Nasir Higazi

The war in Syria is raising thousands of refugees in 2015. We all remember Angela Merkel's Wir schaffen das . We too are taking in refugees. And that starts spontaneously. From Amsterdam Central Station, just around the corner from us, the last train to Ter Apel reception site leaves at 20.07. Refugees who arrive later have to sleep at the station overnight. De Regenboog Groep has a walk-in centre five minutes away, which is empty at night: one + one = two.

For the refugee shelter, a large group of new volunteers signed up spontaneously. And we have Nasir Higazi, named Amsterdammer of the Year by Het Parool in 2015. He feels his own story - Higazi fled from Iran in the 1980s - very much attracted him to the refugee shelter, and he throws himself fully into it. Thanks to Higazi and the volunteers, we were able to offer a total of twenty-six hundred stranded refugees a temporary place to sleep by the end of 2015.