[Applause]
may I ask you what this is sorry right
wonderful
those two are actually the same thing it
only depends on how you look at them I’m
Vera the co-founder of mimicry together
with refugees we transform these broken
rubber boats into bags and backpacks and
I have the honour to be here to share
with you the story of how changing
perspective changed my life and how it
can change yours so my story begins in
the summer of 2015 it was the peak of
refugee arrivals in Europe and in
Germany and Germany is not that famous
for its hospitality but that summer had
somehow made a different impression at
the train stations all over the country
people were welcoming people into their
new lives in a safe place they were
handing out pet toys for the kids and
air balloons for everyone I did the same
I remember the very moment I was
standing at the Berlin train station
cheering like a football fan in the
stadium I wanted to be part of that new
Germany that welcomes people who have
lost their belongings their homes and
sometimes even their families but when
you followed the news in 2015 you also
saw that people were not only arriving
in Germany but also on the Greek islands
and friends told me that help was most
needed there so like many others I
decided to pack my bags and go to the
Greek island Chios I traveled to Cure’s
via Turkey because it was cheaper than
going through Athens and I took the
ferry from Izmir to chaos it took 30
minutes and cost 15 euros I had a beer
on the
and a little nap it was the same route
that people many people take fleeing and
only that they pay a thousand euros to
human trafficker for boarding an
overcrowded dinghy at night not knowing
whether they would arrive on the other
side alive or not
arriving in kills there was not really
much time to adapt and we jumped
immediately into work
my best friend nor I decided to come as
well and together we joined the kiyose
Eastern Response Team a group of
volunteers driving up and down the shore
spotting boats to guide them to safe
places to arrive on the islands
sometimes that worked as you can see
here but sometimes it didn’t I remember
one night when we were watching a boat
heading towards a fenced military zone
but only was it heading there it
actually hit the rocks in front of it
all we could do was stand there and wait
and after what seemed to be hours the
gates opened and around 40 wet and
soaked people were walking silently in
line towards us we handed em dry clothes
and food and drinks one nine-year-old
girl had serious hypothermia
all of them blue lips and icy fingers
and I remember a woman sitting next to
me not stopping crying and when I tried
to calm her down she handed me a bundle
a wet blanket and I thought like why did
did she take a wet blanket on a boat
it’s completely useless it’s wet and
heavy and in a rush of the night I just
put it away but when I turned around
again she was again sitting there
holding the bundle crying
so we unfolded it and inside was a baby
it was a tiny baby and I learned that
she Lee was the mother of this baby who
had given birth two days earlier at the
Turkish shore she was too afraid to open
the bundle
knowing whether her child would still be
alive or not the baby was wet and it was
cold but it was alive later in the
refugee camp we learned that one girl
from the military base boat had never
made it to the shore the police was
investigating the fifteen year old boy
who was steering the puppet and who had
never water before in his life both
mothers sat next to each other crying
these experiences and moments nearly
paralyzed us and we felt totally
overwhelmed with the things that we saw
and experienced there but there were
other moments as well moments where
people come off the boat and they hand
you their cell phone to talk to their
mother in Syria to say hello and that
they made it to the shore people going
down on their knees praying for the luck
they had I remember one man in his
forties he was sitting on the floor he
wasn’t able to stand on his feet because
he was emotionally so overwhelmed he was
laughing and at the same time he was
embarrassed about the tears of joy in
his eyes so key is for the people
arriving is really at a point of
transformation it’s a point where they
they are arriving and coming from
something and turning towards something
it’s a point where the fear and the
struggle is supposed to end and the hope
is supposed to begin so talking with
Nora about all the experiences that we
made and how to deal with this situation
that we felt we couldn’t really change
anything about we noticed that this
connection of fear and hope was so
powerful to us and that we wanted to
somehow make a contribution in order to
do our bit to transform the fear into
hope and to be honest the the first
approach to that was quite modest and
pragmatic we collected some money and
bought a washing machine with that
washing machine we could reuse the
clothes that were before thrown away
because they were lying
wet on the beaches and with the money
that we collect the dead way it was
contributed to build a house for
children obviously that didn’t change
the overall situation at all but it made
us realize that simply from changing the
perspective on a wet pile of clothes we
could do a little tiny bit to alter the
