The largest emergency refugee shelter of the Netherlands closed its doors on 2 May. Radboud University was closely involved at Heumensoord. But who are these volunteers who helped look after the refugees? Today: Rens Kroeze (29), communications officer at Radboud in’to Languages.

Wat did you do?
‘I was closely involved in setting up the fundraising campaign Donate a Textbook, which allowed us to raise 50,000 Euros for Dutch textbooks for the refugees. We also organised workshops to teach volunteers how to help refugees learn Dutch. We ended up offering thirteen workshops to a total of 450 volunteers. The volunteers had so many questions, and they came to me for answers. At first it was just part of my work, but as time passed and I got more tasks, I became totally absorbed by it.’

What did you gain from this experience?
‘A better understanding of the refugees. Now I can base my opinions on actual facts. Especially in the early days it was often said that refugees had come here to cause trouble, which was simply not true. I found it really inspiring to experience in person how driven these people were to learn Dutch.’

Has your perception of refugees changed?
‘From the way refugees are portrayed in the media you would think they are a completely foreign group, but nothing could be further from the truth. Some of them have been here before, on holiday; they know Rome and Paris. Many of them had wonderful lives before they were forced to make their way to the tent camp at Heumensoord in refugee boats. Once you let this sink in it is hard not to get involved.’

What did you find difficult?
‘At some point we had no choice but to create our own Facebook page for people who were interested in making contact with the refugees, as it turned out that the organisations responsible were far too busy. We also kept hearing via the media that we should not give refugees without status any false hope by teaching them Dutch. What nonsense! When it comes to integration, you cannot start early enough, and learning the language is the most important aspect of integration. It goes without saying that we should continue to do this work, even though the Heumensoord camp has closed down.’