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OPEN CALL
01 – 30, MAY 2026

Toby Binder

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN

Germany

Lockdown-Kids

Especially young people from socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods suffer from the protective measures to contain the pandemic. Without attendance classes at school or homework help, these children and young people are excluded from education and continue to lose out connection. Homeschooling fails due to the lack of technical aids such as computers or simply because of the parents' lack of language skills of the parents, who can hardly support. Without a school canteen often the only hot meal of the day. Youth clubs offer a very limited programme, swimming pools and sports clubs are completely closed. There is not much not much is left. More than every second child in Duisburg-Hochfeld is considered poor. Expensive leisure activities are not possible for many of them anyway. Hochfeld, which has a population of 18,000, has the highest proportion of foreigners of all Duisburg districts and is one of the most child-rich districts both proportionally and in absolute terms. Previously dominated by Turkish and Albanian residents, Hochfeld, which has always been regarded as a "district of arrival", has also become a settlement focus for immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria in recent years and Bulgaria, especially Roma, who now make up more than 15% of Hochfeld's population. In many cases, the immigrants are exploited and forced into unworthy living conditions. When five siblings have to share one room, even contact restrictions and curfews are hard to implement. So the young people spend a lot of time in the parks and streets of the city. In a milieu that is dominated by drugs, prostitution and daily violence even during the lockdown. The 17-year-old Apo describes their lack of opportunities like this: "We used to be known all over Germany for steel and football. Steel is no more and the local team plays in the third league. But Hochfeld is now the worst district in all of Germany. That's the only thing we're still the best at."

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