situation a little bit and that felt
incredible and it gave us the energy to
continue and to think about how although
we can’t solve the entire context to
find a little example a little action
that we could do to to create hope out
of out of fear so part of the job
working there as volunteers was to clean
the beaches from the garbage that was
left after people arrived and we already
reused the clothes but there was also
the rubber boat material and one day
working at the beaches we realized that
we would have not to stop with washing
clothes there was actually more
potential for transformation and we took
a piece of that rubber boat material and
gave it to a friend of ours and yeah it
was this bag I don’t think it will what
would win any fashion prize but for us
it was the most beautiful thing in the
world it resembled the idea that
something bad can be turned into
something good that something that is
perceived at night as negative you can
also find some aspects of possible
positivity in it something that was seen
as trash and had no future suddenly is
something new with a new future so back
in Germany we were thinking and talking
a lot of like how how cool would it be
to make more of those how cool would it
actually be if it’s not about making
bags and selling them but actually about
the message that they spread and how
cool would it be if we could work
together with people who newly arrived
in Germany and show their amazing
talents that they can so rarely proof
but there was a lot of
talking and nothing really happened much
until we applied for the German
integration prize and a New Year’s Eve
2016 we received a message saying you’re
in you have two months to put together a
crowdfunding campaign and the project
with the most supporters wins good luck
very happy and we’re also a little bit
shocked so the first thing we did was to
put up this Facebook post trying with
our smiley faces to convince people that
it would be a good idea to join us and
help us make those bags and let me found
him misses a bead a bead is from
Pakistan and he flew from there from a
very unsecure situation and he took the
same boat that we are working now with
he came to the first meeting and he
brought his amazing swing skills from
there we sent went step by step by step
we need a prototype we need a website we
need a place to work and we knew the
name so we decided to call the project
mimicry it’s of the rise of a phenomenon
nature where animals and plants pretend
to be something else so they are not
eaten so what you see here is it a
butterfly or is it a leaf is it a broken
rubber boat that’s waste or is it a
future back is a bit a refugee or is he
my new colleague who’s not only way
better at suing but also at cooking than
me so now the nonprofit association
mimicry implies a beat in other refugees
we found a beautiful space that we work
in we go there every day our dream has
become reality and mimicry basically has
become our metaphorical washing machine
so it mimicry so far has transformed the
lives of everyone involved in it of Ehle
and a beat who now could move out of the
refugee shelters into their new homes
who speak German now who
important to the Germans as well are
paying taxes who can now invite their
friends over for dinner which i think to
them matters a bit more than the tax
paying part but it also has transformed
Nora’s in my life and so far that we
decided to quit up a well-paid jobs to
continue on this idea of transforming
the unwanted to the wanted and of
showing how changing perspective can
open up new possibilities and we hope to
change perspectives of many people that
are engaged with our project but only of
the German president but also of people
who hear about us and who hear about the
idea so this is not exactly how we look
every day when we work although it would
be nice it’s actually really challenging
and we feel like we’re failing all the
time we send out 50 application for
funding and we get one response it’s a
negative one then after we think we sell
around 50 backpacks month and then we
sell of 15 and we’re terribly afraid of
failing but it’s not about being not
being afraid it’s about doing something
although you are afraid and if you
believe in your ideas many will
criticize you it’s always easier to
criticize than to do something but you
will find more people who will believe
in your ideas as well
Amin created a wouldn’t exist without
the amazing help so many different
people tax advisers who donate their
time and expertise volunteers in Greece
who collect the material and send it to
Germany people were the wealth that
provide long term planning each one of
us has skills in order to create to use
in order to create the world that we are
dreaming of so I would like to encourage
you to find your washing machine to find
the thing you’re passionate about and to
do it if there’s something you talk
about with your friends of a glass of
wine
don’t stop talking about it do the first
step the others will follow and if you
leave this place today I hope that you
already started seeing things in a
different way focus more on what
connects us instead of what separates us
to focus more on the chances than on the
challenges to see a social business in a
broken rubber boat thank you very much [Applause]
may I ask you what this is sorry right
