The volunteer career of 70-year-old Hennie van Bordat van Aerle from Deurne started when she wanted to relieve her mother. She was caring for her severely handicapped younger brother Tiny. Hennie went swimming with him and more and more people came to accompany her in the water. Hennie has endured a lot of adversity and tragedy in her life, but she continues to swim. This week she has been volunteering for 50 years.
Hennie’s brother was only a day old when he suffered a brain haemorrhage. He was always in bed and could not sit. When Tiny could go for a swim, he visibly enjoyed it. And sister Hennie’s mission became clear. In 1973 Hennie became a mother herself. But then disaster struck again. A month after his birth, Carlo also had a brain haemorrhage. And he also became severely handicapped.
For years, Hennie swam with her brother and son in the swimming pool of the ORO institution in Deurne, where her brother and son lived. Hennie enjoyed working with ‘those men’, her brother and son and the other residents too.
But fate did not leave Hennie and her family alone. Her husband died, her other son Dennis died in an accident and Tiny and Carlo also died, shortly after each other. And then the corona pandemic broke out. “It became very quiet,” says Hennie. “I then started making cards and hobby. You have to keep going. What this work means to me? If you could have seen my son in the water, you would understand.”
Fortunately, the pool is now open again and Hennie decided to continue swimming, together with the residents of ORO. “It makes people very happy and so do I. How do you last for fifty years? Just keep going. People often don’t realize the value of volunteering. They first have to see and experience it for themselves. Those faces and that smile, I enjoy that .”
And there is some laughter in the pool. “It used to be owned by the nuns and a nun swam with it. I had a normal bathing suit and I was told that there was far too much to see,” laughs Hennie. “I swam for years with a skirt on my bathing suit, I still have it somewhere as a souvenir.”
In all those years, Hennie has never missed the weekly swimming hours, except during the lockdowns. “Our Hennie cannot be broken”, they shout from the office of the swimming pool, which was decorated with balloons for the occasion on Monday.
Volunteers like Hennie can really use them at ORO. “Especially volunteers who provide these kinds of moments of happiness,” says Hennie. In Helmond, ORO is looking for volunteers to swim with children. Younger residents, for example, are looking for a buddy to play against or someone who wants to go to PSV. But also: walking, playing a game. Things the supervisors no longer have time for.
“But I don’t want to take a paid job,” Hennie says firmly. “I don’t want to play that role, it really has to be volunteer work.” And Hennie is very serious about it. “You have to do what you have agreed. Those people really count on you.”
People who want to become a volunteer at ORO can send an email to [email protected]