Our Work

The right help when you need it most

Starting a new life in a foreign country is filled with hope, but it can also be overwhelming.

For many African migrants and refugees, understanding unfamiliar laws, navigating complex administrative procedures, and knowing where to seek help can become a source of fear and uncertainty.

No one should have to face these challenges alone. As Pope Francis reminds us: “There is a cry of pain that resonates more than any other, and which is turning the Mare Nostrum into Mare Mortuum, the Mediterranean from the cradle of civilisation to the grave of dignity. It is the stifled cry of our migrant brothers and sisters.”

Behind every migration journey is a human story—a story of courage, sacrifice, resilience, and hope. We believe that every person deserves to be treated with dignity, justice, and compassion, regardless of where they come from.

Our Legal Support and Counselling service provides reliable legal information, individual counselling, referrals, and practical guidance to help African migrants and refugees understand their rights, navigate German administrative systems, and access the services they need with confidence.

Whether you have questions about residency, family matters, employment, social benefits, or other legal concerns, we are here to guide you every step of the way.

Legal Support and Counselling

for Migrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers

Our Legal Support and Counselling service provides:

Reliable legal information & individual counselling
Practical guidance about rights for African migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers
Referrals to qualified legal professionals when needed
Assistance in understanding & navigating German legal processes and administrative systems

Book your appointment today and let us help you take the next step with confidence.

APPOINTMENT REQUIRED

To ensure that every person receives the time and attention they deserve, legal consultations are available by appointment only.

Please book an appointment before visiting the center.

We warmly welcome everyone seeking legal support and are committed to treating every individual with dignity, respect, and confidentiality.

Beginning a new life in a foreign country can be an overwhelming experience.

Our Social Integration programme accompanies vulnerable African migrants and refugees through compassionate care, guidance, and practical support.

We provide orientation for newcomers, German language courses, social counselling, referrals to specialised services, community networking, and assistance in accessing healthcare, education, housing, and social support systems.

We also walk alongside those experiencing particularly difficult circumstances, including individuals struggling with addiction, those recovering from substance abuse, people living with serious health conditions, and those in prisons or reintegrating into society after incarceration.

Through personal accompaniment, advocacy, and collaboration with partner organisations, we seek to restore hope, strengthen resilience, and promote inclusion.

Are you new in Berlin? Are you feeling isolated or struggling to find your place in society?
Are you or a member of your family facing challenges such as addiction, imprisonment, homelessness, or serious health concerns?

You are not alone. Reach out to us today and let us walk this journey with you.

Our Social Integration service provides:

Integration and orientation courses
Social counselling, assistance & networking
Support, care and personal accompaniment for those in difficult circumstances
German language support
Seminars and workshops
Cultural exchange and community events
Information sessions on life in Germany

Together, we can help you find support, rebuild hope, and take meaningful steps toward a more secure and fulfilling future.

CULTURE, IDENTITY & HERITAGE

Celebrating Our Heritage, Building Peace Together

Migration is not only a journey across borders. It is also a journey of identity, memory, and belonging. When people leave their homeland, they carry with them their stories, languages, traditions, values, and the wisdom of generations.

Preserving this heritage is essential for maintaining dignity, strengthening self-confidence, and creating a sense of belonging in a new environment.

For many African migrants and refugees, adapting to a new society can sometimes create a feeling of being disconnected from their roots. The loss of familiar languages, traditions, and cultural practices can lead to a sense of isolation and uncertainty.

We believe that integration should never mean losing who we are; rather, it should create opportunities to celebrate our identities while building bridges with others.

Our Cultural Identity and Heritage programme is dedicated to promoting and preserving the richness of African cultures, languages, traditions, and values.

Our mission is to ensure that African migrants and refugees do not have to choose between their past and their future. They can honour their roots while building new connections, contributing to society, and creating a shared future based on respect, dignity, and solidarity.

Join our active Afro-Euro families and celebrate your African heritage and culture. Join our Cultural Identity and Heritage programme.

Together, we preserve our stories, celebrate our diversity, and build bridges between cultures for a more inclusive society.

Find out more about our programme.

Reference Library: Knowledge, Research and African Heritage

Supporting Knowledge, Research, and Discovery

Knowledge is a bridge that connects generations, cultures, and communities. Africa is a continent of immense diversity, with thousands of years of history, rich traditions, spiritual wisdom, artistic expressions, and intellectual contributions that continue to shape the world. Yet, African realities are often misunderstood, misrepresented, or reduced to incomplete narratives.

Our Reference Library is a space dedicated to promoting accurate knowledge, research, and deeper understanding of Africa and its people. It serves as a resource centre for students, researchers, educators, migrants, and anyone interested in discovering the richness and complexity of African societies.

