New opportunity

A different kind of tutoring: learning math in the “Café”

Sima Houssein (11) receives tutoring at the Lerncafé from volunteer coaches such as Eva Schober - mainly practising German and math.

(Bild: Einöder Horst)

Often new to the country and a new language. Young people in particular have problems with this. Through Caritas, disadvantaged children receive tutoring from volunteers. During a visit to a branch office, the "Krone" found out who is committed to the pupils and what is lacking.

Violence, vandalism, bullying: the Diesterweg School in Linz has repeatedly made negative headlines recently. But there is also good news: 11-year-old Sima Houssein managed to transfer from the hotspot school to a grammar school - with support from the Caritas learning café. Sima has been in Austria since 2017 and was only two months old when she fled Syria with her mother.

Michaela Lehofer (left) is responsible for all seven of the Caritas learning cafés. Bogdana Jimenez-Florescu (right) runs the learning café in Bürgerstraße in Linz.

(Bild: Einöder Horst)

No help at home
The ambitious pupil had difficulties with German and math in the third grade of elementary school, but was unable to get help at home. For around a year, she has been going to the free Caritas facility in Bürgerstraße in Linz twice a week to learn.

Learning coaches for support
What does she want to be one day? "It changes all the time," she says in perfect German, "but I'm particularly interested in geography." She is supported by volunteer learning coaches like Claudia Spindler from Linz. The 61-year-old chemist at Voest is actually "the auntie for arithmetic" at the learning café. She started volunteering during the refugee crisis in 2016 and has stuck with it.

Three years on average
On average, the children come to the Lerncafé for three years, and Spindler has already supported at least ten of them. "We often have fun. Mohammed always pretends to have failed after tests, then pulls his good result out of his pocket with a grin," says Spindler. The boys in particular sometimes speak bad German on purpose, "but then they realize that good grades are important, for example to be able to go to a technical college".

Need would be even greater
140 volunteers work in the seven Upper Austrian learning cafés and last year supported 173 pupils aged between six and 15 - 90 percent of them from a migrant background. "The demand would be higher, but there is a lack of funding or the necessary learning coaches," says Michaela Lehofer, head of the learning cafés. One of the seven locations is company-financed, the others are largely funded by donations, and ten percent is provided by the Upper Austrian Integration Office.