A touching call from 9-year-old Yara from Helmond. In a letter to the mayor and alderman, she asks if they can help to get her Iranian friend Nel and her family to Helmond. Years ago, the family who had fled from Iran temporarily lived in Helmond, but had to move to an asylum seekers’ center. On Friday they were told that they could stay in the Netherlands. Yara hopes that they will come to live in Helmond again: “Can you help me with my great wish?”
Two years ago, best friends Yara and Nel were in class together in group 3 of primary school In the Heart of the Wood. Nel had just fled from Iran with her family and was received in Helmond by the Refugee Foundation.
The two were inseparable, until the family suddenly had to move again after a year and a half. The family ended up in the asylum seekers’ center in Dronten via the asylum seekers’ center in Ter Apel and the asylum seekers’ center in Budel.
“I was very afraid that she had to go back to Iran.”
And now, after years of uncertainty, there is good news for the family from Iran: Nel, her parents and her brother are allowed to stay in the Netherlands. Much to the delight of the family, and of course Yara. “I am so happy with this, because I was very afraid that she had to go back to Iran,” she writes to mayor Blanksma and alderman Dortmans van Helmond.
She further writes: “Nel and I went to group 3 together. I helped her a lot at school with learning words and reading. After school we often played together.”
“My great wish is that she comes to live in Helmond again.”
Despite the great distance between the two best friends, they are still in touch. They still regularly meet to play together. But Yara prefers to meet up with Nel every day.
Now that her girlfriend is allowed to stay in the Netherlands, Yara only has one big wish: “My big wish is that she comes to live in Helmond again. Then we can play and stay together very often. Can you help me with my wish?” The Iranian family would also like to return to Helmond.
“If I may, I would like to come and have a drink with you sometime to tell you everything about Nel and me.”
Yara even wants to explain her letter to the town hall, she concludes the letter. “If I may, I would like to come and drink orange juice with you to tell you everything about Nel and me, because I don’t like coffee,” she writes in the letter. Surely every door at the town hall should open with that?
Mayor Blanksma van Helmond has announced that he will soon invite the girls for a delicious glass of orange juice.