CUCULA sticks up for better integration of refugees. The Berlin based company CUCULA is an interior design workshop and an educational program all in one. It is for and together with refugees. ?Launching as a pilot project, CUCULA wants to give people, for whom the doors of society are locked, access to education.

To deliver the message "open doors for refugees", we created an extraordinary mailing: door stoppers made of wood from the refugees’ broken boats stranded in Lampedusa. Each door stopper has a story of its own. The pieces are crafted by refugees from Lampedusa at the CUCULA workshop.

It was important to keep as much of the original surface as possible, so only one side was shaped and polished to create a simple wedge. The original location of the stranded ship was laser-engraved into the bottom side. A packaging made of recycled cardboard with a stand for the door stopper emphasized the idea of an outstanding symbol for an open society and a unique and true evidence of a refugee’s fate.

Of the 80 mailings that had been sent out, not one was unanswered. The feedback was exceptionally positive. Some of he politicians that received the mailing later displayed the door stopper in public as a symbol for an open society. The Berlin CEO of the Federation of Craftsmen, Stephan Schwarz, even promoted an initiative to over 31,000 craft businesses in Berlin to immediately integrate refugees into their workshops. An overwhelming success that opened numerous doors and minds for refugees.