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1:23

Fixing the World Hello

1:33

and welcome to People Fixing the World from

1:35

the BBC World Service. I'm Mayra

1:37

Anubian. Every week I take you on

1:39

a journey to discover new ideas trying

1:41

to solve some of the many problems

1:43

we face today. This

1:45

week we're tackling a big issue that

1:48

affects people all around the world. Loneliness.

2:00

The knee and you find it

2:02

hard to connect amidi just feel

2:04

left out with new one to

2:06

turn to. Now feeling lonely isn't

2:08

just uncomfortable when it's experience. Over

2:10

time it's been associated with health

2:12

issues like a higher risk of

2:14

having depression, demand so, or even

2:16

heart disease. Now it's hard to

2:18

get the exact numbers of how

2:20

many people experiences because it's not

2:23

a kind of thing people are

2:25

comfortable to admit and sadly the

2:27

hasn't been much research into it

2:29

yet. But this one country

2:31

that's a bit ahead of the game

2:33

with this, the Netherlands and it all

2:36

started with a tragic story of bet

2:38

the Broun. And.

2:41

Twenty Search teams. That's a seventy

2:43

four was found dead at her

2:45

home in the port city of

2:47

Rotterdam. Not a death wasn't suspicious,

2:49

but it did suck. The whole.

2:51

Country because it turned out

2:53

she had been dead for

2:56

ten years. Before

2:59

the street from her only close

3:01

family member and she kept herself

3:03

in her apartment block after she

3:05

died as state pension continue to

3:07

go into a bank account while

3:09

her rent and energy bills were

3:11

teaching out a post also slowly

3:14

piled up behind her front door.

3:17

That's. Body was only discovered

3:19

after a gas engine yes

3:21

needed access. To. This

3:24

troubling story caused much soul searching

3:27

in the city. One local politician

3:29

whose Id on this was especially

3:32

move by what happened here. He

3:34

is speaking about it on Raymond,

3:36

a local Tv network. Seven

3:39

years at at home without any

3:41

one missing you. that that is

3:43

such a poignant image of how

3:45

big loneliness can name is such

3:47

a large city so. Watching.

3:51

the the city council he developed

3:53

a local scheme to tackle loneliness

3:55

and included a commitment to check

3:57

on the welfare of all residents

3:59

over 75 years old. A

4:02

few years later, Hugo de Jonghe became

4:04

the health minister for the Netherlands, and

4:06

it was then that he helped create

4:08

a national initiative to tackle this problem.

4:11

Here he is describing it

4:13

to the Dutch public broadcaster,

4:16

Bienenwara. Bienenwara, a wonderful movement, has

4:18

been created. There are 125 local authorities

4:20

that have

4:24

started a local approach against

4:26

loneliness with partners in the

4:28

community. This national

4:30

program is called Entehen en

4:32

Zamhain, or One Against

4:35

Loneliness. It comes under the Ministry

4:37

of Health, Welfare and Sport, and it's been running

4:39

since 2018. Now, one part of this approach

4:43

involves bringing together like-minded organizations to

4:45

form a coalition so that they

4:48

can work together to tackle this

4:50

problem. And today, we'll be

4:52

finding out about some of these organizations

4:55

like OMA Soup, a project that's bringing

4:57

old and young people together. Our reporter,

5:00

Claire Bates, visited a busy kitchen

5:02

in the capital city there to

5:05

see exactly what was

5:08

kicking. I

5:10

met a community center in Amsterdam,

5:13

and in front of me there's a big long table with

5:15

lots of people sitting around it, older and

5:17

younger people together. They've got chopping boards put

5:20

in front of them and some big

5:22

silver bowls, and they've all come

5:24

together today to make soup. Keep

5:29

speaking, Claire. Yeah, is it great? And,

5:31

okay, same thing. What's happening here? What are we doing

5:34

today? It's a cooking day, and we're making

5:36

a tomato lentil spinach soup.

5:39

We're gonna cut all the ingredients and

5:41

then Martha is gonna make the soup,

5:44

and yeah, we're gonna have fun. And

5:49

have you volunteered with OMA Soup before? Yeah,

5:51

this is, I think, my third time. Why

5:53

is it that you like to do this?

