Dear friends and supporters of Space2groW,
The representation and voices of Black women* and women* of color and migrants must become more self-evident and find their way into feminist discourses in this country!
With our project Space2grow we have gone a step further in this direction and the German Integration Award and the non-profit Hertie Foundation have awarded this work with the 1st prize of the German Integration Award. The prize is endowed with 50,000 €! We would like to thank you for the trust you have placed in us, which we will not disappoint! We also thank for the appreciation and encouragement that this prize contains for us! Thanks go to the team of the German Integration Award Agata Werner, Anna Arenz & Clarissa Khan, the jury and its chairman Nico Hofmann, as well as the laudators Gün Tank and Zohre Esmaeli. We remember the sentence: "No one has to explain feminism to the women* who arrive here. They already bring feminism with them!"
The road to this point has been long and we would like to name all those who have supported Space2grow during the last year and encouraged us to think the project further and further and not to stop, not to let go. Representatively: Meral Al-Mer, Becky Jaraiz, Paul Kruth, Dyria Aloussi, Joachim Jung, Yola Zekina, Zora Zekina, Katja Hesse, Rico Montero (Heartbeat Edutainment), Kati Neumann, Marie Tornow, Manuel Jaeger, Ayse Domeniconi, Solidrinks, Sharon Adler (Aviva), Chris Schulz , Black Lives Matter Berlin, Bündnis für sexuelle Selbstbestimmung, Birgit Hamann, Thais Vera Utrilla.
You were especially important as supporters of the crowdfunding campaign, which was a real challenge and an almost insurmountable hurdle in the beginning, which you carried us over.
The last stage, when all of a sudden this possibility to actually receive an award took shape, was quite surreal. In our imagination it seemed at times completely plausible that we would be among the first 3, at other times it seemed rather improbable.... and on the evening of the award ceremony and in the encounter with the other great and important projects this again receded into the distance. The enthusiasm to receive the first prize for Space2grow at the end was like being carried by a big wave! Sincere thanks for the terrific support from the audience and from the other projects!!!
There is not much time to celebrate and enjoy, because now the work really starts. With the award also comes a great responsibility that we want to live up to, so that the goal with which we started this process becomes a reality. Below you can get some impressions of the event & the emotions.
Grateful, your space2groW team