Life in the Shelter
The house
BORA women's shelter is in East Berlin. The house is easily reached by public transport. Besides the two-story building there is a huge playground with lots of green on the extensive grounds.In the house there are three hallways filled with residents' rooms. in each hallway there is a beautiful communal kitchen and several bathrooms. All common rooms are fully equipped and furnished. Each woman lives in a room for herself and her children. The individual rooms are furnished with beds, closets, table and chairs, refrigerators for personal use, and a sink.
There is a spacious common room where women and children can watch TV or read. The fitness room is provided with sport equipment to be used by all residents.
The kitchen and the common room play a big part in the stories of former residents: Women remember how they shared suffering and joy, how they no longer felt alone, how they made new friends.
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The Residents
The women living in the shelter are just as different as women in general. Young and old women, women of different cultures, women with a broad range of educational and occupational backgrounds and very diverse experiences all live here. In the accounts of former residents this diversity is seen as a new and rich source of knowledge. Women who are recently admitted to the shelter are not left alone, they realize that many women went through the same they have to go through (more than 45,000 women and just as many children seek refuge in Germany's women's shelters each year).They no longer see their problems as "self-made" and as theirs alone. The encouragement of the staff helps the women through dark hours and feelings of despair.
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Organizing Daily Life
Daily life is mostly organized by the residents themselves. Once a week there is a house meeting where new women are greeted, and the cleaning schedule and phone service is arranged.
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