Mother Hanna has physical complaints after a previous car accident. She also suffers a lot from rheumatism. “Haarlem is a good city to live in, but I don’t go outside much. Especially when it is cold, I have a lot of pain because of the rheumatism.”
As a result, Ian spends more time indoors than is good for him. And Neighborhood Families wants to help with that, says Groenheide. “Neighborhood Families is a national network, we are now active in about 150 municipalities. Also in Haarlem for the past six years. We are looking for support families for children from a vulnerable family in the neighborhood. That often starts with something very practical, but it can grow into a kind of second family.”
Speech therapy and cycling lessons
“In Ian’s case, it would be so nice if there was a support family nearby and they could take him out for a day at the weekend, for example. Then his mother would also have some rest. It really doesn’t have to be every weekend or all day.”
Previously, the family had already had a supporting mother. She took him to speech therapy and let him play with other children. That helped enormously, says mother Hanna. “When he was two years old, he couldn’t talk at all. But luckily he is doing very well now. He speaks good Dutch and is doing really well at school. He is in group 3-4, but twice a week he joins group 5-6 to read. And math is also going well.”
‘A wonderful child’
The supportive mother also taught Ian to ride a bike. “Unfortunately, she no longer has the time to go out with him,” says Groenheide. “So we hope for a new supportive family. Ideally, the weekends will be a bit broken. Mother worries a lot and therefore sleeps poorly. If Ian is on the road, she can catch up on sleep. And Ian doesn’t have to worry about her.”
“Then he can just be a child for a while. Such a support family can be a couple with children, but also an active bonus grandfather and grandmother, for example. He is a very sweet boy, who you can have a lot of fun with. You notice that he sometimes worries about his mother and we really want him to have more fun. He is a great child!”
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