The very simplest ideas are often the best. And the courage to actually put them into practice pays off. Instead of money, the pupils are asked to donate their empty deposit bottles. That is what Shahwan Borto came up with and introduced a good three years ago at his school at the time, the Maximilian-Kolbe-Gymnasium in Wahn. \u201cIn just a few months, over 100 euros came together at first,\u201d says the now 21-year-old. He comes from northern Iraq, belongs to the Yazidi community and fled his homeland with his family nine years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Yazidis became known to a wider public in 2014 because the Islamic State brutally persecuted the minority in Iraq, killed many of the people and abducted women in particular. \u201cMany of my former neighbours and friends were captured and tortured,\u201d the young man says of the reasons for his flight. His parents and his five siblings have since found a new home in Z\u00fcndorf. Borto completed his Abitur last year and is now studying law at the university in Bonn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alongside his studies, however, he is still involved in voluntary work, just as he was during his school days. Because what started as a school project has since become a club operating nationwide. He named his club, founded in 2016, \u201cSpende dein Pfand\u201d, and it is represented in all 16 federal states. During his school days, Borto received regular training in business-related topics alongside his lessons through educational scholarships, for example in project management and corporate communications. Pupils from other cities and federal states also took part in the seminars. \u201cThat is where I made many contacts that I was able to use to found the club,\u201d says the student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His fellow campaigners are all young people in their early twenties. Today, the club works with 29 schools and companies across Germany. In Cologne, \u201cSpende dein Pfand\u201d has four partners \u2014 alongside Borto\u2019s old school, these include the Lise-Meitner-Gesamtschule in Finkenberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cooperation works as follows: once a new partner has been found, the school or company is provided with the deposit collection boxes. They are produced especially for the club, are made of cardboard and can be recycled. The boxes also come with an introductory talk about the purpose and goals of the donation project. \u201cWe are currently supporting two projects, one in northern Iraq and one in the Congo,\u201d says Borto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The money from the donated deposit bottles is used in Iraq to support girls formerly held captive by IS. In the African Congo, the money goes to an organisation that wants to protect girls from genital mutilation. Once the deposit collection boxes have been handed over, the schools and companies organise the project independently. The money collected then goes to the club every month. \u201cLast year we received around 2,000 euros from our partners in Cologne.\u201d The project has since won awards. Last year, the club received the Filippas Engel prize, which is awarded to young people and groups who are socially engaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Die ganz einfachen Ideen sind oft die besten. Und der Mut, sie auch zu verwirklichen, zahlt sich aus. Anstelle von Geld sollen die Sch\u00fcler ihre leeren Pfandflaschen spenden. So hat es sich Shahwan Borto \u00fcberlegt und vor gut drei Jahren an seiner damaligen Schule, dem Maximilian-Kolbe-Gymnasium in Wahn eingef\u00fchrt. \u201eIn nur wenigen Monaten sind so zun\u00e4chst \u00fcber 100 Euro zusammen gekommen“.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_genesis_description":"Wie aus der Idee, Flaschenpfand zu spenden, eine ausgezeichnete Initiative wurde: Hintergrund, Auszeichnungen und Wirkung von Spende Dein Pfand.","_genesis_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-presse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spendedeinpfand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spendedeinpfand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spendedeinpfand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spendedeinpfand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spendedeinpfand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/spendedeinpfand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2246,"href":"https:\/\/spendedeinpfand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions\/2246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spendedeinpfand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spendedeinpfand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spendedeinpfand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spendedeinpfand.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}