Everyone has a birthday, but not everyone celebrates

Founder and director of B-Challenged, Wim Haveman, had a dream 10 years ago: to prepare young people for the life of a young professional. Today, his dream takes the form of a structured programme that helps young people achieve their goals.

Above all, B-Challenged is about personal growth. The young people that the programme brings together and trains to become event planners are part of a larger project. A project that helps young people discover their own strengths through regular voluntary work.

The mission trains young people between 16 and 27 to become true event planners. Responsibilities include promotion, production and planning. The youth programme, called EventHands, lasts for one year and its ultimate goal is the organisation of their own event.

EventHands helps vulnerable young people who are struggling with problems such as school drop-out, family problems and unemployment. They do this by providing professional training and building up the necessary life structure.

This year's theme is 'Everyone is having a birthday' and the aim is to organise parties for those who were unable to celebrate their birthdays last year.

In any case, the young people knew how to create a cosy birthday atmosphere: from a distance, the disco ball, colourful balloons and streamers of light became visible. Later, we saw a DJ, singing performances and lots of dancing. The party was a real success for Amsterdam's newest event planners.

This is what the young people said

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A number of EventHands members told us about their experience with the organisation. For them, being part of the project equals commitment and increased self-confidence.

For participant Mina, the event she co-organised came at exactly the right time. She told us that in 2018 she did not have money nor friends to celebrate her birthday and that the party was meant for people in a similar situation.

Another participant told us how the programme has guided him to a professional path.

"At EventHands, I discovered that I wanted to go into the events business," Revellinho Hamel told me. "So now I am working at different events to learn how everything works."