5:56

Yeah, well, it's really nice to connect

5:58

with everyone. You

6:01

can learn so much for most people and

6:03

it's really nice that they have so much

6:05

fun being here and to consult the damn

6:07

about a lot of things. And they have

6:10

so much for sale because center there are

6:12

no me so I think everyone was so

6:14

lonely sometimes just as much as it is

6:17

it is I didn't have my best they

6:19

play with now under and my my hotel

6:21

room with sweet said it's also really nice.

6:24

To see to some, some people are able to make

6:27

connections well. As. Many

6:30

as. One

6:32

of my best friend. Asked

6:36

if such a while now and

6:38

and keep lost her what she

6:41

thinks as a lesson lesson for

6:43

most of them have solo Silva

6:45

sound like a of the so

6:48

fell asleep very fun. And

6:50

sorry, yeah, facilities such. Word for.

6:57

It and of us air force

6:59

and I sit down and hope

7:01

with medical. The

7:08

cussing sessoms take. Place around once a

7:10

week and twelve cities across the Netherlands.

7:12

He says he has a stews and

7:15

board so organized just assassins and funds

7:17

from his his. Louise is

7:19

on the student board for Amsterdam. Was

7:22

definitely help me stuff out of

7:24

my comfort zone. and am I

7:26

right now? I'm twenty one and I'd

7:28

sense associate with people from my

7:30

ace was a hot spots on grounds

7:33

I saw some of the lucky so

7:35

far might not be very insisted that

7:37

the opposite is true to be

7:39

on as sale. Have different stories you

7:42

get your about war stories. He gets

7:44

his ear about the thing though. they

7:46

have mescaline and they're always very

7:48

enthusiastic. They're also quite seem, so

7:51

I didn't expect that the first. Change

7:53

your whole few of us citizens And

7:56

Isis it. Has he has definitely is

7:58

is is very good advice. some

8:00

very good lollipops from cancer that was raised.

8:08

Thank you. It's really good.

8:10

Is it? Okay. I'm gonna just try

8:12

this soup. Yeah,

8:17

that's really good. Claire

8:24

Bates joins me now and Claire it's great to

8:26

see you but before we start, it's so cold

8:28

here. I could use some of

8:30

that soup. Honestly, it was really tasty. Right.

8:32

I mean, okay, so now let's get into

8:34

the solution, right? Oma soup. How

8:36

do this whole project start? Well,

8:38

it's run by two young guys

8:41

called Matt Kramendijk and Martin

8:43

Kantas. And now they

8:45

were concerned their grandparents' generation were

8:47

becoming isolated and lonely. And

8:49

meanwhile, they had lots of student friends who

8:52

had free time. So they thought, why not

8:54

try to bring these two generations together through

8:56

making soup? Yeah, I mean, Claire, food does

8:59

bring people together. Sometimes when I cook, right,

9:01

I'll make some extra food and take it

9:03

to my mother-in-law or the neighbours, just,

9:06

you know, talk and have a bit of

9:08

interaction. Yeah, exactly. And actually, that's something the

9:10

students do. They take soup parcels to older

9:12

people who can't leave their homes as well.

9:15

And where do they get the ingredients

9:17

for the soup? Well, around 80% are

9:19

donated from local shops and markets and

9:21

then the rest they buy themselves. And

9:24

also, you said that they are in

9:26

12 cities. So give me an idea

9:28

of how big this is in terms

9:30

of the people involved. Yeah, I think

9:32

it's quite impressive growth. So in the

9:34

very first year, they did picking sessions

9:36

with just 10 older people. But today,

9:38

they're now involving 730 older people. And

9:40

they also have 1200 young

9:43

volunteers. Okay. And so how do we get

9:45

the money to fund this? Is it coming

9:47

from the national campaign? No,

9:50

they initially got funding from a

9:52

few independent grants, but they wanted

9:54

to make the project sustainable. So

9:57

each of the recipes shared in those early

9:59

cooking sessions. I started producing them

10:01

in a factory. These suits. And

10:03

now salt in supermarkets across the country

10:05

and half of the profits from them

10:08

are now funding more community activities. I

10:10

mean, this is clearly a nice thing,

10:12

you know, I'm and it's clearly also

10:15

working and growing. But is it solving

10:17

the main problem here? Loneliness? What? I

10:19

did see some really meaningful interaction. so

10:21

Summer and Lenny for example they were

10:24

by setting a lotta of that relationship.

