Branch Amsterdam

The beginning

The start of the Amsterdam-branch was in 2005 and we are proud to present ourselves. About three years ago the start of the group took place at the house of one of the members, Ursula van Hecke. Her hospitality throughout the years has to be mentioned! After that it became a steady group of about 15 women.

The meetings

The monthly meeting is always at the house of one of the group, where the group share a dinner after the business-meeting. After dinner there is usually a speaker about an interesting subject or one of the members shares about work, hobby or an interesting experience.

The projects

In 2005 branch Amsterdam gathered quite some money for a group of religious women ( i.e. nuns named Augustinessen) living in the centre of Amsterdam , helping the homeless.In their house they help young women in problematic situations with the children to pick up their life again. Branch Amsterdam organized a fundraising concert at Ursula's beautiful house at the canal-side and enjoyed a lovely morning. The collected money helped the nuns to pay the reconstruction of their house, which was really necessary to continue their work. Also some of the members of branch Amsterdam volunteered at the receptiondesk of the house.

In 2006 branch Amsterdam sponsored the Voedselbank (a Dutch Volunteer Food Relief project) in one of the poorest parts of the city of Amsterdam . De Voedselbank organizes weekly food-packages for people who have no money to buy the most necessary things to stay alive. They get all the food for free from shops, markets etc. and gather it for the poor. Their female director was a source of inspiration for our branch and therefore was decided to hand over money to let her organize a dinner-party with all her voluntary workers. Just before the end of the year branch Amsterdam organized again a fundraising concert with the fantastic result of the gift of a cheque of 2500 euro. Their enthousiasm was overwhelming. In the meantime the members of the branch gathered clothes, shoes and all kind of other things which could hand over to the people who needed these the most.

For 2007 a new interesting project is found, called De Witte Tulp (the white tulip); young immigrants help and stimulate children from immigrated parents to do their homework, finish and attend their school and support them in making their dreams come true. Really a great challenge for our branch to support them!