Meet in Neighborhood Salon ‘t Spinnewiel
A large table full of crafting women. While chatting, beautiful flowers are made from home, garden and kitchen items under the guidance of volunteer Maral Ete Ghazarian. Cups of coffee and something sweet. It’s a lot of fun at Café au Lait, the cozy coffee hour in Buurtsalon ‘t Spinnewiel. And that’s exactly the point.
“With the Buurtsalon we want to be a nice meeting place for residents in Venserpolder”, says Stephany Biezen, who, as manager of the Buurtsalon Zuidoost foundation, runs ‘t Spinnewiel. “Together with volunteers and neighborhood initiatives, we try to combat loneliness, among other things. We organize activities where residents can meet each other, such as this coffee hour, but also various cooking projects, daytime activities and more.”
Familiar coffee hour
Most women have been coming for years on Thursday mornings. Stephany came in with the foundation, Coffee Complete has already been successfully organised. Together with program coordinator AnneMar Tiebosch it was decided to hold the coffee hour on Tuesday and to organize Café au Lait on Thursday with crafts as an extra activity.
Regular visitor Lilian Gajadhar is happy to be back. “Not that much for a few months, because I was in a lot of pain from a broken toe. Fortunately, I have kept in touch with the rest all this time.”
Blind the way to the Neighborhood Salon
At another table sits Maria Oktay. She is blind, but has been able to find her way to the Buurtsalon well for 10 years now. She comes there to meet neighbors. Or family, like her sister-in-law who is quietly crocheting next to her. Her husband is also known for the Buurtsalon. During the last neighbors day he took care of the music as DJ Frank. Like Maria, he is visually impaired, but that doesn’t matter to his great hobby, music.
Also good to practice Dutch
Back to the craft table. There, the cheerful Sandra explains that she is helping the Nigerian Esther, who is sitting next to her, with learning English. “Meeting the other ladies at Café au Lait helps with that and Esther really enjoys it. Every week Maral comes up with something new to make, such as painting mugs, making candles from these flowers. We also made beautiful drawings of flowers, which were used in the logo of the new vegetable garden.”
New vegetable garden
Souham Najjar immediately stopped tinkering to show the new vegetable garden behind the Buurtsalon. She proudly shows the courgettes, pumpkins and basil and many other plants. She remains disappointed with the aubergine plant, someone else appears to have the largest specimens. “Too bad, I wanted to make baba ganoush with that for the group.” The new muster also come into the garden.
Things to do in Neighborhood Salon ‘t Spinnewiel
- Monday 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.: day care for the elderly by partner Zorgwell
- Tuesday 9.30am to 12pm: coffee (complete coffee walk-in)
- Wednesday 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM: youth cooking project Foodies in collaboration with Venzo and ROCvA
- Thursday 10am to 12pm: Café au Lait (coffee hour)
- Thursday 13:45 to 15:45: children’s bible club
- Friday 2 pm – 5 pm: day care for the elderly by partner Zorgwell
- Friday 18.00 – 20.00 hrs: Ghanaian women’s group by partner Vice Versa
For the full program and more information, visit www.buurtsalonzuioost.nl. Neighborhood salon ‘t Spinnewiel can be found at Dickenslaan 173 in Venserpolder.
Additional investments
Venserpolder is one of 6 neighborhoods in Southeast in which Amsterdam is investing extra. The extra money is spent on housing, care, meeting places, young people, the neighborhood economy and the environment. The aim is to make these neighborhoods safe and pleasant situations where residents feel at home. The other neighborhoods that will be extra in are: the H-Buurt, K-Buurt, Holendrecht, Reigersbos and G-Buurt Noord.