10:26

But okay, let's be honest. a Weekly

10:28

Cooking says on it's own is not

10:31

gonna crack. The whole problem is. But

10:33

remember that all parts of this coalition

10:35

and many of the What gather and

10:37

promotes each other's activities and it. I

10:39

guess that's the point of the National

10:42

uproot isn't it? to build a network

10:44

with different projects and get the community

10:46

involved so that they do and feel

10:48

left out more alone and off here.

10:50

I knew that the country has a

10:52

Loneliness awareness Week where people are encouraged

10:55

to get involved in these products. Yeah,

10:57

it seems to really get people talking

10:59

so they get lot of interest in

11:01

the media for example, And the

11:03

fat doing this is learning the sweets.

11:05

A Queen Maxime of the Netherlands visited

11:07

a few of these. One gets loading

11:09

this projects and that included a cooking

11:12

session or omagh suit cases. They got

11:14

the royal seal of approval assistance. You.

11:24

Listening to People Fixing The World from

11:26

the Bbc World Service and this week

11:28

we're talking about loneliness. And looking at

11:30

some of the ways that the Netherlands

11:33

is tackling this problem now, we just

11:35

had about one projected using soup and

11:37

putting senses to make young and older

11:39

people feel more connected and class. Something

11:42

that really struck me with this project

11:44

that we've just had is that loneliness

11:46

is not just a thing that a

11:49

sex old people. it also affects young

11:51

people and really does everyone. It does

11:53

and is interesting that when the Loneliness

11:56

campaign first started, it targeted people aged

11:58

over some size. And this

12:00

year they've widened that to look

12:02

at lots of other groups, including

12:04

carers, older migrants and teenagers. And

12:07

that's where our next solution comes in. It's

12:09

a special kind of youth club called Join

12:11

Us. And I visited a

12:13

branch one rainy evening near Utrecht.

12:18

Well hey, welcome everybody. Nice to have

12:20

you all over here. Yeah,

12:23

let's start with how is everybody doing?

12:25

Yeah, my week is good. A lot

12:27

of school of course. And tomorrow

12:29

you have an important meeting? Yes, an

12:31

appointment for my internship.

12:35

So I'm very excited about it too. Yeah,

12:37

good luck. Thanks man. At

12:40

first, Join Us seems like a normal youth

12:42

group. There's eight young adults aged between 18

12:45

and 25, hanging around, laughing

12:47

and eating snacks. But

12:49

actually, there's something else going on beneath

12:51

the surface. At one point,

12:53

they start to play a card game, which is aimed

12:56

at boosting confidence. One

12:58

young man draws a card that asks him

13:00

to dish out some compliments. He's

13:02

hesitant, but gives it a go. It's

13:06

super cool. You

13:09

lead young people's groups and

13:12

school that you play for nights.

13:16

You have nice hair. Yes.

13:23

It's a small but important moment. I

13:26

watched as the young man smiles. He

13:28

looks relieved, but also a little proud

13:30

that he's challenged himself. Because

13:33

Join Us is a club specifically for young

13:35

adults who find it more difficult to connect.

13:38

He's founder, Jelana van Gecher.

13:41

When you feel lonely for a long

13:43

time, it's like a downward spiral. You

13:46

get negative thoughts about

13:49

your interacting with others, and

13:51

it's really more difficult to

13:54

build a network. So

13:56

we help them to get

13:58

more social skills. or

14:00

to understand how to overcome

14:02

the negative thought. So it

14:05

feels like a huge club, but a huge club club.

14:09

Group leader Yul explains how they go

14:11

about it. We meet

14:13

every two weeks. We

14:15

always ask what the group wants to do

14:17

or other certain topics they want to discuss.

14:20

So if they want to organize an

14:22

activity, I say, sure, be my guest,

14:25

organize, and if there's anything we can do,

14:28

we're here to help. And during

14:30

the process, we can help

14:33

the young people to

14:36

develop individual skills. Or some people say,

14:38

I want to be more in the

14:40

lead. That's something I want to learn.

14:42

And then we can help them, put

14:44

them in a role or give them

14:46

a certain task so they can practice

14:48

that in a safe setting. Later

14:51

that evening, I had a chat with Luke,

14:53

who's 23 and works from home. He

14:56

suffered from social anxiety when he was younger.

