Papatya – 30 years of an anonymous crisis facility for girls and young women at risk

The anonymous crisis and transition facility Papatya celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2016! It is the oldest crisis facility of its kind in Germany. Since 1986, more than 1,800 girls and young women threatened by forced marriage, abduction, violence in the name of honour or suffering from abuse have found protection in the crisis facility. The girls are cared for and counseled here around the clock by an intercultural team consisting of Turkish, Kurdish and German social educators.

The online counselling service SIBEL

In addition, Papatya offers SIBEL, an anonymous online counselling service for girls and young women affected by forced marriage and family violence. Thanks to Rajapack’s first donation, totalling €15,000, the online counselling service SIBEL could be maintained for the whole of 2017.
Currently, Papatya is working on a new website that aims to better address girls and young women affected by forced marriage and violence in the name of honour. For this project, numerous ideas were collected from girls in Papatya’s shelter and search terms and keywords were included for easier retrieval. The Papatya team is particularly proud that the actress Sibel Kekilli could be won as a patron for the online counselling SIBEL. The online counselling service SIBEL was named after her in 2004 because of her great portrayal of the role of Sibel in the film “Gegen die Wand”.

In 2017, by the end of August, more than 200 victims of violence in the name of honour or their helpers were counseled on the phone, in addition to 130 counselling sessions via email. Among the online contacts were 12 girls and young women who were detained in their parents’ country of origin and were looking for help to return to Germany, where they grew up. Cases of abduction in particular require very special care in order not to put the persons concerned in further danger if the family were to learn of the thoughts of escape. This requires very close and sensitive cooperation between the youth welfare office, police, embassy, authorities and aid organisations abroad to enable a successful return.

Additional German courses for refugee girls

Increasingly, refugee girls are also taking advantage of Papatya’s counselling and help. In the Papatya shelter they make up 20%. In most cases, they have heard about the possibilities of help from their teachers when they were threatened or affected by forced marriage or family violence. The Papatya team was able to win over a retired teacher who gives these girls German lessons while they are not yet able to go to school.

We at RAJA are always impressed by this unique and outstanding work done by the team at Papatya. It is an institution that has done and continues to do very important pioneering work. We are very happy to be able to support this organisation with our financial contribution.