Pieter: “Volunteering makes me happy”
Pieter is working for a school project as a volunteer with young children with a disability at the G-Sportorganisation Wapper. He loves what he does and is grateful that he can help children.
Frederic: “Everybody has their strengths”
Being a keen swimmer and then you got stricken by fate. Frederic Van Kerckhove (46) was someone like that. But despite his disability and the things he has to deal with, he keeps faith in life. “I don’t believe that people want to bully. They just don’t know better.” 24 years ago, Frederic had an…
Bernard: “Happiness is more important than money”
Bernard moved from Cameroon to Belgium. He wanted to earn more money. After ten years he is still struggling to find his way in Belgium. But what he did find out, is that happiness is more important than money.
Leah: “It’s not perfect, but it’s okay”
My name is Leah. I have been here with Betonne Jeugd for about 11 or 12 years. First I came here with my former boyfriend. He was one of the first youngsters of Betonne Jeugd, he stayed for about 5 years and he brought me along. Then we broke up and he stopped coming, but…
Maria: “Nothing compares to home”
“I have always loved architecture, design, textures and colours. Anything that requires a creative way of thinking has always excited me. As an architect a challenging project pushes me to look for new and better solutions. It pushes me out of my restrictive thought process and puts my brain to the test. Recently, I started…
Karina (58): “It helps me a lot to help other people”
”My name is Karina Nys, 58 years old. I am from Belgium and live in Borgerhout. My whole life, I’ve lived in Antwerp. It’s very difficult to live alone, it’s like you are talking to walls. In the wintertime it was dark outside, sometimes I didn’t even want to get out of my bed, nobody…
Hassnaa: “My children are my happiness”
“I was born in Morocco, as the youngest. All of my siblings were born in Belgium, but my parents went back to Morocco where they had me. Shortly afterward my mother took my brothers and sisters to Belgium, while my father and I stayed behind. He died when I was 16 years old, and then…
Dominique
Chez moi, trop de gens, trop de jeunes… Ils viennent s’alcooliser, se droguer. « La rue Chicago » dit la police. Chez moi. Ma cour bordée de déchets, d’épaves d’ivresse, de saletés, saletés. Et les sacs plastiques. Mes murs c’est des feuilles de cigarettes. Je suis mieux au Carrefour pas loin. Je pourrais planter une tente sur…
Yvonne
Nos pensées d’invisibles… qu’on est de côté, hors sentir, dans les bords morts du décor… Nos mots d’invisibles… angoisse, peur, humilité… Nos pensées d’invisibles… qu’on n’est pas écouté… Nos mots d’invisibles… pour ceux qui souffrent et ne le disent plus. Ces mots qu’on leur dit. Ces mots qu’on nous imagine pas. Nos…
Kathy
L’air qu’on respire, l’indifférence, le vent, le silence, la souffrance aussi, le manque de quelqu’un, le mal être… invisibles. L’éjection, l’exclusion, l’isolement, l’enfermement, la solitude… invisibles ? Et le temps consacré aux enfants, le ménage, la cuisine aussi parfois, oui ce qu’on fait sans attente, sans plainte… si souvent invisibles. Je disparais parfois dans…