Dear BZ Partners,
On the 25th of march, we introduced the “Buddy System” at the borrel at Byblos bar in The Hague. It was quite a succes, and we got some interesting tips for enhancing the system. For those of you who could not make it to the borrel, a small introduction of the system is given below. For more information, you can also visit “Home in Holland” page on our site.
Thank you,
Stichting Partners & Gezinsleden
Introduction “Buddy” system
Wouldn’t it be nice to know that once ‘back’ to The Netherlands you could count on a buddy to help you to find your way in The Hague, especially if it is your first time in Holland or if your family and friends are living far away from The Hague?
In order to make that possible the SPG is developing a buddy system to try to match repatriates with local buddies (partners currently based in The Netherlands). The first step is obviously to find partners in the Netherlands who would agree to become a buddy and to know which repatriates would like to be put in contact with such a buddy.
As a first step, the SPG will organize on the 25th of March an informal gathering after work to explain to interested partners based in the Netherlands what the buddy system will be and to recruit volunteers (see invitation above). As second step the SPG will inform the Embassy network about the buddy system stimulating partners who are about to return to the Netherlands to make use of the buddy system.
A small profile of both buddies and “terugkomers” will be set up and a matching list will be worked out by the SPG. Once the terugkomer receives an e-mail address of his/her buddy they define together how they will like to go ahead, depending on the needs of the terugkomer and the availabilities of the buddy.
