Playground activities have started again: finding animators remains a task

In Ostend, the organization of the playground activities still works quite well because the city pays them as job students. With the new name PleZand, the playground activities expect about 800 children this holiday.

“We do this with a playground that is organized by the city itself with monitors who are also working students for a month,” says alderman of Youth Bart Plasschaert. There are 500 children every day, with peaks of up to 700.”

In Waregem, Zonnebeke and a few other municipalities there was some doubt whether the playground activities could continue, because not enough monitors had been found. This is different in Ostend, although it is not easy all summer. “August in particular is a difficult period because then we have a lot of people with re-exams,” says youth counselor Femke D’Haenens. “In addition, they must also be 17 years old when they start working and they must also have a certificate from an animator.”