The word "busy" is an understatement when describing Silke Wunsch. If there were 26 hours in a day, the longstanding Bethel.regional employee would like to spend two more hours working with clients in the garden, renovating her home or starting another project. But as open as she is to new activities, both professionally and privately, the qualified pedagogue is fixed to her sphere of activity. "I'm just a Dortmund kid," says Silke Wunsch, whose love for her hometown even gets under her skin thanks to a tattoo on her left upper arm.
As a teenager, however, she did not yet feel this connection to the largest city in the Ruhr region. Like so many young people, she dreamed of moving away one day. "When you grow up here, you think: Maybe it's nice somewhere else too." Silke Wunsch already knew where she wanted to go professionally at school: "I always wanted to work with mentally ill people, but at 18 I still had too much respect for that." After a diversion as a decorator, Silke Wunsch decided to study special education and rehabilitation. For cost reasons, she continued to live in Nordstadt and learnt to love the district: "As a student, it's cool to live where life is happening," recalls the 52-year-old.
Through voluntary work in psychiatry and the good network that the outgoing specialist in basic services had built up over the years, she was offered a job at Bethel's Oberfeld home. After more than 20 years of working with a wide variety of people, there is no sign of wear and tear. Silke Wunsch is still passionate about working with clients in all their diversity.
