Resistance in the neighborhood
How much support there is in society for helping drug users with AIDS is evident in 1989. The Capuchin order wanted to make their monastery on Lijnbaansgracht available to De Regenboog as a residential facility for this target group. But the thorough plan fails due to fierce opposition from local residents. Tension also increased in the Red Light District. People begin to see the assistance as the cause of the concentration of drug users in certain neighborhoods and demand that organizations such as De Regenboog and the Salvation Army leave the area.
Drug assistance reorganized
Not much comes of the drug policy the municipality had instituted after Alderman Vorrink's failed plans. In the mid-1980s, therefore, the government begins to reorganize drug assistance. All aftercare work went to the new municipal institution. In September 1986, the rehabilitation program for Surinamese drug users of De Regenboog is also placed here uninvited and unintentionally, including two employees appointed with government subsidies.
Rest and healing
Yet this is not the end of De Regenboog Groep's assistance to this group. Humbert Alken, left over from the aftercare staff, develops a plan for an approach center. The name: Blaka Watra, a creek in a well-known Surinamese recreation area, associated with tranquility and healing power. There will be a staff member to recruit, train and supervise volunteers. For now, Blaka Watra will have a place in the Tabe Rienks house. The municipality has a working group searching for a suitable location outside the already overburdened ring of canals. It will be the former bargee school on the Droogbak. The building is refurbished and painted by former users. On December 21, 1989, the grand opening of this new walk-in centre for Surinamese and Antillean drug users takes place. The central office of The Regenboog has also resided at this address since then.
Engaged pioneers
The initiators do everything that needs to be done from De Regenboog for the first time. Outreach workers Jelle van Veen and Harry van Strien develop an organizational structure, make a business plan and a budget, and start looking for sponsors and volunteers. Some even take in drug users. No job description is ready for the first aid workers who are recruited. What is needed will become apparent as soon as the project in question begins. How much time the work will take is also uncertain, and whether the salary will come in time depends on the donations that come in. However, the enthusiasm of these pioneers far outweighs this. Their expertise develops in practice. Weeks of eighty to ninety hours are no exception. In a year and a half, they lifted three projects off the ground: the fieldwork, the outpatient assistance and the living room, and established contacts with 175 drug users. At the same time, they are working on further professionalization. And five years after its founding, each location has a team of experts.
Blaka Watra