Experts for Train Lines and Platforms

Rainer-Fabiano Fagundes
works as Mobility Assistant within the SGE Project.

Rainer-Fabiano Fagundes knows most of Berlin’s stations like the back of his hand, including tactile paving, elevator details, and the geography of the escalators. As part of his SGE position, he makes sure people can get where they want to go using public transport, despite having reduced mobility.

Rainer-Fabiano Fagundes’ path is a classic migration story that took him halfway around the globe. Born in 1972, Fagundes grew up in the small town of Espírito Santo in the west of Brazil, more than seven hundred kilometers from Rio de Janeiro. To escape the poverty and difficult political conditions in his native country, he moved to Portugal as a young man. At the time, the EU country with the same language was a popular goal for Brazilian emigrants.

“I was twenty when I went to Portugal to find safety and a better life,” Fagundes says. “I started to work as a barbecue cook in restaurants specializing in Brazilian cuisine. When my mother, my sisters and cousins later also emigrated to Portugal, I was happy. Those were really good years. It was a good time.”

In 2008 Fagundes lived in Porto, commuting to Vigo, Spain, more than one and a half hours away by car. In the meantime, he had married and wanted to start a family with his Portuguese wife. But then the financial and economic crisis struck the world, with severe consequences for Portugal and Spain; living conditions for the population worsened noticeably, things became more difficult with every passing day. The couple decided to seek their happiness elsewhere.

“A lot of Germans live in Brazil, and I had picked up a few words from them as a child. When I was offered a job in Berlin, I decided to go to Germany,” Fagundes tells us. In 2011 he and his wife moved to Berlin-Charlottenburg, where they live to this day. Everything they owned at the time fit into a tiny car, including their two dogs, Molly and Kuky.

It soon became apparent that his language skills were not nearly good enough to gain a foothold in the new country. “I really couldn’t speak the language at all,” Fagundes says in summary. All the same, he found a job, as he had hoped – working the barbecue at a Brazilian restaurant, just as he had in Portugal and Spain. “But nobody teaches you German there, either,” he says. “So wherever I was, I tried to pick up as much as I could and ultimately learned the language.” Today, he speaks fluent German, although his Brazilian accent is still noticeable. His children are even being raised to speak three languages: they are learning German, Spanish and Portuguese.

Fagundes’ first child was born in 2013 – a “summer boy.” Two years later, in the winter, the family welcomed a new arrival, a little girl. “After the birth of our son, I wanted to leave the catering sector and find a more family-friendly job,” Fagundes tells us. He changed jobs and worked for a removal company until 2019, where his willingness to learn and his quick mind once again gave him an edge; after only a short period of time, he knew most of Berlin’s streets and the corresponding postcodes. “If you give me a postcode, I can tell you exactly where it is – whether it’s in Kreuzberg or Pankow or somewhere else.”

But the badly paid and physically strenuous work didn’t offer Fagundes a long-term perspective, so he registered as unemployed in November 2018. “That phase lasted almost two years.” Sitting around at home doing nothing did not suit him; Fagundes wanted to work and took part in a training at Tegel Airport to qualify as a ground attendant, recommended by the job center, which pays benefits to and finds jobs for long-term unemployed persons. “The course started in the fall of 2019, while Tegel was still up and running – and ended while Germany was in the midst of the coronavirus crisis and the airport was closed, as planned, in favor of BER.” After the course had ended, Fagundes was invited to a job interview, which was ultimately not a success, due to his lack of English language skills.

The next opportunity came to pass just a short while later, and he seized it. “The aforementioned interview took place at Schönefeld Airport. In the suburban train on the way back, I saw a person in a red jacket pushing a man in a wheelchair,” he tells us. “When the two came closer, I was able to read the writing on the jacket: ‘VBB Bus & Train Assistance Services’ (“VBB Bus & Bahn-Begleitservice”). That immediately sparked my interest and I wanted to know more about the service.” As soon as he got home, he searched the Internet and called the services’ office without further ado. Two days later he had the next interview – and no idea of what awaited him.

What Fagundes didn’t know at the time: He had seen a mobility assistant at work, employed as part of the Solidary Basic Income (“Solidarisches Grundeinkommen,” SGE) pilot project.

These service employees accompany people with reduced mobility and make sure they get to their appointments safely – be they with doctors, authorities, or for leisure. Distances are covered via Berlin’s public transport system. The aim and political mandate are to enable social participation, strengthen social contacts, and help the people concerned live self-determined lives in their own four walls for as long as possible.

