St Hilversum One has projects in Hilversum that are centred around making culture more diverse and inclusive in Hilversum. Our target group is everyone in Hilversum but we facilitate in all our projects that everyone feels comfortable irregrdaless of their gender, religion and economic status. Culture participation for everyone is our specialty. One of our biggest and growing projects is Afrikadag Festival which brings all sorts of people from Hilversum and the whole country to Hilversum to celebrate the diversity and beauty in African cultures. We also have children culture participation project and this is an amazing one too because it exposes children from less advantaged backgrounds to culture organisations in Hilversum with the intention that they sign up for regular culture activities.
I am an Accountant by profession and l head a Finance department in the non governmental sector and that is my day job. After organising festivals in the Oude Haven park for 8years l guess l can now be classified as a lot of things, a socio-cultural leader, an event organisor, a community bulider, a mother and a friend to some Hilversumers. l love that an organisation is also in the background where people of colour or foreigners have a go-to when they need assistance professionally or personally and we connect them to specialists such as Versa welzijn or the gemeente.
l am passionate about equality and inclusion and that is what l like about my work in St Hilversum One. I hope to inspire young people of colour to also start their own foundations that are centred in their communities.