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| For our English-speaking friends |
Our
website is in Dutch. Our
acquaintances and friends who do not master this most import language
have asked numerous times what it is about. With the following few
pages we aim to explain, so that we can direct them to it.
The world would be so much nicer when we stop to be proud when we can
handle the principle of "give and take". Giving and taking is investing
for your own individual needs. We need leaders that fully understand
that the general interest is own interest. So "give and give" and be
pleased that you are capable to do so. If you don't succeed to
practise that in your own environment, your words about
solving the world's problems are empty. With our website we aim at the
micro cosmos around us. The site is filled with tips, links and
ideas on how to improve the way we live with each other. It is not a
fancy website and we are not website-specialists. Although offered we
refuse commercial links to retain our independency.
Everybody
has the duty and the right to participate in our society. Social
exclusion divides our community and harms, in the long run, everybody.
We all share the need to walk the path from cradle to grave,
and far beyond, being loved, appreciated and safe in an
environment that we understand. We support the weak(er), so basically
everyone at some moment in time. Nobody is perfect, so we all have our
shortcomings. Some physically, some in their wallet, most of us
mentally or a combination of those three. Ourselves not excluded !!
As member of several advisory boards, but also on a personal basis,
based on experiences whilst helping others, we have the right to be
heard. If we find that a procedure and/or way of execution is
wrong we try to change that. Mostly through informal contacts with
friendly civil servants.
During the last couple of years a lot has changed in the attitude and
way of work of our local government in Geldrop-Mierlo. Some rotten apples were made
redundant, procedures were simplified, letters and brochures became
easier to understand and accept, et cetera. This liberated a lot of
benevolent civil servants, made their work a lot nicer and made it
easier for them to threat dependent people in a better way.
The compliments we get from low to high and from right to left
convince us that we were, for a few percentages, part of the solution.
As chairman of the workgroup "Poverty and Politics", one of the three
workgroups of a provincial organisation, we participated in and lead
several meetings with politicians, some even from our national
government, and advisory groups.
Since Januari 2010 most of the activities of Geldrop-Mierlo's social
service were combined with the social services of other villages. Lead
by the municipality of Helmond this has several advantages. Combined
forces and area's creates better chances for people to get in contact
with future employers and it relieves each municipality of extra
overhead. During 2010 we found out that there was also a downside. The
progress we made in Geldrop-Mierlo has not yet taken place in Helmond
and sometimes welfare recipients feel as if they have been thrown back
into the "Middle ages". Most civil servants that moved from our
municipality to Helmond, have problems with their "new"
work-environment. Some abuse the flaws in the system and use it to get
rid of their frustrations at the cost of those that are dependent of
them. One of us, Marc, experiences the grudge of 2 of them since
november 2010. Read here about his background and his latest experience.
And again we stand at the bottom of a new hill to climb. But, whatever
we help to achieve will be beneficial to all civil servants, and those
they serve, from all participating municipalities.
We hope the above gave you a glimpse into our way of participating and
our tries to make our small part of the world a better place to live. |
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