The library provides access to information and resources on African cultures, religions, spirituality, history, encounters between African communities and missionaries, colonial experiences, social transformations, African literature, and the works of African authors and thinkers. It also offers reliable information about current African affairs, supporting access to authentic news and perspectives that go beyond stereotypes and misinformation.

This initiative encourages dialogue, critical reflection, and academic exchange between Africa and Europe.

Whether you are a student preparing research, a researcher seeking reliable sources, an educator looking for materials, or simply someone curious about Africa, our library welcomes you.

Workshops in Schools

Discover Africa Through Dialogue, Culture, and Learning

Building Bridges Through Knowledge and Encounter. Education is one of the most powerful ways to bring people together, challenge misconceptions, and build a more inclusive society.

Stereotypes, incomplete stories, or one-dimensional perspectives and binaries still shape many images and narratives about Africa. Our school workshops create spaces where students can ask questions and encounter Africa beyond these limitations through knowledge, dialogue, creativity, and shared experiences.

By opening spaces for honest conversation and curiosity, we help people move beyond stereotypes, prejudices, and artificial divisions that separate “us” and “them.”

Using games, sports, African puzzles, music, storytelling, traditional instruments such as the djembe, and creative activities connected to African nature and communities, students experience learning as an encounter rather than simply as information.

Are you a school, educator, or community organisation interested in creating meaningful intercultural learning experiences?
Would you like your kindergarten, schools, universities, and students, to discover Africa through music, games, stories, reflection, and direct encounter?
Do you want to help young people develop a more open, respectful, and global perspective?

Invite our school workshops and become part of a journey that connects hearts and minds.

We warmly invite you to contact Afrika-Center to arrange a school visit. Together, we can create engaging learning experiences that promote respect, dialogue, and a more just and inclusive world.

Dialogue, Justice, Peacebuilding, and Social Cohesion

The Road to Harmony and Understanding

A peaceful society is built when people dare to listen to one another, understand different experiences, and recognise the dignity of every human being.

In a world where divisions, misunderstandings, discrimination, and conflicts can easily create distance between communities, dialogue becomes a powerful path toward healing, justice, and reconciliation.

Many African migrants and refugees carry experiences of displacement, conflict, exclusion, and difficult journeys. At the same time, host communities may also experience fears, uncertainties, or misconceptions about migration and cultural diversity.

We believe that meaningful encounters and honest conversations can transform these challenges into opportunities for mutual learning, solidarity, and cooperation.

We are committed to supporting a society where differences are not seen as threats but as opportunities to learn from one another.

By promoting justice, equality, and human dignity, we work toward reducing prejudice, strengthening relationships between communities, and encouraging active participation in building a more inclusive society.

Our aim is to promote interreligious dialogue and encounter, peacebuilding, and stronger relationships between diverse communities?

Join our Dialogue, Justice, Peacebuilding, and Social Cohesion initiatives in Afrika-Center.

ADVOCACY

Giving Voice to Dignity and Justice

Every person carries a story, a voice, and a unique contribution to society. Yet, many African migrants and refugees continue to face barriers, discrimination, social exclusion, and challenges in accessing equal opportunities. Advocacy is a way of standing alongside people, ensuring that their experiences are heard, their rights are respected, and their dignity is protected.

Our Advocacy programme works to raise awareness, promote justice, and support the rights and inclusion of African migrants and refugees.

We engage with communities, institutions, and decision-makers to highlight the realities, challenges, and contributions of African communities in Europe.

Through awareness campaigns, public discussions, educational initiatives, networking, and collaboration with partner organisations, we seek to challenge stereotypes, address inequalities, and promote policies and practices that respect human dignity and social justice.

We believe that advocacy is not only about speaking for people, it is about creating spaces where people can speak for themselves, participate actively, and shape the societies they are part of. By amplifying African voices and experiences, we contribute to a more inclusive society where diversity is recognised as a strength.

Join our advocacy initiatives. Together, we strengthen voices, challenge injustice, and build a society where every person is valued, respected, and allowed to thrive.

Please consider donating to help our Mission

INTER-AFRICAN RELATIONS & COLLABORATION

Working Together for a Stronger Community

Our Inter-African Relations programme creates opportunities for connection, collaboration, and exchange between African communities, families, organisations, and institutions.

We work to bring together people from different African backgrounds, encouraging cooperation, sharing of experiences, and the creation of networks that support community development and belonging.

Our goal is to connect people, ideas, and resources so that African communities can support one another, preserve their heritage, recognising the richness that each nation, culture, and community contributes and contribute positively to the societies where they live.

Through collaboration with African associations, African students, community groups, families, cultural organisations, and diplomatic representatives, we promote dialogue, partnership, and initiatives that strengthen relationships within the African diaspora and between Africa and Europe.

