Last week our Member, Diakonie Michaelshoven, held their annual KinderRechteTag (German World Children’s Day) event around the topic of “Federal Elections 2021 – Who has the Choice”, in light of the upcoming German federal elections that will take place on 26 September. Young people from different residential groups and from the Open Meeting Magnet in Heimersdorf met in “Canyon Chorweiler”, a workshop and climbing venue, where a full day programme of activities took place on topics such as climate change, human rights, digital and technological accessibility, the job market situation as well as equal opportunities availability.

“We want to enable young people to participate politically and socially with the KinderRechteTag, because it is an important component of education for democracy”, explained Diakonie Michaelshoven’s Monika Bröhl. “For a long time there have been youth parliaments in Diakonie Michaelshoven, providing a platform in which children and young people can stand up for their interests”.

Florian Braun, a member of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia and spokesperson for the Christlichen Demokratischen Union Deutschlands (CDU) parliamentary group in the committee for digitisation and innovation, was among the speakers and invited all participants to the State Parliament -when it is safe to do so- to continue with the exchange of ideas. Other participants included Linda Längfeld, Specialist for Youth Media Culture NRW eV, and Tobias Dompke, Managing Director of the Canyon Chorweiler.

At Eurodiaconia, many of our members provide a wide range of child-related services such as families support centres, youth work services, after-school programmes, counselling and many other social services impacting children and their families.

Find out more about our work on “Youth and Children” here: https://bit.ly/3ACdlob

To find out more about the work of Diakonie Michaelshoven and their child and youth services, visit https://bit.ly/2ZoGZjf