wonderful
those two are actually the same thing it
only depends on how you look at them I’m
Vera the co-founder of mimicry together
with refugees we transform these broken
rubber boats into bags and backpacks and
I have the honour to be here to share
with you the story of how changing
perspective changed my life and how it
can change yours so my story begins in
the summer of 2015 it was the peak of
refugee arrivals in Europe and in
Germany and Germany is not that famous
for its hospitality but that summer had
somehow made a different impression at
the train stations all over the country
people were welcoming people into their
new lives in a safe place they were
handing out pet toys for the kids and
air balloons for everyone I did the same
I remember the very moment I was
standing at the Berlin train station
cheering like a football fan in the
stadium I wanted to be part of that new
Germany that welcomes people who have
lost their belongings their homes and
sometimes even their families but when
you followed the news in 2015 you also
saw that people were not only arriving
in Germany but also on the Greek islands
and friends told me that help was most
needed there so like many others I
decided to pack my bags and go to the
Greek island Chios I traveled to Cure’s
via Turkey because it was cheaper than
going through Athens and I took the
ferry from Izmir to chaos it took 30
minutes and cost 15 euros I had a beer
on the
and a little nap it was the same route
that people many people take fleeing and
only that they pay a thousand euros to
human trafficker for boarding an
overcrowded dinghy at night not knowing
whether they would arrive on the other
side alive or not
arriving in kills there was not really
much time to adapt and we jumped
immediately into work
my best friend nor I decided to come as
well and together we joined the kiyose
Eastern Response Team a group of
volunteers driving up and down the shore
spotting boats to guide them to safe
places to arrive on the islands
sometimes that worked as you can see
here but sometimes it didn’t I remember
one night when we were watching a boat
heading towards a fenced military zone
but only was it heading there it
actually hit the rocks in front of it
all we could do was stand there and wait
and after what seemed to be hours the
gates opened and around 40 wet and
soaked people were walking silently in
line towards us we handed em dry clothes
and food and drinks one nine-year-old
girl had serious hypothermia
all of them blue lips and icy fingers
and I remember a woman sitting next to
me not stopping crying and when I tried
to calm her down she handed me a bundle
a wet blanket and I thought like why did
did she take a wet blanket on a boat
it’s completely useless it’s wet and
heavy and in a rush of the night I just
put it away but when I turned around
again she was again sitting there
holding the bundle crying
so we unfolded it and inside was a baby
it was a tiny baby and I learned that
she Lee was the mother of this baby who
had given birth two days earlier at the
Turkish shore she was too afraid to open
the bundle
knowing whether her child would still be
alive or not the baby was wet and it was
cold but it was alive later in the
refugee camp we learned that one girl
from the military base boat had never
made it to the shore the police was
investigating the fifteen year old boy
who was steering the puppet and who had
never water before in his life both
mothers sat next to each other crying
these experiences and moments nearly
paralyzed us and we felt totally
overwhelmed with the things that we saw
and experienced there but there were
other moments as well moments where
people come off the boat and they hand
you their cell phone to talk to their
mother in Syria to say hello and that
they made it to the shore people going
down on their knees praying for the luck
they had I remember one man in his
forties he was sitting on the floor he
wasn’t able to stand on his feet because
he was emotionally so overwhelmed he was
laughing and at the same time he was
embarrassed about the tears of joy in
his eyes so key is for the people
arriving is really at a point of
transformation it’s a point where they
they are arriving and coming from
something and turning towards something
it’s a point where the fear and the
struggle is supposed to end and the hope
is supposed to begin so talking with
Nora about all the experiences that we
made and how to deal with this situation
that we felt we couldn’t really change
anything about we noticed that this
connection of fear and hope was so
powerful to us and that we wanted to
somehow make a contribution in order to
do our bit to transform the fear into
hope and to be honest the the first
approach to that was quite modest and
pragmatic we collected some money and
bought a washing machine with that
washing machine we could reuse the
clothes that were before thrown away
because they were lying
wet on the beaches and with the money
that we collect the dead way it was
contributed to build a house for
children obviously that didn’t change
the overall situation at all but it made
us realize that simply from changing the
perspective on a wet pile of clothes we
could do a little tiny bit to alter the
situation a little bit and that felt
