Vera Meirjng by Amal Alshaabi

Vera Meirjng BY AMAL ALSHAABI

“Keep up the good work. Take care of your family. Never give up. I am thankful for your friendship and all the nice memories we made. Although I had a short life, I am very proud of what I achieved.” These were the last voice messages I received from my best friend Vera. Vera Meirjng was born in Groningen in 1995. At the age of 16, she moved out to Utrecht to start her study journey and independent life. She signed up for a Social Work study at Utrecht University. She enjoyed this study a lot because it fits her passion to help people.

In 2015, a new wave of refugees came to Europe including the Netherlands. These refugees were sent to shelters all over the Netherlands, including Utrecht where Vera was living. At that moment, Vera decided to go to the refugee camp in Utrecht to see what she could do to help. Luckily, Vera spoke English fluently which helped her communicate with the refugees who speak English. She started coming daily to the camp to talk to people and give them her telephone number to call her for help. That was when I met her and exchanged my telephone number with her. We started talking every day to get to know each other and see what she could do to help the refugees, including me, in the camp. These people were not allowed yet to work, study or even stay in the Netherlands and they were in desperate need of daily needs such as shampoos, razors, diapers, food, etc. Being a student, Vera could not supply them with these needs. However, she decided to go on social media and ask for help, that is where she created a Facebook group called New Neighbours Utrecht. She did not see those new people as refugees, but rather as new neighbours. She invited all her contacts to the group and posted it everywhere on social media. This platform became a tool for connecting Dutch people with their new neighbours. Everyone posted in this group inviting these neighbours for a cup of coffee or dinner to get to know one another.

However, not all refugees speak English, so Vera came up with an activity for teaching Dutch for free at the camp. She organised it with COA17, the organisation that ran the camps, and volunteers from New Neighbours Utrecht. She printed the explanation and instructions in Arabic and asked other refugees who speak English to help her translate when she was teaching Dutch. Many new neighbours were coming every day to learn the language and classes were full. Next to the Dutch classes, Vera came up with another project called Meet and Eat where the Dutch families signed up as hosts ones on the Facebook group and the new neighbours as guests. The idea was that the hosts invited the guests for a dinner where they got to know each other. In this way, they both develop their network connections and help each other. This activity was the favourite one among new neighbours because they could get in contact with local people and feel welcome. It decreased the new neighbours' feelings of being alone and isolated in a new country in which they had no friends or relatives.

Vera, everyone's friend, shed the light on all the problems and catastrophes she heard about. For example, there was a group of Ahwazi people who ran away from the injustice against them in Iran. She heard their stories and organized protests in front of the municipality in Utrecht in which this group was telling their stories to Dutch people and introducing them to the injustice that was

17 The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers. We have been responsible for the reception, support and guidance of asylum seekers in the Netherlands since 1994.

happening. Vera and the people who heard their stories were in shock that the media does not offer any information or cover the injustice and the arbitrary killing against Ahwazi. Therefore, Vera decided to make such kinds of protests at least once a month to raise awareness about it. That is when she decided to join Amnesty18 and became an active member of it. Together with many volunteers in this organization, Vera stood for hours in many cities in the Netherlands holding signs and photos that show the injustice and killing of the Syrian, Ahwazi, Yemeni people, and all other nationalities.

Being an admin of a social platform that has more than 4500 people, other organizations started joining her group to reach as many people as they can. That was when Vera became a member of an organization called UAF19 which provided financial support for students who are 30+ because they were not entitled to the financial grants from DUO. Vera was a contact person who she connected with the students of the new neighbors camp who wanted to study in the Netherlands. She did not only support them with financial aid from UAF, but also guided them through finding a suitable study for them, getting to know the Dutch educational system, and helping them find internships. In addition to the above-mentioned organizations, Vera was an active member in Al Amal20 andDock21 where she did whatever she could to help and support everyone in need by either connecting people with each other, raising their voices, finding solutions to their problems, offering financial or social aid, or teaching them Dutch.

In 2019, Vera suddenly became very ill. She lost the ability to walk and became paralyzed. None of the doctors knew the reason or the medical diagnosis for this rare disease. Despite becoming a young woman in a wheelchair, Vera did not give up the good work she was doing even though she had to stop her study. Instead, she was available online on all the platforms she had such as New Neighbours Utrecht, WhatsApp, and other organisations. Sitting alone in a wheelchair in her student room in Utrecht, she continued participating in all the organisations she signed up for by having online meetings with the new neighbours, sharing articles online about the wars and injustice in the world, teaching Dutch, and supporting everyone. However, her health decreased when she could not move her arms anymore. Besides, she was suffering physical pain in her ears and most of her body in addition to urinary catheter infections. Neither physiotherapy nor medicine improved her health. She was fighting the disease and the injustice of other people as if she was in a war between her illness and other people´s destiny. Neither illness nor anything in the world could stop her from being a light that brightens the path of others in the darkness. On the other hand, she was overwhelmed with extra care and love from the new neighbours whom she was helping, including me. Every day she received a new group of women who came to cook for her, change her clothes, and check on her as if they were in a race with the nurses from home care. I

18 Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 10 million people in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end abuses of human rights.

19 The UAF is an organisation in the Netherlands that supports refugee students and professionals in their studies by coaching them or granting them financial support.

20 Al Amal is an independent organization in Utrecht that aims to promote the participation of residents with a migration background, particularly women.

21 DOCK supports people in taking initiatives. They establish contacts between people and organizations in the area and bring opportunities together

used to go on the weekend to cook for her and sit down together. Not forgetting the guys who did the grocery for her and visited her on a daily basis. People had to book an appointment to visit her because her small room did not fit everyone from the camp. The walls in her room were full of the children's drawings which they sent with their mothers to her.

She finally had to go back to her parents' house in Groningen where she spent her last days of life. The doctors told her that the only organs she might be able to move in the future are her eyes and tongue. The disease took over her whole body and let her live and sleep in pain with lots of medicine. It was at this moment that Vera decided to put an end to her life by euthanasia. I could not believe my ears and I got very depressed. This was the most shocking news everyone close to her had ever heard. She decided to receive as many visitors as she could and bid farewell to them. They imagined seeing a defeated and depressed young lady who was counting her last days, instead, they met an optimistic, full-of-life lady who kept asking them to keep doing a good job in their lives and never give up. She was the one who was consoling them. She even made group calls with many new neighbours who wanted to see her for the last time and thank her for everything she did for them. On the 21st of February 2022, Vera passed away leaving behind the broken hearts of all the new neighbours she knew and helped since they met her. Although she is gone, her legacy is still present, especially during the new wave of Ukrainian refugees who joined her online platforms and activities to integrate into a new society and ask for help.

Poetry