There are campaigns throughout the Netherlands to prevent single people from feeling lonely during the holidays. Christmas dinners, lunches, packages and cards: NU.nl lists some great initiatives for you.
A living Advent calendar is organized in Axel. With this Advent calendar, not a box, but a different front door opens every day. Residents of the municipality can visit somewhere different each time.
Patricia van Drongelen and Ankie Openeer organized the activities to combat loneliness among people in the neighborhood. The threshold for looking for someone can be high, Openeer notes. “There was someone visiting this week who was very nervous, but came by anyway,” she says Broadcasting Zeeland. Openeer hopes that this person will come and visit again.
Visitors are very enthusiastic. “Such beautiful conversations emerge. It is very nice and for me it really has added value,” said a visitor Broadcasting Zeeland.
The living Advent calendar lasts until December 23.
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Loneliness knows no age
It is not only the elderly who are lonely during the holidays. Young people who have no one to celebrate Christmas with can also feel alone. That is why Bryan Vreijsen and his team are organizing a Christmas dinner for young people.
“For years I celebrated Christmas with food from Thuisbezorgd, alone,” he says Heart of the Netherlands. “I hated Christmas.” Vreijsen had no friends to celebrate Christmas with and had no contact with family. In 2019 he made an appeal on Twitter (now X): “Would like to have someone to do fun things with.”
After the many reactions to the tweet, he founded the Brabant Maatjes foundation. Last year he organized a Christmas party for thirty people with that foundation. This year, that activity has been upgraded to a Christmas dinner for eighty young people. The event is sold out, Vreijsen told NU.nl. Don’t worry, the foundation will be organizing various activities again in the coming year.
No party on the club floor, but a Christmas lunch
Young people can also offer others fun. That is why Student Volunteers Delft is organizing a Christmas activity for lonely elderly people together with One Against Loneliness Delft and De Burgemeesters.
At the Virgiel student association, the elderly can have lunch or enjoy a high tea. The students often party in the association building, but at Christmas they serve about forty elderly people. They also make about a thousand Christmas packages to hand out.
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A warm welcome for people without a home
A Christmas dinner is being organized in The Hague for five hundred homeless and low-income people. It initiative by Iris Hond is organized every year with her foundation.
Chefs from Big Green Egg come to cook for the guests. There are also toys for the children and a free clothing market. There are also bands present for live music. That makes the dinner so popular that all places are already filled.
Well-filled packages ensure filled hearts
Stephanie-Joy Eerhart makes with her founding Christmas packages for minimum income, families who have to survive on a small income, for more than twelve years. This year, more than three hundred families will receive a Christmas package through her.
We are working hard to put together the packages, Eerhart reports on X. This includes food, candy, gift vouchers for the children and snacks for the registered pets. “I had to secretly laugh at the two registered fish,” she says on X.
A homemade card will make you smile
A card can mean a lot to lonely people. That is why the Elderly Fund organizes a Christmas card campaign every year. People can send Christmas cards to the fund. Employees package the submitted cards and, together with PostNL, ensure that they receive a nice destination.
At least twelve hundred primary schools are participating in the card campaign. During the lesson, the students create and describe their own Christmas card. “It’s a lot of fun,” says one student Youth news. “And we don’t have to do the math,” she adds with a broad smile.
The students of ‘t Zonnewiel primary school deliver the homemade cards themselves. Two older ladies are very happy with it. “Beautiful, beautiful, very beautiful,” one responds. “It means a lot to me,” says the other. “I hardly have anyone anymore. It’s very nice that he did that.” The boy who made the card is happy with it. “That’s what I made it for.”
2023-12-16 17:57:00
#Actions #loneliness #holidays #hate #Christmas #Domestic