14:59

So I had trouble meeting

15:01

with people, talking to them. It just gave

15:03

me insane anxiety. It was just

15:06

a mental block for me. So, yeah,

15:08

I would have a lot of nights at home

15:10

where I didn't have anyone to call or talk

15:12

to. And that just

15:14

hurts. I felt alone. A

15:17

counselor suggested he tried going along to a

15:19

join us session. So the

15:21

first session, I was pretty nervous to go

15:23

here. But I was

15:26

really welcomed by the social workers. They made me

15:28

feel really welcome. And then we

15:30

just did a little game to get to know

15:32

each other and then kind of cleared the tension.

15:34

And how did you feel after that first session? Well,

15:38

for starters, proud of myself for doing

15:40

something like that, because usually I never

15:42

do anything like that. And

15:44

yeah, I would leave. Like it was nice to

15:46

meet new people. I actually enjoyed it.

15:49

Well, I was nervous coming here even

15:51

the second time, even the third time. But it

15:54

slowly eased. I eased into it. I became more

15:56

comfortable. Everyone is really friendly here. No one is

15:58

judging. It feels like I say. study,

18:00

but Yolanda says they surveyed more than

18:03

2000 young adults when they first started

18:05

with Join Us, and then they followed

18:07

up with them a few months later,

18:09

and they found over this time the

18:11

average level of happiness rose, or feelings

18:13

of exclusion fell. So

18:19

there's clearly lots happening in the Netherlands

18:22

to tackle loneliness, and we've heard about

18:24

the youth clubs, and before that we

18:26

heard about the cooking sessions with a

18:28

lovely soup. But Claire, give

18:30

me a flavour of what else is going on

18:33

in the country. Honestly, there's so much. So let

18:35

me just give you a few examples. So

18:38

there's a supermarket chain called Jumbo, and

18:40

some of their stores have a special

18:42

lane known as a chatty checkout, and

18:44

that's where people can stop and chat

18:46

while buying their groceries. It's a

18:48

nice idea that if you need to chat,

18:51

you have a separate lane where you can do this,

18:53

but for anyone who wants to get on with

18:55

their shopping, they can also do that. Yeah, it's

18:58

a really nice point of interaction, because everyone does

19:00

go to a supermarket. And then

19:02

there's a charity called Resto van Hart,

19:04

which means restaurant from the heart. They

19:07

serve up three course meals cooked by volunteers

19:09

for just eight euros, or nine dollars a

19:11

person. But the condition is you have to

19:14

sit and eat with other people from your

19:16

neighbourhood. I tried it out, and the

19:18

food was really tasty, and actually the people I spoke

19:20

to had made local friends there. I

19:23

like it here, because after my work

19:25

I come here. It feels

19:27

like a family for me. It's

19:29

a very nice place here. It

19:33

would be good that other countries

19:35

make this sense also

19:37

for lonely people. It

19:39

would be wonderful, because many people

19:42

look forward every week to come to eat here.

19:45

And does that look like a beach here?

19:47

Yeah, with beef and carrot and beans. It's

19:50

very healthy. Claire,

19:53

I can tell you really like your food. Away

19:56

from these kind of food related projects, is

19:59

there anything else? happening? Yes,

20:01

there's an initiative by the National Postal

20:03

Service, Post NL, and they've asked postal

20:05

workers to keep an eye out for

20:08

residents who might be struggling with loneliness.

20:10

Here's Taze Carcroft, who's working on the

20:12

project. In general, our postal

20:14

and parcel deliveries come to every street and

20:16

every front door every day. So

20:19

you can consider them as an extra

20:21

pair of ears and eyes in the neighbourhood. So

20:24

workers who want to volunteer for this scheme watch

20:26

a video that gives some examples of things to

20:29

look out for. So when

20:32

somebody sees that

20:34

the curtains are longer closed than usual

20:36

and the person is hardly visible anymore

20:38

or the male and leaflet spiral behind

20:41

the front door, someone no

20:43

longer takes good care of themselves. Then

20:46

if they think a resident needs help,

20:48

they fill in the form anonymously, including

20:50

the house number and zip code. This

20:52

then goes to a local welfare organisation

20:54

who take a look at each notification.