“It was such a great atmosphere – for me, it was love at first sight.”

Rainer-Fabiano Fagundes

“I didn’t know a thing about Solidary Basic Income and had no idea of what the contract and pay would be like,” Fagundes says. “But I definitely wanted a job so that I could feed my family in a dignified way. I really wanted to work, and I liked the people asking the questions during the interview straight away.” Headquarters felt the same way: Fagundes was offered the job as a mobility assistant and was scheduled to start his three-month qualification phase in September 2020.

But Fagundes didn’t sit around waiting for time to pass until then. Even though he had gotten to know the city extraordinarily well from the perspective of a driver during his time with the removal company, he didn’t know a lot about the Berlin public transport network. “So before my training started, I bought a one-month pass, studied the entire network and rode all over town. I really got to know the ropes,” Fagundes tells us. “Thanks to the berlinpass – a social identity card – the one-month pass only cost me €27 and whenever I had a moment to spare, I was on a train or a bus. I went to every station, on every line, finishing with the U5. Even before I had qualified, I practiced finding the quickest, most accessible ways around the city with BVG.”

Fagundes was thus perfectly prepared for his training with VBB, the public transport association for Berlin and Brandenburg. “We learned all about the different types of reduced mobility and got to know most stations, stops and lines in Berlin,” says Fagundes. “I studied tactile paving and learned how to find alternative connections on my own. I learned to use public transport from the perspective of a person with reduced mobility and practiced communicating with my clients. And I inspected elevators and the escalator geography, which unfortunately doesn’t always make sense.”

At various stations, the future mobility assistants fanned out to analyze the environment and take precise notes on where entrances, elevators and escalators are located. “We can’t start running back and forth to look for an exit when we’re with a person who is in a wheelchair or blind,” Fagundes says. “If we don’t know where we’re going or are insecure, people can tell. We have to know our surroundings.”

After ten years in the capital and one year with VBB Bus & Train Assistance Services, Fagundes possibly knows Berlin better than many natives. “I know at least ninety percent of all stations like the back of my hand,” he says. “And there are at least 170 suburban train and underground stations, plus more than 800 tram stops and 6511 bus stops.”

The VBB assistance services are free of charge: all people need to use the service is a valid ticket. Clients include blind people and people with visual impairments as well as children and students with reduced mobility and elderly people who can’t walk very well or have trouble finding their way around the large public transport hubs.

Every job is prepared in detail: who wants to travel from which starting point to which destination; whether the elevators work; and if the person in need of assistance is blind or relies on a Zimmer frame or wheelchair. The routes, and any parts of the journey that need to be covered on foot, are precisely planned, and are reviewed and updated by the internal quality management team.

Every evening, operations management puts together eighty to one hundred assignments for the next day – per day, each assistant takes on around three to four. More just isn’t feasible; getting a person with reduced mobility to their destination safely takes time, especially on long routes.

“A lot of people are very lonely. Some tell me half their life story on our travels.”

Rainer-Fabiano Fagundes

Whenever Fagundes mans the phone at headquarters, he takes the opportunity to perfect his German, but most of the time, he’s on the go. “A 96-year-old woman told me how she had to hide from the bombs during the war. You hear a lot about family drama and children who don’t keep in touch,” Fagundes tells us. “In comparison, social cohesion is much stronger in Brazil: Mama and Papa are almost treated like saints. Families stay together to the end and support one another, come what may. Here in Germany, I often feel that elderly or sick people are abandoned; a lot of families care for their elderly members too little or not at all, a loneliness I have felt keenly in many of the people I have assisted. When I think about my native country and our understanding of family, it’s a huge difference – sometimes it makes me really sad, and a bit angry.”

At times, his work closes this regrettable gap, Fagundes tells us. He is often asked how come he’s so friendly. “All I can say is it’s because I help every single person as if they were my own relative. I get a lot of positive feedback, which is simply wonderful. I really enjoy doing this job.”

All the better, then, that his SGE job offers him a long-term perspective and is rewarded adequately. “In the catering sector, the pay was worse, which is why I am extremely happy to be doing this job. I can manage very well on my salary.” Fagundes’ contract in the Solidary Basic Income project runs until 2025. After that, he hopes to be offered a permanent position with the assistance service. “I am pretty confident, because I’m diligent and always give it my all.”

Copy: Katrin Rohnstock / Rohnstock Biografien