Ferry van Egeraat has a mental disability and helped on Tuesday as a volunteer at the polling station in Heythuysen.
Municipality of Leudal, which Heythuysen falls under, is one of the Limburg municipalities where people with intellectual disabilities are deployed as volunteers at a polling station.
pilot
The first trial with this group of volunteers took place during the national elections last year. A national pilot was then carried out in seven municipalities. That went well and that is why there are now polling stations in more than 125 municipalities where people with a mild intellectual disability participate fully.
Different than at supermarket
One of those volunteers is Ferry. He is watching this Tuesday for the first time and after an hour of participation, he is positive about the work. “Normally I work in landscaping and at the Albert Heijn. I have a lot of different jobs in the supermarket. I can sort, refill and polish the bottles. This ensures that the time also goes very quickly. You will notice here at the polling station that you sometimes have to wait for someone to come in. But I get that time well filled with chatting with the other volunteers. It’s actually really fun,” he says.
Inclusive society
The initiator is the Prokkel foundation, which is committed to an inclusive society. According to figures from that foundation, there are one million people in the Netherlands with a mild intellectual disability. It is important to let them participate in society. Volunteering at the polling station fits in perfectly with that philosophy.
no doubt
According to chairman Angelique Janssen of the polling station in Heythuysen, there was no hesitation in participating in this project. “It is a great initiative and Ferry is doing very well. He is welcome again next time if he wants to volunteer.” Ferry also sees that. “It’s fun work and I had resolved that I would like to continue it if I liked it.”