Vittorio Desikan (57) stands in the cold on Willemsplein in Tilburg for fifteen hours a day. He hands out coffee, tea and hot chocolate to people who are lonely or homeless. That’s quite a challenge: “My toes are all black and blue when I come home in the evening.” Vittorio is happy to do it. Because he knows all too well what loneliness feels like during the Christmas period.
There is a chilly wind on Willemsplein on Monday around noon. A fire bowl provides pleasant warmth, but unfortunately not near your feet. Vittorio has been on the square since Saturday, every day, including Christmas. He will stay until December 29, from noon to late evening.
“Visitors have lost their wallets, they say. There is shame.”
Of course everyone is welcome. And a financial contribution is also allowed. But many visitors to Vittorio’s stall ‘have lost their wallets’. Those are soothing words for: “I have no money.” Because people don’t say that easily, Vittorio knows: “They are ashamed and do not easily admit that they are poor.”
He has met hundreds of homeless people in the past year at his regular place in the Piushaven: “Of course there are migrants. But I also meet Dutch people. Frank, Robert. Real Dutch names.” At Vittorio they can enjoy free drinks and company. The latter in particular is what it’s all about: “That cup of tea is often an excuse to hang out here. And I have experience with that.”
“I looked in through the houses and saw families together.”
Vittorio’s motivation to help lonely people runs deep, in the first hours of 1991. He arrived in the Netherlands from Iran. The year was exactly four hours old: “I walked criss-cross along the Amsterdam canals during the first few days. I looked in through the houses and saw families together. But I was 24 years old and all alone. I felt deeply lonely. Then I thought: if I ever do well and I have the means, I will do something for my fellow sufferers.”
From 2017 onwards, Vittorio organized a Christmas dinner for lonely Tilburg residents three times. He wanted to do it again this year, for the first time after corona, but he started organizing too late. That is why he now has his place on Willemsplein.
Vittorio knows the feeling of Christmas from Armenian friends who fled to Iran after the Armenian genocide. He thinks the party is wonderful: “The solidarity, the togetherness. These days everyone thinks about people who are having a hard time.”
“My brother has been in prison for 26 years and I live in freedom.”
Vittorio mainly thinks about his brother. He is serving a prison sentence in Iran for demonstrating against the regime: “He is 60 years old and has been imprisoned for 26 years, in a room with fifteen people. And I live here in freedom and can do whatever I want.”
The contrasts are great. When vandals caused destruction at his Persian ice cream parlor last year, Vittorio threatened to leave Tilburg in disappointment. But the mayor and councilor came to the rescue: “They said: ‘We want you to stay’ and they took measures. I feel like I’m on my hands. It soothes the homesickness and sadness from there.”
READ HERE HOW VITTORIO HAD A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN 2019:
Lonely Tilburg residents meet for a special dinner: ‘You celebrate Christmas together’