incredible and it gave us the energy to
continue and to think about how although
we can’t solve the entire context to
find a little example a little action
that we could do to to create hope out
of out of fear so part of the job
working there as volunteers was to clean
the beaches from the garbage that was
left after people arrived and we already
reused the clothes but there was also
the rubber boat material and one day
working at the beaches we realized that
we would have not to stop with washing
clothes there was actually more
potential for transformation and we took
a piece of that rubber boat material and
gave it to a friend of ours and yeah it
was this bag I don’t think it will what
would win any fashion prize but for us
it was the most beautiful thing in the
world it resembled the idea that
something bad can be turned into
something good that something that is
perceived at night as negative you can
also find some aspects of possible
positivity in it something that was seen
as trash and had no future suddenly is
something new with a new future so back
in Germany we were thinking and talking
a lot of like how how cool would it be
to make more of those how cool would it
actually be if it’s not about making
bags and selling them but actually about
the message that they spread and how
cool would it be if we could work
together with people who newly arrived
in Germany and show their amazing
talents that they can so rarely proof
but there was a lot of
talking and nothing really happened much
until we applied for the German
integration prize and a New Year’s Eve
2016 we received a message saying you’re
in you have two months to put together a
crowdfunding campaign and the project
with the most supporters wins good luck
very happy and we’re also a little bit
shocked so the first thing we did was to
put up this Facebook post trying with
our smiley faces to convince people that
it would be a good idea to join us and
help us make those bags and let me found
him misses a bead a bead is from
Pakistan and he flew from there from a
very unsecure situation and he took the
same boat that we are working now with
he came to the first meeting and he
brought his amazing swing skills from
there we sent went step by step by step
we need a prototype we need a website we
need a place to work and we knew the
name so we decided to call the project
mimicry it’s of the rise of a phenomenon
nature where animals and plants pretend
to be something else so they are not
eaten so what you see here is it a
butterfly or is it a leaf is it a broken
rubber boat that’s waste or is it a
future back is a bit a refugee or is he
my new colleague who’s not only way
better at suing but also at cooking than
me so now the nonprofit association
mimicry implies a beat in other refugees
we found a beautiful space that we work
in we go there every day our dream has
become reality and mimicry basically has
become our metaphorical washing machine
so it mimicry so far has transformed the
lives of everyone involved in it of Ehle
and a beat who now could move out of the
refugee shelters into their new homes
who speak German now who
important to the Germans as well are
paying taxes who can now invite their
friends over for dinner which i think to
them matters a bit more than the tax
paying part but it also has transformed
Nora’s in my life and so far that we
decided to quit up a well-paid jobs to
continue on this idea of transforming
the unwanted to the wanted and of
showing how changing perspective can
open up new possibilities and we hope to
change perspectives of many people that
are engaged with our project but only of
the German president but also of people
who hear about us and who hear about the
idea so this is not exactly how we look
every day when we work although it would
be nice it’s actually really challenging
and we feel like we’re failing all the
time we send out 50 application for
funding and we get one response it’s a
negative one then after we think we sell
around 50 backpacks month and then we
sell of 15 and we’re terribly afraid of
failing but it’s not about being not
being afraid it’s about doing something
although you are afraid and if you
believe in your ideas many will
criticize you it’s always easier to
criticize than to do something but you
will find more people who will believe
in your ideas as well
Amin created a wouldn’t exist without
the amazing help so many different
people tax advisers who donate their
time and expertise volunteers in Greece
who collect the material and send it to
Germany people were the wealth that
provide long term planning each one of
us has skills in order to create to use
in order to create the world that we are
dreaming of so I would like to encourage
you to find your washing machine to find
the thing you’re passionate about and to
do it if there’s something you talk
about with your friends of a glass of
wine
don’t stop talking about it do the first
step the others will follow and if you
leave this place today I hope that you
already started seeing things in a
different way focus more on what
connects us instead of what separates us
to focus more on the chances than on the
challenges to see a social business in a
broken rubber boat thank you very much [Applause]
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