In quick strides, Els van Koeverden walks through the sports hall. Cheeks red, hair put up. She sees everything and corrects where necessary. "Amigos," she says with a big smile to two boys entering the sports hall,""keep the distance huh." The boys disinfect their hands and hand over their luggage. It disappears into a large shelving unit. Everything is neatly numbered with stickers. The system runs like clockwork.
Hundred camp beds in two days
On Friday, March 27, 2020, van Koeverden receives a phone call from the management of De Regenboog Groep. Whether she wants to become location head of the Hogendorp Sportcentrum, a sports hall in Amsterdam-West. The municipality has designated it as a night shelter for the city's homeless. The Netherlands is in lockdown, but how do you stay inside if you have no home? In late March, Amsterdam sounds the alarm about this, and De Regenboog Groep jumps in. Van Koeverden immediately assembles a team, makes endless contacts with all possible agencies, makes non-stop to-do lists in her head, and justifiably breathes a deep sigh of relief when two days later - with the help of an army of volunteers and kind local residents - a hundred Red Cross cots are set up. De Regenboog Groep is in top form and all because of a virus: corona!
Noodopvang corona