Across the street from the refugee center, the 40-year-old attended the town's high school. After graduating from high school, she began a dual study program at Deutsche Post DHL Group at the age of 19. "Neuburg, like Bonn now, has become a home for me because I was able to take with me some good childhood memories from there," she says. As a graduate with a degree in business, she joined the company's headquarters in Bonn in 2005. Since then, she has lived in Dransdorf, on "an island of the fortunate ones," she says, laughing. "The people who live above, below and next to me make it easy for me to feel the place is a home." There's also a lot of Rhenish cheerfulness that comes from her landlords, she adds. That's a side of Bonn that she has "totally grown to love." On top of that, she adds, is the internationality of the city. "I think the whole world comes together in Bonn.”

In the summer of 2021, Al-Kathib married Salim Awali (35), whom she had met during one of her projects in Benin. The newlyweds then went on a short get-to-know-you trip through Germany. Asked if he had seen a city more beautiful than Bonn, Awali replied in the negative. "We have nature and city here, we have a river and the mountains," Al-Kathib quotes her husband, who now also seems to have found another home in Bonn.

"And for me, maybe now Benin will be added as a new home," Al-Kathib says. "I like the country and the people. For me, it's always first and foremost the encounters with people that are decisive." It is through people that she finds an entry to new worlds.

Al-Kathib says she has long since ceased to feel that she is "sitting between two chairs" with her national identities. She considers it a privilege to choose which chair she wants to sit on. "And - to stay with the image: I can also lie across both chairs." One insight she's eager to pass on to the young people she works with: "You don't have to choose." There are as many right paths as there are souls in the world, she says. The 40-year-old finds her own multicultural family very enriching. Through her two sisters and five brothers, she has sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law from Afghanistan and Thailand. "The people I meet are my currency," says the Bonn native.

This is a currency that Al-Kathib seems to work with successfully: There is hardly a person she meets in the cafeteria of the Post Tower with whom she does not exchange a friendly word. Even at the international level, she says, it is these interactions that fulfill her and - she adds thoughtfully - complete her. Perhaps we all need a little capacity to accept more from others. "That's more important than ever right now," she says. She's always jumping back and forth on different levels, trying to understand what togetherness is all about. In the here and now, and also from a higher perspective.

"I am grateful for what I can learn for myself through meetings with people from all over the world," she says. In the current crises of pandemic and war, her constant striving to understand people in their actions leads her to say that we all need each other more than ever. Because otherwise things will not end well. A smile can be helpful on a small scale, an interaction with or advice for a friend, but also the question for oneself of what role and responsibility one has in and for this world.

Al-Kathib is able to respond to this challenge in her day-to-day work as a senior expert in corporate citizenship by coordinating the voluntary social commitment of more than 100,000 Post employees worldwide. Al-Kathib also promotes and supports civic engagement through the "Heroes Wanted" organization she created.

(Original text: Stefan Hermes; Translation: ck)