Serve the City Int'l

Amsterdam (NL) – Kids party in Amsterdam East, on 20 May.

admin — Sun, 13 May 2012 10:38:00 +0000

On Sunday 20 May, we are going to organize a kids party in Amsterdam East, with lots of games, sport activities, a jupiter jump and other nice things. To give the children in this neighbourhood a great day we need a lot of volunteers, so please join us!

Here is the link>

Belgium – Spring Clean Focus Day – 19 May 2012

admin — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:23:06 +0000

Spring Clean Focus Day – 19 May 2012
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Brussels, May 2012

Every year in May, the Serve the City team hit the streets of Brussels with spring-cleaning in mind. This volunteer day supports key non-profits in our community by sprucing up their environments, ushering out the winter and in the summer activities and projects that lay ahead.

For those who don’t mind getting messy doing practical things, this is the volunteer event for you. Gardening, painting, tidying up, moving stuff, cleaning or fixing are the order of the day. Bring gloves and wear clothing that will be ok getting covered in some dirt!

A number of groups will also help the city put on a clean face by tidying up a number of public spaces. Every part of our community benefits from a helping hand from time to time; a city and its public spaces are no exception.

There are also projects that are a little less messy, such as playing games and doing arts and crafts with groups of children, helping some of the women in the shelters get a make-over, and spending time with our homeless communities.

The Serve the City idea began in 2005 when Carlton Deal started a revolution to have people serve others – those often overlooked by society. Today, Serve the City operates in close to 80 locations all over the world, with Brussels, Antwerp and Leuven teams right here in Belgium.

The team at Serve the City is truly inspirational. They describe themselves as “a movement of volunteers serving cities in practical ways and inspiring people to be givers in this world. Serve the City believes that many people doing small things together does make a big difference in our world.”

They are making quite an impact on our cities, taking strides to solve many practical problems that other more traditional organizations cannot deal with. Key areas of focus are: the homeless, asylum-seekers, disabled, elderly, children in need and victims of abuse.

For more information, please do contact:
chalks@servethecity.be
0478.48.20.23

About STC:
Serve the City began in Brussels in 2005, and is now active in 80 cities around the world. Serve the City organizes serving events and provides ongoing serving opportunities. Volunteers sign up to serve in projects that fit their interests and abilities.

Serve the City ASBL
Place Van Meyel 15a,
1040 Brussels
Belgium

Phone: +32.2.734.35.02
Email: chalks@servethecity.be

http://servethecity.net/

Belgium – “Flemings don’t live in the street, they live in houses”

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:09:51 +0000

Moroccans in their home country and in Belgium are not happy with a new Flemish brochure that was presented in Morocco yesterday. The leaflet is aimed at informing Moroccans considering establishing a new life in Flanders. The Flemish minister responsible for Integration, Geert Bourgeois, defends the leaflet.
The brochure “Migrating to Flanders” will be handed out in Morocco to Moroccans who are thinking of moving to Belgium. The leaflet however contains some “controversial” sentences, Moroccans claim.

It says for example that “Flemings don’t live in the street. They mainly live in their house”, “Hurting someone, also your partner or children, is forbidden” and “Life in Flanders is expensive. In most families both partners are working to be able to pay for everything.

To Flandersnews.be for rest of article.

Belgium – Surge in reports of sexual abuse of children

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:16:37 +0000

The annual report from Belgium’s centre for missing and sexually exploiteded children, Child Focus, is reporting a big surge in the number of 18 to 24-year-olds who go missing. In 2009 there were 10 cases. Last year the figure rose to 74.

Last year there was a 60% rise in the number of reports of sexual abuse of children. The figure stood at 534.

More>

Belgium – CUTS TO BLAME FOR NURSING HOME DEATHS?

admin — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:55:19 +0000

The number of deaths among residents in the local nursing home in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek has tripled. Doctors say cuts are to blame, but the management says nothing is amiss.

To the video on Flandersnews.be>

Belgium – More and more asylum seekers returning home voluntarily

admin — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 08:53:01 +0000

Last month for the first time more asylum seekers left Belgian asylum centres than arrived there. The figures come from the government agency charged with taking care of asylum seekers, Fedasil.
The agency says that more and more asylum seekers are choosing to leave the country voluntarily.

Belgium’s Asylum and Migration Secretary, Maggie De Block (Flemish liberal), opened Caricole, the new transit centre for asylum seekers at Steenokkerzeel outside Brussels on Wednesday and also confirmed the new trend.

During the first three months of the year 970 asylum seekers in the care of Fedasil decided to return to their home country voluntarily. The figure is up 40%. In the same period last year only 678 people made a similar move.

The Belgian Immigration Department has a voluntary repatriation programme that is working well. The Asylum Secretary has welcomed the latest figures: “If for the first time more people return home and leave our care network than arrive here, then this will reduce pressure on the reception system.”

Ms De Block stressed that a lot of people are involved in the work intended to help would-be asylum seekers return home of their own accord. In addition there is co-operation with organisations and authorities beyond our borders: “We encourage people to be in contact with their home country so that they are aware of the conditions they will meet when they arrive home.”

To the source material>

“Belgium encourages discrimination of Muslims”

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:06:50 +0000

Amnesty International has criticised Belgium in connection with its treatment of Muslims. The human rights organisation says that Belgium is guilty of discrimination because employers ban religious and cultural symbols.

The full article>

Global – WHO IS STOP THE TRAFFIK?

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:19:08 +0000

STOP THE TRAFFIK is a growing global movement of individuals, communities and organisations fighting to PREVENT the sale of people, PROTECT the trafficked and PROSECUTE the traffickers.

STOP THE TRAFFIK was set up in 2006 to

Educate: raise awareness and understanding of human trafficking and what can be done about it
Advocate: engage with communities and professionals to create an environment where it is harder to traffik, hide and exploit people
Fundraise: financing STOP THE TRAFFIK projects and anti-trafficking activities around the world which work with advocates, those vulnerable to and those who have been, trafficked.
STOP THE TRAFFIK now has more than 1000 member organisations in 50 countries and tens of thousands of activists all over the world.

When people act, things change.

Visit their web portal>

USA – A cardboard arcade made by a 9-year old boy

admin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:54:15 +0000

9 year old Caine Monroy, who built an elaborate cardboard arcade inside his dad’s used auto parts store, is about to have the best day of his life. A short film by Nirvan, produced by Interconnected. This is such a … Continue reading →

Amsterdam – project coordinator for our next event.

admin — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:37:05 +0000

Will you help as a project coordinator for our next event?
For our next edition with ascention day we are looking for many talented people that want to get a little bit extra involved in Serve the City this year. We will do projects on the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th of May, to serve the city. We have three types of projects: social, practical and street projects. You can choose how and when you want to be involved. Want to know more?

To the rest of the article>