PROBLEM?
More help is needed in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. This district has a strong accumulation of (social) problems: a lot of poverty, vulnerable people and health problems.
WAT DOES DE REGENBOOG?
Active in Southeast with a walk-in centre, Clients Information Point (CLIP), Psychiatric Café, Coffee Club, and with our buddies who support people in changing their situation.
WAT CAN YOU DO?
Like Myrthe, become a buddy of someone in Southeast who is lonely and mentally vulnerable: sign up at the bottom of this article.
"SHALL WE GO SHAKE?"
Sometimes you just need an extra big brother or sister to help you through a difficult time: a Myrthe. For a year, as a De Regenboog Groep volunteer, she hung out with thirteen-year-old Cevdet from Amsterdam-Zuidoost.
A year ago, things weren't going so well for Cevdet. At elementary school, he didn't connect well, and he didn't connect with his peers in the neighborhood either. Cevdet sometimes felt a bit alone; he just wanted to do fun things, preferably outside. He also suffered from panic attacks. His parents sounded the alarm at De Regenboog Groep, and there was twenty-two-year-old Myrthe. "I found it quite exciting at first," she looks back on the introduction. "I felt responsible as a buddy. After all, you're that reaching out. Is he going to accept it? Is there even a click?"
Beautiful Memories
Myrthe is young at heart and Cevdet is mentally a bit older. He has gone through a lot in his life and this made him feel different from his peers in elementary school. Now he is in high school in the city center and is doing a lot better. Also because he hung out with Myrthe last year, of course. They sit cross-legged on the couch at Cevdet's home and reminisce. Cevdet: "The first time we went swimming in the Gaasperplas. Without swimwear and towel. I thought my mother would be angry, but fortunately she wasn't."
"On that same day we met the 'Scherp family,'" Myrthe laughs. "A family of crayfish," Cevdet explains and continues: "At the Gaasperplas you have a wall with a hole in it. In it we saw the crayfish that we then called the 'Sharp family.' We also canoed once in the Amsterdamse Bos, then it was blowing really hard and we almost didn't make any progress."
Cooking together
.Today the wind is much stronger, it's storming, so Myrthe and Cevdet decide to stay inside. "Shall we cook?", Myrthe suggests. Cevdet shrugs his shoulders. He just got out of school and needs to shift gears. Suddenly Myrthe shoots into laughter: "Do you remember that time when it completely failed? Something with blueberries ..." Cevdet's smile is less exuberant, but the memory does cheer him up. "Myrthe always puts a lot of ingredients in everything," his eyes sparkle, "a lot of butter with the apple crumble cake, or a lot of tomato sauce with the Shakshuka. Then I yell, 'stop, stop!' but she just keeps going." All right, but what are the plans? "Shall we play chess?", Cevdet already jumps up to grab the board.
Victory
The two sat down on the floor with the chess board between them. "How are the people in your class?" asks Myrthe, sliding one of her pawns forward. Cevdet is still thinking. First a move, then an answer. Not two things at once. "Are there certain people you get along with?", Myrthe tries again. Bam, her pawn dies. "Yes there are," Cevdet responds thoughtfully. "We went to Texel with the class. There we went to one of those seal-dog aquarium things." "Ecomare, cool!", shouts Myrthe. Not much later, she is checkmate and congratulates her buddy on his victory.
* Cevdet did not want to be recognizable in the picture