Rotterdam fund announces donations

(Posted on 27/05/20)

The DeltaPORT Donatiefonds, the port of Rotterdam’s ‘community fund’ has awarded a new series of donations to projects that relate directly to the consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak. The fund has earmarked a total of EUR 75,000 for these projects. Initially, the DeltaPORT Donatiefonds had reserved this amount for an extra donation in celebration of its 50th anniversary.

A share of these ‘corona donations’ have now been allocated to the care centres Hart van Zuidland and Bernissesteyn in Zuidland and the Careyn care centre Blankenburg in Rozenburg. These institutions will be using the provided funds to make screened rooms where residents can safely interact with their relatives.

Another organisation that will be receiving support from the DeltaPORT Donatiefonds is the Non-food Bank Maassluis foundation. The funding will allow the local food bank to set up ‘Covid-proof’ work arrangements. DeltaPORT Donatiefonds has also awarded support to the DOCK welfare foundation in Hoogvliet for the compilation of a pack of craft supplies for lonely elderly.

The Rozenburg neighbourhood committee will be receiving funds to organise a large-scale play day for children later in the summer. And the Schiedam organisations Het Zimmertje and Fietsmaatjes Schiedam can count on the fund’s support for a locally sourced gift box for elderly residents of the Groenoord neighbourhood who are currently unable to make use of the two organisations’ services.

Other recipients include the foundation de Feijenoordse Middenstip, which will be making its neighbourhood playground ‘Covid-proof’, the Rotterdam storytelling centre Belvédère, which will be arranging storytelling sessions from people’s balconies or gardens, and the Koningshof theatre in Maassluis, for live performances out in the street and at people’s doors.

The Rotterdam foundation Move, which brings students in touch with school classes in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, will be receiving a donation to support the production of videos for online projects by students and schoolchildren. Lori Events will be receiving a donation for the project ‘het hartje van Rotterdam’, in which an actor will work to lift residents’ spirits at various care centres in Charlois.

The DeltaPORT Donatiefonds was set up exactly 50 years ago this summer. To mark this anniversary, the fund planned to make an extra, large-figure donation. These funds will now be used for a different purpose. “It is precisely during a crisis like this that we can show our added value as a community fund,” explains fund chair Wim Groenendijk. “For example, in these times, the care, education and cultural sectors are all in dire need of support.”