© Shutterstock
‘The idea came out of a meeting about loneliness in Wageningen, organized by the Tinku foundation,’ says Robin Baas of the Christian Student Party (CSF). ‘It came out that about 3000 people in Wageningen feel lonely. Risk groups are young people, the elderly, and people from other cultures. International students come under the third category. I can imagine that you feel more isolated if you can’t get together with your family at Christmas.’
Potluck
The dinner takes place on Thursday evening at 18:00 in the common room at the Bornsesteeg (house number 3). It is a potluck dinner, which means everyone brings along a dish. CSF will organize the drinks. You don’t have to sign up in advance; you can just turn up. Baas: ‘This is the first time we’re organizing something like this, so we don’t really know how many people to expect.’
After the dinner, CSF want to continue fighting loneliness among international students. ‘We want to see whether we can follow up the dinner with more events in the holiday, so we can get together more often.’
Parties
There are other activities for students staying in Wageningen over the holidays. K.S.V. Franciscus is throwing an open party on Friday 21 December, the PopCultuur foundation and Thuis are hosting live Christmas music, games and other activities on Saturday 22 December, and Unitas will be throwing its annual party in the Junushoff theatre on New Year’s Eve. EvK
Also read:
Meet & Greet in Bornsesteeg
‘It bothers me that there is so much loneliness’
A film for the lonely student
How to survive Wageningen