20:57

So what happens when it

20:59

gets to the welfare organisation? What steps do

21:01

they take next? So it might be they're

21:04

already in touch with that person, so that

21:06

care might just be continuing. But

21:08

if not, they might knock on the door, phone

21:10

them, put a leaflet through, that kind of thing.

21:13

I mean, so on one hand, Claire, I can see how

21:15

this could be very helpful for people

21:17

who are feeling lonely and

21:19

they need someone to talk to, but they just

21:22

don't know how to ask for help. But on

21:24

the other hand, I can also see how this

21:26

could be very intrusive for someone who just wants

21:28

their privacy. Yeah, I mean, that is a fair

21:30

point. I mean, I should say the person contacted,

21:32

they're not told who's made the report. Okay. And

21:34

also the postal worker isn't told what happens as

21:37

a result of that action. They just have a

21:39

peace of mind that they've passed on at concern.

21:42

And when I think about Beth, the lady who's found

21:44

dead in her apartment, I mean, what was so

21:46

sad about that case was that no one did

21:48

raise the alarm. Yeah, that's true. So how

21:51

do they know if this is actually making a

21:53

difference? What has said they

21:55

did a spot check in 10 municipalities

21:57

and the welfare organisation said most of the people who were in the hospital were not

22:00

of the alerts have flagged up real concerns. Give

22:02

me an idea of like the number of reports

22:04

that are made, maybe like in a year or

22:06

something. Yeah, so it's quite a small scheme at

22:08

the moment. It's running in 13 municipalities

22:11

and in the smaller towns there

22:13

are around 5 to 10

22:15

notifications sent a year and in the

22:17

biggest region covered Rotterdam there's been around

22:19

50 over three years. Now,

22:22

I mean, let's take it back to

22:24

the national approach. All

22:26

these projects are part of that and

22:28

what kind of difference has this made

22:30

since it started back in 2018? I

22:33

know it's hard to measure but is

22:35

this really helping to tackle loneliness? Yeah,

22:38

I mean, as you say, it is hard to measure

22:40

especially because COVID came in in between. But

22:43

what we can say is that since

22:45

2018, three quarters of municipalities

22:48

have set up a local loneliness

22:50

plan and there are now 174

22:52

partners in the National Loneliness Coalition

22:54

who, as we've seen, also come in and

22:57

support each other. Yeah, they do and I

22:59

should say actually there's some funding around. So

23:01

the Ministry of Health has put aside 40

23:04

million euros, which is about 43 million

23:06

US dollars to tackle loneliness over the

23:09

next three years and that

23:11

will include subsidising the Youth Club Join Us,

23:13

who we heard from earlier, so that more

23:15

municipalities can bring it to their area. I

23:17

mean, there's clearly a template here that could

23:19

possibly be used in other places but I

23:21

think the main thing from everything we've heard

23:23

today is that we need to talk openly

23:25

about loneliness, check up on each other and

23:28

really just work together. Yeah, exactly. Thank

23:30

you, Claire, for what we've heard today. Thanks,

23:32

Mary. That

23:37

brings us to the end of today's programme but

23:40

if you've been listening and you've been affected

23:42

by what you've heard today or maybe you

23:44

know someone who might need some help, go

23:47

ahead and check out some of the

23:49

resources we have just by searching online

23:51

for BBC Action Line. Also,

23:54

reach out and give me some

23:56

of your feedback by sending an

23:58

email to peoplefixingtheworld at bbc.gov. He

24:00

in the Uk and as you know,

24:02

I'll be back again next sheath. With

24:04

more great seasons. But until

24:06

then, stay safe, stay connected.

24:09

And com for listening. County

24:18

males gaelic football team haven't won

24:20

and All Ireland championship and nineteen

24:22

fifty one male got the final.

24:24

So many times we get. To. Further

24:27

be here are we just can't and over the

24:29

last. Trip and tales of a crease.

24:31

her about as a long to

24:33

was excuses by put. It down

24:35

to the car and the only

24:37

explanation: Amazing sports stories Investigates the

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24:42

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have one was home looking have enough for well.

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I'm trying to understand it. On.

25:14

Of the greatest precious I know. My

25:17

Sauna memoirs of a

25:19

broadcaster. Britain. And read

25:22

by David Attenborough. Published by

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