DB Work welcomes Ukrainian refugees
Living the story of one day and a life for Ukraine
By Benjamin Culisniuc, Data Protection Officer
Friday, 4th of March, I was in my office from Den Breejen Sliedrecht, finishing up the week and getting the things ready for Monday, when my leaders walk in, takes a seat next to me and they tell me: "Tomorrow we are going to build a living home for 27 people and we have less than 36 hours." Sounds exciting right? Well, I saw an incredible confidence in their eyes which gave me enough strength to start planning, and in a moment we had a great team of people ready to get the job done. "On Sunday, we are going to bring with our company bus, 27 Ukrainian refugees from Romania to The Netherlands to offer them a peaceful home.”
Next day, after scraping the ice of my windscreen, we met in front of a building which needed a good preparation for a warm place to live. In a moment, our company truck left empty and after drinking a cup of coffee, returned full with materials. Our teams DB Work, United Homes and Rent a Roof started to bring the beds, mattresses, closets, baby beds, night stands, tables, chairs, kitchen utilities, fridges, etc. The team made an incredible effort and started to put everything together. 1 hour later, a room was ready, 2 hours later another 3 rooms and so on. Shortly, Rent Wereld arrived at the location with 6 mobile showers and installed them all together with our plumber. The safety and security of the building was checked by the fire department, everything was up and running and good to go.
Later on, the news spread, and people started to bring in things and donate all the needs, from bathroom utilities to bedsheets, Tv's, Playstation, toys, even Ping-Pong tables. Till we put everything in place, the kitchen was installed, cleaned by our cleaning team and we started to fill every corner of the kitchen with all kind of food, conserved, vegetables, bread, fresh fruits, drinks and the coffee corner of course.
With all the effort done by the entire DB Work team, from the team organised by our mayor of Sliedrecht, Jan de Vries , from the team of Peter de Borst and many others, the building was washed on the outside, fully cleaned inside, heated and got a spring fresh air and lovely smell from the tulips from each table in the dinning and living room.
The motto of our company DB Work is "Get the job done.” So did we, within 30 hours. Below is the result of the incredible job made by the teams.
After the final check of every corner of the building and preparing the room for the birthday of one little child from the bus who became 8, we opened our caravan, prepared the french fries and waited for the bus to arrive.
After the arrival, we welcomed everyone inside, we shared an emotional moment with the refugees, we inspired them safety and peace, and of course we all sang Happy Birthday to the little boy while having our eyes in tears of joy. It was an amazing experience, fantastic teams and lovely people who are now enjoying a great and peaceful place to live.
I wonder from where this actually started and what's next?
"As a recruitment company, DB Work gained a lot of experience with foreign people, who are coming to the Netherlands from multiple countries to work and live. Working with people on a daily basis, being able to arrange housing, transport to work, international transport to the Netherlands every weekend, health care and many more for our employees, DB work was able to prepare in a such a short notice the accommodation for the refugees. We started this actually in Romania, helping with transport for the refugees in Galati area, and on Friday we thought maybe we can use our transport to the Netherlands and fill the bus with refugees who are looking for a quiet and peaceful home to stay. It is an honor for us to help these people and we will do more than that. For next weekend we will have an accommodation ready up to 150 places, we already have 3 buses in Romania ready for the weekend, and Ukrainian refugees can board the bus and come to the Netherlands," says Den Breejen.
We will always keep looking for an answer to the questions "Why, Why War?". Can we even find an answer? We don't know. When is the end? We don't know. But what we know, is that we can join, we can make teams, we can work together and we can help each other. As Den Breejen did, we strongly encourage that we all do, so the people in need will find peace in our home, as their home might not exist anymore.
Thank you Team DB Work, Thank you United Homes, Thank you Rent a Roof, Thank you Rent Wereld, Thank you Peter de Borst, Thank you Jan de Vries the mayor of Sliedrecht city, Thank you all the teams for the help and the support and above all, Thank you Alex and Stefan Den Breejen for what you started and what you will continue!