Sabrina Tophofen

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Sabrina Tophofen (born August 29, 1980 in Duisburg ) is a German author and activist for the rights of children and the homeless.

Life

Tophofen states that her father sexually abused her and her sister . Her sister died in a fire when she was 12. Tophofen was 5 years old at the time. Her mother would have known about it and would not have intervened. Although the family was regularly visited by social workers and under the supervision of the youth welfare office, no action was taken. Tophofen's mother was a Sinti . She expressed the suspicion that no one intervened because this behavior was accepted as normal among Sinti families.

When she was 10, she reported her father to the police. She was then placed in a closed children's home. Tophofen claimed to have been belittled and abused by other girls in the home. The supervisors did not intervene. Among other things, the girls tied her to a chair and shaved off her hair. She kept running away to escape the abuse. After that, the home did not accept her again. Her mother also refused to take Tophofen back home. She was moved to another home, but because life in the home was too scary for her, she decided to live on the street. She then lived as a street child on the Domplatte in Cologne.

Street workers became aware of her when she was 14. After that, she was repeatedly accommodated in hotels in order not to have to live on the streets.

Today she has five children. She then trained as a dental technician and health nurse.

She stands up for street children, victims of abuse, the homeless and people in need and founded the Dein Name ist Mensch eV-IG in Krefeld in close cooperation with the Karuna social cooperative and with the Sinn families from Berlin. She is supported by celebrities, including Ralf Moeller , who is the association's patron. Tophofen received political support from Family Minister Franziska Giffey and Thomas Krüger.

activism

Tophofen is committed to children's rights . She regularly gives lectures at symposia, conferences and schools. She also organizes protests on the streets for children's rights and against child abuse. Tophofen distributes food to the homeless on Wednesdays and Fridays on Lutherplatz in Krefeld. She founded the meeting café Dein Name ist Mensch in which citizens and homeless people should come into contact. It offers homeless people 365 days a year free meals such as breakfast and dinner, additional counseling, official support, and mediation in drug counseling centers in order to create an addiction-free life. For a long time, S. Tophofen consumed THC himself out of anxiety, but over time it worsened instead of alleviating it through evening consumption. After S.Tophofen lost her driver's license, she gave up consumption entirely. Today she educates young people about the danger of creeping addiction.

Media response

Tophofen is always present on television to draw attention to child abuse and homeless minors. She performed with Markus Lanz (2017), Beckmann (2012) and Stern TV (2011) , among others .

Publications

  • Sabrina Tophofen and Veronica Vattrodt: That’s how long I’m outlawed: My life as a street child . Würzburg: Arena Verlag 2010, ISBN 978-3-401-06550-2
  • Sabrina Tophofen: Life sentence: psst ... when dad comes at night . Berlin: BVK Buch Verlag Kempen GmbH 2017, ISBN 978-3-867-40562-1

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Sabrina Tophofen. In: imdb. imdb, accessed on October 27, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b CLAUDIA WEINGÄRTNER AND STEFANIE HERBST: We were raped by our fathers. In: image. BILD, February 2, 2017, accessed October 27, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b Ricarda Breyton: "My father said to me that I could get pregnant now". In: world. Die Welt, January 31, 2017, accessed October 27, 2019 .
  4. ↑ "My mother failed". In: mirror. Spiegel, June 6, 2011, accessed October 27, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b c Gina Louisa Metzler: As a child I lived on the street - today I help the homeless. In: Focus. Focus, May 27, 2019, accessed October 27, 2019 .
  6. ↑ AXEL HILL: I was a child from the train station. Sabrina (30) lived on the streets for six years. In: express. express, February 11, 2011, accessed October 27, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Press report RP
  8. ↑ Press report WZ
  9. ↑ Sylvia Telge: This is how they want to help street children. In: waz-online. waz-online, September 21, 2018, accessed on October 27, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Tophofen, Sabrina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author and activist for children's rights
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Duisburg