Mettmenstetten, 4^th January 2018. The report of 17-year-old Lena reaches us, who completed her two-week work placement in the Protestant guest house and estate in Swiss Mettmenstetten. The experiences she could make there were extremely various: In the first week she was mainly entrusted with jobs on the farm, for instance. This included helping with farming, gardening, in the farm shop and preparing the guest house and the meals. In the second week she was allowed to participate in preparing and realizing a programme for kids in the context of a mission conference. As the children came partly from Germany, partly from Africa, this was a highly interesting and enriching experience for all participants.

Manchester, 3^rd December 2017. Svenja and Luca report on their work placement abroad in a café for people with psychic and social problems in Manchester. In the café they helped with baking and cooking, among other things, and were able to test new English recipes, too. In the three weeks in England the two Halterners considerably improved their knowledge of English. They are happy about having become a good deal more self-reliant due to their stay abroad.

Haltern am See, 17^th November 2017. The flier of the Elena Bless Foundation with information on organization and financing of pupils’ work placements abroad is now available in Spanish, too. The French version follows before long. Schools interested in the fliers in German, Spanish or French for their own pupils or those of their partner schools abroad can ask for them at no charge under info@elena-bless-stiftung.de.

Svetlana/St Petersburg, 22nd October 2017. Today the exciting report of Felix reached us, who spent his work placement in class 11 in an institution for the handicapped in Russia. In various ways he was able to realize his aim of becoming more competent in the Russian language and collecting experiences in social work in the Camphill-village of Svetlana, which is a two hours’ drive away from St Petersburg: Together with handicapped people he worked in a cheese dairy, for instance, and learned how to produce milk, cheese, curd and cream. There was a lot for him to do in the garden, with farm activities, with packaging and marketing of the products as well as in the kitchen. In his free time he could explore the environment with Russian colleagues and other volunteers und drive a boat on Lake Ladoga, the largest lake in Europe. On some evenings he participated in cosy Bible prayers together with the villagers and got into a conversation with them on all the world and his brother.