Combating poverty and loneliness in her Mariahoeve neighborhood is not easy, Naomi Barki-van Vliet realizes. “But you can offer people a bright spot by listening carefully to them and helping them with their basic needs.” That’s exactly what she does with her foundation Bright spots of Mariahoevetogether with about sixty local residents and support from it Postcode Lottery Neighborhood Fund.
Naomi: “Everyone can offer someone else a bright spot. Even if it is by smiling or just listening. In Dutch culture we standardly ask ‘is everything okay?’, but that is so not polite. We no longer want to hear that something is not going well. Everything is possible on social media happy and fantastic, but the world isn’t like that. Plenty of sad things happen. There is a lot of silent, hidden poverty around us: grandfathers and grandmothers who cannot survive on their pension and families who work hard and still cannot survive. These are definitely not just newcomers, as many people think.”
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Walking with dignity again
Lichtpuntjes van Mariahoeve has a space in the shopping center, full of beautiful clothing, shoes and food, which people can take for free or for a voluntary contribution. There is also a massage chair, they organize breathing sessions and people can get a haircut for a maximum of five euros. Naomi: “Anything to look humane – we think that is very important.” The foundation can use the space for free from the owner of the shopping center and they can pay the fixed costs thanks to support from it Postcode Lottery Neighborhood Fund. Thanks to this contribution, they can also offer healthy, nutritious meals in the ‘resto’ every week.
15 euros living allowance
The foundation relies on two FTEs. The rest is done by volunteers. Naomi: “These are all people from the neighborhood who know the ins and outs. These people are completely sidelined in the normal labor market, but have enough talent. I provide them with a warm bath and give them self-confidence. A lady who works here now had not had a normal conversation for four years. Once when she had to go to the doctor, she was very ashamed because she did not have proper clothing. Luckily she discovered us. She was given a cup of coffee and couldn’t be turned away. That’s how it often starts. While she previously had to survive on fifteen euros of living allowance per week, she now receives an additional 150 euros in monthly volunteer allowance. She wears nice clothes again, takes better care of herself and puts on make-up. We sometimes forget how incredibly important that bit of dignity is.”
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Nice friendships and recognition
“In the meantime, all kinds of nice friendships are developing between neighbors who would otherwise never have met each other, and who find a lot of recognition with each other here. Together we offer a warm place for the neighborhood where, with a free cup of coffee or tea and something tasty, we listen to problems and look for solutions. For example, we provide breakfast and lunch for school children and we take energy-saving measures in people’s homes. Everything to increase the quality of life for people who, in our view, had long deserved support.”
Disneyland Paris
Lichtpuntjes van Mariahoeve is currently saving for a trip to Disneyland Paris for about ninety adults and their children. They previously went with a group to Walibi Belgium and Moviepark Germany. “Many children had never been on holiday before and shouted with joy: ‘I am abroad now!’ Parents spontaneously offered to come and work here as volunteers and were more likely to come knocking if they were unable to buy shampoo for their child. We then immediately do what we have to do. What is also special is that it is precisely the people who are having a hard time themselves that regularly donate items, such as drugstore products that they do not use themselves.”
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Citizens are ahead of the policy
“As a foundation, we learn more and more about our people. We are gradually collecting pieces of the puzzle and we see that many people have less money left than is allowed in the Netherlands. We link these things back to the municipality, our district and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. Citizens are often ahead of policy with these types of initiatives, so we also participate in that strategic aspect. You can often achieve much more at district level than at national or city level. I say to other social and sustainable initiatives: talk to your area director or district manager. Tell your district or municipality what you want, and also delve into policy documents that they are working on. That is sometimes boring, but it helps. Oh, they think, they are already doing this. Then we will support them!”
Not ‘the right to challenge’ but ‘the right to excel together’
“At one point, municipalities, including The Hague, came up with… Right to Challenge. We thought that was strange, because we don’t want the government challenge of ‘we can do this better’; we want to do better together. The right to excel together. You have to see it this way: we need finance, they cannot reach our target group. Then let’s work together! Subsidies are not only important in a financial sense: many people who are struggling have long lost confidence in all institutions. If they then take advantage of an initiative that is partly made possible by subsidy, their attitude changes: ‘Maybe they do care about us a little bit.’”
The Postcode Lottery Neighborhood Fund is there for every neighborhood with a good idea. Get inspired!