NDI is already busy with corporate social responsibility (CSR) through organisations such as CliniClowns and Childhelpline International. There will always be enough organisations left that can use a helping hand.
Various NDI employees have already worked for multiple organisations, below the stories from Andy and Denise about their experiences.
Andy Weers – Medevent
At the age of 18, Andy started volunteering at Unity van Jellinek, an organisation that educates young people about drugs and alcohol. Andy gained a lot of knowledge about alcohol and drugs during his time at Jellinek.
With this knowledge and experience, he started volunteering at Medevent in 2011. Medevent provides First Aid at events ranging from (music) festivals, sporting events, staff parties and congresses to house parties. Andy has worked as a First Aid at Sensation White together with twenty other volunteers. The more than twenty volunteers are divided over three first aid posts; two smaller ones and a main unit. The main unit, where Andy worked during this party, has a basic emergency room in addition to all basic first aid materials. In addition to the volunteers, doctors and nurses are always present at this post.
At a party like Sensation White, an average of four hundred incidents take place during the night. Most incidents are related to the use of alcohol and drugs, but questions and (minor) accidents also occur. Many foreigners come to Sensation White, who are not familiar with the use of local drugs, they often ask the first aid posts to check whether what they feelafter taking a pill is normal.
Andy: “Volunteering is a fun way to learn new things and to get to know people. In addition, it is a nice change of the work that I do every day at NDI “.
Denise Dingsdag – Only Friends
Only Friends is a sports club for children and young people with a disability, based in Amsterdam. The sports club now offers 700 children a place with 25 different sports. During her education at Inholland University of Applied Sciences, Denise came into contact with this sports club.
In order to highlight this sports club, she visited the club in the hope of being able to shoot some nice short films here. This went without saying when it became clear how the club was organised and how much fun the children experience by doing sports. Every week dozens of volunteers and trainees work hard to make the children happy. These volunteers are not only visible on the fields, in the swimming pool and on the track, they also perform many supporting tasks in the background.
In 2009, Denise started as a volunteer to support various sports departments; eventually, she trained as a dance instructor and all classes and street dance clinics were her responsibility. After starting to work at NDI, she still comes in every now and then when no one else is available.
Denise: “It is great to see how the children enjoy sports, the attention and the atmosphere. As a volunteer, you can give something back to society, and by doing it in this way, I do it dancing, with a big smile.”