On October 31st the team of LGBT World Beside with support from COC arranged a Halloween Party for Russian-speaking refugees.
By arranging this event, we aimed to:
Facilitate cultural integration: as Halloween is widely celebrated across the world, there are also regional specificities everywhere, and our party was a way to introduce the guests to the Dutch traditions and customs;
Create a safe and inclusive meeting space: the team of LGBT World Beside always takes care of safety and inclusion at our events to make everyone feel welcome and relaxed in an informal setting. Events like this are important to support the refugees' mental health and allow them to take a break from their daily stuggles.
Additionally, we invited Dutch volunteers to show an example of community support and kindness from local residents, helping refugees feel welcomed and accepted. So the party was also an opportunity for cultural exchange and interaction with the local community.
The party opened with a welcome speech by the organizaers, who briefly introduced themselves, the history and the customs of Halloween in the Netherlands. Then we informally moved on to the activities: costume competition and party games (Mafia, Uno and ghost-hunt). Everyone got their own prize!
We appreciate the contributions of volunteers who help up decorate the location, prepared everything for the party games, shared photos and videos on social media and rated the Halloween costumes.
We invited guests of all ages, including chidlren with famiilies. Eventually only adults showed up, which led to some changes in the program. Also, due to the late arrivals, we didn't have the time for the movie screenings and a guessing game. Despite these organizational challenges, everyone felt that the event was very fulfilling and fun.
Taking notes from the Halloween Party and planning for future events, we want to ensure accessbility and avoid program delay, involve more families with children and seek additional funding: this time, the costs for prizes and refreshments where covered by volunteers, so we would need more resources to hold such events regularly and scale them up to include more people.
Events like this are significant means of supporting and integrating refugees.They allow participants to feel a part of society and engage in the host country’s cultural life. The Halloween party highlighted the importance of creating opportunities for socializing and cultural exchange and demonstrated the key role volunteer work can play in improving people's lives.
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