Are you an African organisation, community group, family, or institution interested in connecting and collaborating with others? Welcome to create a partnership with us.

Together, we build bridges between African communities, strengthen our connections, and create a future based on unity, cooperation, and shared hope.

SPIRITUAL SUPPORT / MISSIONARY VOCATIONS

Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) – Berlin

The Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) are an international Catholic missionary society founded in 1868 by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie. Their vocation is to proclaim the Gospel and to accompany the growth of the Church, with a special commitment to the peoples of Africa and to the African world wherever they are found.

Today, the Missionaries of Africa continue this mission by building bridges between cultures, peoples, and faith traditions through: primary evangelisation in Parishes, Education, Social work and development, interreligious encounter, intercultural encounter, Dialogue with African traditional Religion, youth Apostolate, justice and peace, Ecumenical collaboration.

The members of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) live in international and intercultural communities as priests and brothers, sharing a common missionary vocation. They are joined by the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (White Sisters), who share the same missionary spirit and commitment to serving the people of Africa and beyond.

Faithful to the missionary charism of the Missionaries of Africa, the Centre promotes dialogue, integration, mutual understanding, and solidarity while celebrating the richness and diversity of African cultures and traditions.

Discover Your Mission

Are you searching for a life of purpose and service?
Would you like to discover what it means to live in an international and intercultural missionary community?
Are you interested in sharing your gifts while serving people in Africa or among African communities around the world?
Do you feel called to proclaim the Gospel, foster dialogue, promote justice, and build communities of hope as a Missionary?

Perhaps you are not called to become a missionary yourself but would like to support our mission in Africa. The mission is sustained in many different ways: some are called to go, while others are called to give.

Through your prayers, generosity, and partnership, you become part of the Church’s missionary outreach and help bring hope, education, healthcare, dialogue, and the Gospel to communities across Africa.

If you believe God may be calling you to become a Missionary of Africa (White Father) or a Missionary Sister of Our Lady of Africa (White Sister), we would be delighted to accompany you in your vocational journey.

If you would like to support our missionary work, we would also be grateful to hear from you.

Contact the Afrika-Center Berlin to learn more about our life, our mission, and the many ways you can participate in the missionary vocation of the Church.

Together, let us become witnesses of hope, dialogue, and reconciliation in Africa and throughout the world.

You are always welcome to write to us or vist the Afrikamissionare site to learn more about our Order.

VOLUNTARY SERVICE

Afrika-Center warmly welcomes volunteers who would like to contribute their time, skills, and passion to support our work in the community.

Would You Like to Make a Difference?
Would you like to help migrants and refugees feel welcomed and supported?
Are you passionate about justice, human dignity, and peaceful coexistence?
Do you have an interest in education, cultural exchange, counselling, or community building?
Would you like to support research, youth programs, school visits, or integration activities?
Would you like to support research, youth programs, school visits, or integration activities?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then we would be glad to hear from you.

Voluntary service at Afrika-Center is an opportunity to make a real impact, gain valuable experience, and be part of a meaningful mission that promotes inclusion, respect, and solidarity.

We welcome individuals from all backgrounds who are ready to contribute to our different areas of work. Whether you can offer a few hours or a longer commitment, your support is highly valued.

Contact us today and become part of our volunteer community. Together, we can build stronger communities and create lasting change.

Gather, Celebrate, Remember

The Afrika-Center is more than a meeting place. It is a home of welcome, solidarity, and community. Inspired by the missionary spirit of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers), we seek to accompany African migrants, refugees, and families by providing a safe, welcoming space where people can come together with dignity.

Whenever our facilities are available, we are pleased to host community meetings, family celebrations, children’s birthday parties, cultural events, educational workshops, prayer gatherings, memorial services, and moments of mourning.

We recognize that many families and community groups, especially those who have newly arrived or are facing financial hardship, cannot afford the high cost of commercial venues. We believe that no one should be prevented from celebrating life’s joyful moments or from gathering to support one another in times of grief because of financial circumstances.

Our Centre is not a commercial event venue. It is a place where friendships are strengthened, cultures are celebrated, faith is shared, and communities find support, comfort, and hope. Whether you are welcoming a new beginning, celebrating a milestone, or remembering a loved one, we hope the Afrika-Center can be a place where you feel at home.

If you would like to use our community space, please contact us to discuss your needs and check availability. We will do our best to accompany and support you.

The Afrika-Center is a non-profit ministry of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers). Voluntary donations are warmly welcomed and help us maintain this space of hospitality and continue making it available to individuals, families, and community groups who need it most.

In this way, your generosity enables others to gather, celebrate, and remember with dignity.