175 beds are available in Wormer for Ukrainian refugees who have come to the Netherlands. Many volunteers made this possible in one day in the sports hall on Spatterstraat. Mayor Judith Michel-de Jong of Wormerland is proud: “Heartwarming. Many residents offer themselves as volunteers and that is very nice to notice.”
Actually, Pauline Kauffmann is too busy. One bell after the other follows and around 2 p.m. another meeting with colleagues awaits, which was actually already scheduled for 12.30 p.m. Nevertheless, the ‘head of reception’ makes a few minutes available for NH Nieuws. “We are facing a very big challenge. Yesterday the decision was made to use this sports hall as an emergency location, as a kind of overflow location for people who need a bed at night.”
This was set up by the municipality of Wormerland and Oostzaan (these municipalities work together), with the help of many volunteers from the fire brigade and the Red Cross. There are 175 beds in one room and a living space is being set up in the other room.
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“This is an emergency shelter,” emphasizes mayor Marvin Polak of Oostzaan. “This is not a place where you can receive people for weeks. This is really an overflow location where people can rest, be safe. In the meantime, we are looking for locations where we can accommodate them more permanently.”
Help and stuff
Many Wormerlanders offer their help or belongings, says head of shelter Kaufmann. She is careful about that: “Before we collect a lot of stuff together. It is very difficult for me to indicate exactly what we need. We have already had a lot of offers from people, those people are all called after Then we will ask for help very specifically for what we need.”
Residents with questions or offers of help can contact [email protected] or [email protected]