De Weggeverhoek in Rijen had just been open for a week in their new building when disaster struck. A blockage in the sewer caused the entire store to be flooded and a large part of the inventory has become unusable.
Crying is closer to Annemarie Mols than laughing. “I cried for three days, but the tears are gone now,” she says soberly. Mols is the initiator of the Giving Corner Gilze en Rijen: a place where people in poverty can pick up things for in and around the house for free. A kind of addition to the food bank’s offer. From cutlery, to sanitary towels to new shoes. Stuff that costs an awful lot if you have to get by on assistance alone or even less.
“The store looked beautiful. But now we can start again.”
Annemarie and her permanent partner Yvonne are the driving forces behind the shop with free stuff. Day and night they are busy for their poor fellow citizens. The Weggeverhoek looked like a real store, with nice, neat stuff. But there’s nothing left of that now. Annemarie: “We had refurbished the entire building and were open for one week. We worked very hard with all the volunteers, just in addition to our normal work.” Yvonne adds: “The store looked beautiful. Even ‘t Buske from Omroep Brabant came to watch the opening. But now we can start all over again.”
Plumbers spent three days trying to find the cause of the leak. Annemarie: “Last Friday, three plumbers came from eight in the morning to five in the evening. Five holes were dug outside and they eventually found out that there was a blockage about twenty meters in front of the building, so that the sewage could not escape and came up in four different places in the store.”
“We now have a debt of almost six thousand euros.”
On the site they explain to all their participants what happened and why the shop is closed. The Weggeverhoek is a foundation that is almost entirely dependent on donations. Everything except the rent is donated. Not only the stuff, also the money that is needed for energy bills, for example. And now also for the plumber. Annemarie: “We now have a debt of almost six thousand euros. We don’t have that on the bench. Via a crowdfunding campaign they hope to be able to count on the residents of Gilze en Rijen who give the giveaway shop a warm heart.
