The Haarlem information desk of the Red Cross for Ukrainian refugees opened its doors six months ago and since then two hundred Ukrainians have knocked on the door every month for help. Contrary to expectations, the demand for help is still high, which is why the counter will continue to exist for the time being. They are even expanding with an extra consultation hour at Rasom in the Gierstraat.
The counter opened at the beginning of April with a desk in the building of the UWV on the Zijlsingel and this turned out to be desperately needed. The municipality of Haarlem was inundated with questions from refugees and was unable to answer all those questions equally quickly. With the arrival of the information desk, the municipality was relieved of the burden and the Ukrainians helped.
Thanks to the close cooperation of the Red Cross with the UWV, the municipality, the Refugee Agency and the GGD, we have been able to gather a lot of knowledge to help refugees with requests for help. “In the beginning they came up with questions about living allowance and housing,” says Liesbeth de Gouw, location coordinator of the information point. “Now that people have settled down a bit, other questions arise, for example about general practitioners, dentists and applying for a DigiD.”
To expand
To her surprise, the number of requests for help has not decreased in recent months. New refugees arrive every week who report to the information point. This also means that scaling down is not an option and the counter decided to expand with a consultation hour at Rasom. “It is still a pilot, but we already started there last Friday.”
Rasom is a club of volunteers that started a fundraising campaign for Ukraine six months ago after the war broke out there. The organization soon took serious shape and moved into the old V&D building. This also became a day center where Ukrainian refugees come together.
From now on, Ukrainians with questions for help can go there on Friday between 9.30 and 11.30 at the consultation hour of the information desk. “We are there to show that the information point exists and we can also record questions for help, if we succeed we answer them right away. And if we can’t, we write down the question and then we look for the help that is needed” , says De Gouw.
The Red Cross information point is a success story and is doing so well that Ukrainian refugees from outside the Kennemerland region are also sent to Haarlem. “We even see them from Rotterdam and the east of the country. They have said there that they should go to Haarlem, because they will help you there.”
Liesbeth de Gouw herself is present at the information point every day and sees the enormous willpower and perseverance of the Ukrainians to pick up their lives as best as possible here in the Netherlands. “They don’t show emotions so quickly. But that sometimes comes later when they have been here for a while and we have seen and spoken to them more often. We have also built up a kind of trusting relationship with them.”