Marta Abbo-Bruin

In 1979, Regenboog employee Marta Bruin and her husband Jos Abbo moved into the top floor and a half of the Tabe Rienkshuis. The other rooms were consulting rooms for the Regenboog's two social workers, Jelle van Veen and Tom Spaay. The first floor was the waiting room for users who wanted to see a social worker. Marta was secretary and hostess, did intakes for the social workers and organized youth projects. "You performed all kinds of tasks, and we had never heard of the term 'overtime.' You did what had to be done."

For nine years Marta and Jos lived in the Tabe Rienkshuis; their children grew up there. The Regenboog did not want to separate living and working with users. People with drug addictions had to be cared for in the home. Marta Bruin agreed with this vision: "It was good for the drug users. They saw that people with children wanted to live there, and they had contact with the children. I also think the attitude to life was picked up and appreciated. The times were different. We were young and the drug addicts were young. There was a lot of idealism. We knew the users who came to the Tabe Rienkshuis well, and aggression was an almost unknown phenomenon."

Text: Jan Kees den Bakker