss and eliminate potential misunderstandings or issues in social coexistence. The activities should lead to the overcoming of mechanisms, motives, and prejudices that exclude people with migrant backgrounds of different ages, as well as other socially disadvantaged groups and individuals.
GIZ e.V. provides services for different age groups. In addition to the register office for discriminatory and racist behavior, the organization conducts intercultural training. We work with schools in the area of learning support and additional educational offers in after school education. Since 2012, the agency has been conducting integration courses for BAMF. In addition, we have developed initial orientation courses for refugees, which are offered in various refugee facilities.
GIZ e.V. is the initiator of the Alpha-Bündnis Spandau. The alliance offers literacy education at its 30 locations in Germany within the BMBF-funded project “ABCami – Alphabetisierung und Grundbildung an Moscheen” (www.abcami.de). In our “Lerncafé”, we offer adults who cannot read, write, or calculate sufficiently, literacy and numeracy skills in an open learning environment to enhance social participation.