EVERYDAY LIFE
What we are learning here
Stories from families at home between Cameroon and Germany. Written by the people living it.
How to find other Cameroonian families in Germany
Church, association, Facebook, WhatsApp, Kinavela. Five ways of finding each other, and what each one actually does.
The first official steps for a family arriving in Germany
Residence registration, tax ID, child benefit, childcare place. The order in which these four connect, and where families lose months.
Five mistakes in passing on a heritage language
Why children stop answering in the language of the house. Five patterns diaspora families run into again and again.
Cameroon in a German family year
11 February, 20 May, the long summer holidays and the Sunday in between. How to anchor origin in ordinary weeks instead of celebrating it once a year.
Seven things to settle before the first meeting
Two families message, get on, arrange to meet. What ought to be said beforehand so that first afternoon goes well for everyone.
Four mistakes families should never have encountered
On 14 August, we fixed four mistakes. What they meant for families and why we speak openly about them at Kinavela.
Why Kinavela exists
Kinavela starts with a simple question: how can diaspora families find one another without giving up privacy and trust along the way?
Why Kinavela has no public feed
Reach is not automatically good for a family network. Kinavela chooses mutual consent, small Villages, and private conversations instead.