ORANJESTAD – The beautiful white-sanded beaches, the amazing luxurious resorts and the mouthwatering choice of restaurant dishes are a huge attraction of Aruba that make for a fantastic vacation. If you would like to add a little local connection to that, this weekend is yours. The biggest volunteer event ARUBA DOET will take place Friday and Saturday. You are most welcome to join and roll up your sleeves together with the locals to create some happiness on One Happy Island …. Just by doing.
Renovating, building, cleaning, organizing and gardening are some of the key words that apply to the jobs to be done. Schools, foundations, sport organizations … they are the ones being helped by this initiative and they really need it. This is a weekend of social cohesion and a contribution to the social community of the island. Above all it is fun too as there are snacks and drinks during well-deserved breaks and the fulfilling feeling that you achieved something in the end by supporting the island’s people.
One of the amazing initiatives that takes place is a dance workshop for deaf people by professional dance instructor and owner of Night Club Emotions, Reggie Bermudez on Saturday between 9:30 AM – 1:30 PM. President of the Foundation for People with Limited Hearing (FEDAA), Stella B. Montsanto: “Our goal is to defend the rights of those who have troubled hearing or cannot hear at all. We will see what they need, guide them, advise them, inform them and educate them whenever they need it.
Problems of communication, social isolation, discrimination on the workplace, economic crisis and other problems often come together with the already harsh fact that you have a limitation.” She is very happy with the upcoming event; “Deaf people dance to vibrations and feeling! Let your Deafness no longer be a secret, even in art.”
Heart & Soul
Friday the 9th and Saturday the 10th of March 2018, CEDE Aruba in cooperation with the OranjeFonds will be organizing ARUBA DOET, the biggest volunteer event on Aruba. The Netherlands and five Caribbean islands highlight these volunteer initiatives and they stimulate everyone to donate their time to help out the people who need it. This helps everyone. Volunteers are the heart and soul of many community organizations.
Through ARUBA DOET the OranjeFonds and CEDE Aruba emphasize how important actively engaged citizens as well as visitors are for the community and for social organizations.
What’s also important, ARUBA DOET helps to improve the image of volunteering and shows how much fun it can be. In Aruba more than 3,600 volunteers were active at 199 jobs in 2017, a record! Obviously the aim is even higher this year, so register your project or sign up as a volunteer now you still can.
OranjeFonds
The event ARUBA DOET started in 2013 on the initiative of the OranjeFonds. Under the names NLdoet (The Netherlands), ARUBA DOET (Aruba), CURA DOET (Curaçao), BON DOET (Bonaire), STATIA DOET (Sint Eustatius) and SXM DOET (Sint Maarten), these six initiatives highlight volunteering and volunteers while encouraging everybody to roll up their sleeves for (part of) a day.
With these six initiatives the OranjeFonds is organizing the biggest volunteer event in the Kingdom in cooperation with thousands of social organizations and with the support of local partners such as CEDE Aruba. The OranjeFonds is the biggest national fund in the social arena and showcases the best the Kingdom has to offer. Around €30 million is spent each year supporting organizations and initiatives that strengthen social cohesion in The Netherlands and the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima are the official patrons of the Fund.
For more information: www.arubadoet.com.
