‘What an incredibly fun afternoon. Warm and welcoming, with fun workshops, beautiful and personal music and delicious snacks. Top!”

And so it was indeed. On Saturday 27th of January, in the afternoon, Welkom in Utrecht organized a volunteer festival together with our Plan Einstein partner Het Wilde Westen. The goal was to give something back to all those volunteers who, through Welkom in Utrecht, dedicate themselves to refugees in Utrecht. Our volunteers cook, play sports, practice Dutch and go to museums with refugees, you name it!

On this Saturday, our volunteers were able to participate in several workshops. There was a cooking workshop with Syrian, Yemeni and Somali women, you could dance to music, let the creative spirit blow in a drawing or clay workshop. Or sing a song about freedom together with Iranian Farhad. Between workshops, new connections were made.

The afternoon began with a Kurdish song sung by Rian Reversed of Musicaz and ended with the sounds of Tanya Savushkina’s Ukrainian-Dutch choir.

It was as a few volunteers noted: inspiring and worth repeating!

And we wholeheartedly agree!

Many thanks to the workshop organizers, the singers and Het Wilde Westen.

1: Tanya sings songs every week with Ukrainians and Dutch people at Het Wilde Westen. They also gave a performance at the volunteer festival!

2: Here a cooking workshop with Yemeni and Syrian women, among others. Cooking together whilce simultaneously learning about each other’s traditions and customs.

3: Rian Evers (Rian Reversed), along with Iranian Fahrad and others, conducted a workshop where participants sang along with the moving Iranian freedom song “Baraye.”

4: Here you see volunteer Fons during the creative workshop. As a language volunteer, he practices Dutch every week with a refugee residing in azc Star Lodge on Biltsestraatweg.

Would you also like to be a part of our volunteer festival next year? There are a lot of ways you can become active with us for refugees in the city. Are you interested? Mail to info@welkominutrecht and together we will see where we can put you to work!