Intercultural Week

Trio of patrons

"This motto can be understood in many different ways", says the new trio of patrons of Intercultural Week 2025, consisting of Karyna Borodii, Anastasia Mironava and Björn Volmering.

"Bocholt stands for this, for an open society", adds Anastasia Mironava. People should participate on an equal footing - regardless of origin and faith. With the Intercultural Week in Bocholt, we are sending out a strong signal against discrimination and all forms of group-based misanthropy. We stand up for human rights and the humane treatment of all those who come to us and live peacefully with us.

"Bocholt stands for diversity and a strong democracy", emphasises Yonca Bayluk Zorlu. Diversity is the engine of our democracy. It does not want to be endured, but actively shaped and promoted. With the Intercultural Week in Bocholt, we create spaces for this - for dialogue, encounters, the reduction of prejudices, for mutual understanding and the fun we have together.

"Bocholt stands for this, for solidarity and cohesion", says Björn Volmering, number three in the trio. "With the Intercultural Week in Bocholt, we are calling for courageous commitment in order to understand and tackle the upcoming challenges together. Rarely has solidarity been more important than right now. And nothing strengthens our society like our solidarity and mutual support!

"This year - and this is my personal intention in particular - we have succeeded in getting several associations and organisations to work together on an event", reports Bruno Wansing, Integration Officer for the city of Bocholt.

For example, seven organisations are involved in the tea and coffee festival on 23 September. "This makes us very happy, as it means that intercultural dialogue is already directly involved in the preparation of the events", emphasises Wansing.

Intercultural Week 2026 will open on 18 September with the World Children's Day Festival. The event will be held at St. Josef Gymnasium (Kapu) from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. "A colourful stage programme and lots of great creative and movement activities await young and old alike, which can be used free of charge", according to the announcement.

On the same evening, as a kind of midnight tournament, an intercultural football tournament will take place for the third time. The venue will remain the same, the game will once again be played in the new open-air hall on the TuB Bocholt grounds. There will be some changes to the format, "we want to achieve an even more colourful picture than last year", says Björn Volmering, who as patron is also responsible for the organisation, especially as far as the players are concerned.

We are looking for young people aged between 16 and 25, boys and girls. The format alone ensures that there will be a colourful picture. The young people aged 16 - 25, who register in advance with Bruno Wansing(bruno.wansing(at)bocholt(dot)de) or Gül Balci(g_balci(at)gmx(dot)de), will be drawn by lot in different teams in the evening, which will then compete against each other.

"This will bring young people together in a team who may not even have seen each other before, it will be just as colourful as Bocholt is", hopes Bruno Wansing. The draw will take place at 10 pm, kick-off for the first game is at 10.30 pm. Jusina e.V., Afghan Hazara Deutsche Gemeinschaft Bocholt e.V., the Turkish Parents' Association, TuB Bocholt, EWIBO and the Integration Office have organised the tournament. "It's less about sporting success and more about playing sport together, having fun and engaging in dialogue", continued Wansing.