Mobina Mirzaee is 26 years old. She has been studying for a Master’s degree in Urban Design and Sustainable Revitalisation at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) since October 2024.

It all begins with an observation. At some point, Dr Denis Newiak, a researcher at the BTU, noticed something that sounds trivial yet is far-reaching: television series strikingly often tell stories about people who are lonely – not on the fringes of the story, but at its very heart.

A cultural project run by BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg brings Ukrainian refugees together – with needle and thread and a centuries-old tradition that serves as an anchor in a foreign land.