Helping the homeless feel loved and wanted again. 

Dear reader,

My name is Joop Visser and I am an intern at pastoral diaconal centre homeless shelter in Groningen. In our day shelter visitors can get sandwiches and coffee, as well as clothing once a week – all for free. We are funded by the municipality and churches from different denominations to support and care for homeless people in the region, but the Dutch government is constantly cutting back on subsidized aid for the homeless and shelters are almost always full. Besides, staying in a night shelter can be costly: one night costs €5,65. Those who are not from the Netherlands are not eligible for any help at all. Therefore a lot of people are left helpless and on the street. 

During my internship I hear a lot of heart-breaking stories about how people became homeless and how most of them receive little to no help getting their lives back together. Homeless people do not feel like they are part of our society. They feel unwanted, helpless and forgotten and in some ways they are! Most live day by day and don’t know if they will have food or a dry place to sleep (it rains often in the Netherlands). I would like to let them know that we, as a society, still love them and care for them as our fellow human-beings, and that God still loves them. 

I started this crowdfunding to help people with a small step out of their misery. I want to give a small amount of money to about 25 homeless persons in Groningen to relieve their stress for a few days. Hopefully I will be able to give them 40 to 50 euros per person, depending on how much money comes in. With this amount of money they do not have to worry about their basic human needs for a couple of days, so they can eat and drink properly and have a safe, dry place to sleep. I hope that this will bring some clarity to their minds so that they can start thinking about a way out of their situation and start their lives back up again. And that they will feel a worthy participant of society. I know some readers might think that the recipients will use the donation on drugs or alcohol. Maybe some will, but definitely not all homeless persons are addicts. Even if we can only help a few to do something good with that money, like get some food in their belly or pay for the night shelter, it will be worth it. Wouldn’t that be great?

As for the divide: the money will be given to those who truly need it. I will keep a list of people who received money and ask them to write a short message for the donors to see that their donation is well spent. If we raise insufficient funds to aid each individual I will look into buying something they will benefit from in some other way (ideas for this are welcome). Thank you so much for reading this message and opening your heart to the homeless people of Groningen!

Kind regards,

Joop Visser 

EDIT: it is hard to refund donors through this site, so only early donors (before May 24th, 2100h) can get their money back in case of insufficient funds, if they want to. Money donated later than that will go towards something that will benefit the larger homeless community. 

If you have any further questions or ideas, you can contact me at j.visser@openhof.org.