The articles that Haytham Abo Taleb writes, the subjects that he deals with, are very different.

In a text he deals with the problems of the Frankfurt immigration authorities.

Because the office is severely understaffed, applications have been left there for months - with fatal consequences: people who have actually found work cannot take it because a brief from the authority is missing.

Another article is dedicated to the proliferation of pirated Arabic books flooding the market and the anger of publishers and authors.

But Haytham Abo Taleb also wrote a report about the Frankfurt Kleinmarkthalle.

And a list of the places in which the Main metropolis shows itself from its best side in his opinion.

Alexander Juergs

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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You can read the articles by the 31-year-old journalist, who grew up in Syria and fled the country in October 2012, on a new online platform: "Amal, Frankfurt!".

The news site publishes texts in Arabic, Ukrainian and Dari Persian.

A small selection of the articles is also published in German.

"Amal, Frankfurt!" is the third offshoot of the "Amal" portals.

The first started work in Berlin in 2016, followed in 2019 by “Amal, Hamburg!”.

The Arabic word amal means hope.

A "reliable news source" for refugees

The aim of the project is to become the "most reliable news source" for refugees from the Arab world, from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

This is how Julia Gerlach, the project manager, describes it.

She founded "Amal" together with her sister Cornelia Gerlach.

Both worked as journalists themselves for a long time: Julia Gerlach was an editor and author for the ZDF news program “Heute Journal”, and as a correspondent she reported from Egypt for the “Frankfurter Rundschau”, the “Berliner Zeitung” and “Focus”.

Her sister wrote as a reporter for "Brigitte" and "Zeit", now she works as a lecturer for reportage and storytelling.

The Berliners are pursuing two main goals with the “Amal” projects: They want to create perspectives for media workers who have to flee.

Six young journalists are now working for the new Frankfurt "Amal" offshoot with the Internet

address www.amalfrankfurt.de

.

They don't just want to reach their target groups via the news site, but also via social networks, via their own channels on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

The sponsor of the "Amal" project is the joint work of Evangelical Journalism (GEP), which publishes the website

www.evangelisch.de

and the "Chrismon" magazine, for example, and also operates the news service epd.

The new Frankfurt "Amal" editorial office is based at the GEP location in Frankfurt's Merton district.