The first step to found the HOPE e. V. was an ethnographic interview Mirjam Rülke made with Fidelis Osita Oleh in August 2011. Mirjam Rülke recognised Mr. Oleh as an graduated Nigeria who may help her to understand why so many refugees and asylum seeker in Germany suffer because of misunderstandings based mainly on language problems and their socio-cultural background. Mirjam Rülke mainly wanted to find out why the Diaspora Unions and mainly the academics do not try more to mediate between the Germans and the foreigners. This Interview planted the seed for our HOPE e. V.

Nearly two years later made Mr. Oleh the second step. He visited M. Rülke to ask for assistance to found a new union. Mirjam Rülke agreed to assist Mr. Oleh and contacted different colleges and friends whose knowledge and assistance might be helpful to let our idea become reality.

The HOPE e. V. is an international team. Half of our members came as refugees to Germany. So they can speak from an inner perspective. We also have members with an academic background in social and political science or with special education in foreigner languages

On the 4th of February 2014 we hold our first General Assembly and established our constitution (see the original constitution in German under "Organisational Structure" on this homepage). Ostita Oleh became our director and Mirjam Rülke became the vice director. After this assembly we could register the HOPE e. V. and apply for the tax free status.

On 19th June 2014 we hold our second General Assembly. Here we elected Christiane Samuels to be our Financial Secretary.

In September we decided to cooperate with the well established "Freundeskreis für Asyl" in Karlsruhe to gain from their experiences. We applied together for the sponsorship "Engagement braucht Leadership" and our cooperation was chosen, but Freundeskreis für Asyl sadly decided to step down from the cooperation, because they had no time for this project.

Currently Osita Oleh operates mainly in the different homes for asylum seeker in Lahr and offers practical assistance on demand.

We have plans to expend our activities soon and try to require more members in different regions.