Column – Code yellow

Today I am reading a report from the GGD,Strong and weak in Amsterdam, an analysis of 11 domains of life in 22 Amsterdam areasFor ten years, I have been working in Nieuw West, and we still stand out in a colorful way. In all areas, we score red, orange, and yellow, except when it comes to substance use, where we score green. The GGD shows the state of the city using a color scheme. I see it at a glance. It’s like a KNMI weather forecast about the city of Amsterdam, and yellow, orange, and red codes usually don’t mean anything good.

I notice that it still makes me a bit sad. Yellow code on volunteering. I see so many residents from all over the world, and volunteer organizations working to make their Nieuw West the most beautiful part of the city. And many residents also experience it that way. There is space, peace, Parool once called our district “little Berlin.” What a delight to cycle back from Centrum Slotervaart.

It’s like a KNMI weather forecast about the city of Amsterdam, and yellow, orange, and red codes usually don’t mean anything good.

And yet, we always seem to be at the bottom of every report. How can that be? There is unemployment, houses with mold and drafts, school dropouts, delinquents, domestic violence, diseases, and loneliness, physical and mental suffering, poverty. Such a report is a clinical, businesslike observation, data, numbers. It’s not a “feels like” temperature, to stick with KNMI for a moment. Because shared poverty is… well, not half poverty, but it does make a difference in your perception. When you learn from volunteers and experts how to live on a minimal budget, when you cook, share, talk together. A shared burden is a burden halved. And that happens on a large scale in Nieuw West.

Because shared poverty is… well, not half poverty, but it does make a difference in your perception.

When an elderly volunteer tells me about the neighborhood lunch and how a participant shared his story with him, how it relieved him, how he opened his heart to make new contacts, form friendships, that is priceless. Or how a woman almost cheers on the phone when I call to ask how her volunteering is going. “You’re the second person calling today!” This woman who was lonely in her house and told me she got a bad taste in her mouth because she spoke so little. Or how the children at the homework assistance, run by volunteers, talk about their lives, express their joy and sorrow, and realize they are not the only ones being bullied. And I believe that these activity participants will also do volunteer work soon. They have the time, they are inspired by seeing the volunteer work of others, now it’s just about clearing space in their minds. Patience.

These stories cannot be measured in color codes and reports; this is the “feels like” temperature of a district.

Text: Nettie Sterrenburg