The ROZE foundation is experiencing a shortage of volunteers, which means that not all animal ambulances can drive continuously and the control room is not always occupied. It involves hundreds of people who are needed to keep everything running.
This is evident from research by Demi van Rooij, who made a podcast about it. According to Van Rooij, the shortage does not only occur at Stichting ROZE, but throughout the Netherlands. In her podcast she explains that according to the CBS in 2012, 51 percent of the Dutch did volunteer work at least once. In 2021 that will be only 39 percent. The decrease is related to low unemployment, other interests and health problems.
In the podcast series ‘Helping Hands’ Journalism student Van Rooij takes a look at various sectors that are largely run by volunteers. A visit to Eindhoven Regional Shelter for Stray Animals (ROZE) could not be missed.
Volunteer shortage
The ROZE foundation offers help to animals in need 365 days a year and does all this on the basis of volunteers and donations. “We started in Eindhoven last year with fifty volunteers and now we are already at three hundred. Yet it still happens often enough that we are short of hands,” explains manager Alma van Doremalen.
“Three hundred sounds like a lot, but it is still not enough to have all ambulances drive continuously and to occupy the control room. We are still short of at least a hundred volunteers. And especially in the high season, that is dire with the many reports.”
Driving in circles
Other interests, health problems and the low unemployment rate are all reasons why fewer people volunteer. According to them, the work as a volunteer at the animal ambulance should not be underestimated. “The work consists largely of cleaning. At first, I thought it was mainly driving around, picking up dogs and hugging a lot, but I really misjudged that”, explains one of the volunteers of the ROZE foundation.
“I once spent a whole night working on a run-over animal on the highway. The animal was in two bits and had to be removed and destroyed. You don’t easily lose that image, but it is also part of the work as a volunteer at the animal ambulance.”
Source: Studio040
Translated: Yawar Abbas
