A special thank you from Trana Roustaie to the people who came to her aid during a robbery on her telephone repair shop in Waalwijk, two years ago. She gives free smartphone workshops to the elderly, because two heroic seniors blocked the door to stop robbers. “We try to turn it into something positive.”
The workshops are a thank you that the elderly really benefit from is the idea. “We are going to give them seven lessons for free and for nothing, so that they can handle their phone better. We ask what they encounter and they learn that. This is how people can keep contact with their grandchildren,” is the idea of the Afghan entrepreneur.
“We thought it was important to give this back for our seniors. They always come to the store when they have small problems with their device. When two elderly people put their lives at risk during the robbery last year, we knew for sure: we wanted to do something back for them.”
Here you see the two older men trying to keep the robbers in:
Despite the heroic action of the elderly, the robbers managed to flee. They left on a scooter. One of them was arrested later, the other has always remained without a trace. The expensive telephones that the perpetrators have captured have not returned.
The older men later returned to the store and got a little something. What they have received, the owner would rather keep for herself. “The men didn’t even want to take it at first,” she says. “What really touched me is that they told them that they would do it again.”
“It has retrieved old traumas.”
Trana and her husband are doing well again, but after the robbery it was a bit different. “It was quite difficult for us and it picked up old traumas,” she says. “We fled for the Taliban from Afghanistan.”
Due to the robbery, memories of previous violence and fear came back. “But we have learned to always continue. It just happened, and it’s not nothing to get a gun to your head. Yet we try to turn it into something positive.”
And that is in this case through workshops. By the way, they are not only good for the telephone knowledge of the elderly. “During the lessons, people also get a snack and a drink. And of course we bring them together. Many elderly people are lonely,” says Trana. The lessons start on 1 September.
First the elderly with an iPhone are welcome, then everyone can come with a Samsung telephone.
