After being homeless for three years, 100-year-old Ayyada Boukili has found a home in Amsterdam. With the help of the Amsterdam-based Assadaaka Community foundation, Boukili was finally able to sign a lease in July.
The very elderly woman has lived in the Netherlands for about sixty years. Her three children have passed away, and her grandchildren cannot help her. Boukili ended up on the streets of Tilburg. She went from place to place, looking for help.
The Assadaaka Community foundation received calls about an undernourished woman walking the streets of the Brabant city. “A few more days, and she probably would have died,” says the foundation’s founder, Ahmed El Mesri. The foundation brought her to Amsterdam because of the emergency situation.
Who is the Assadaaka Community Foundation?
Assadaaka Community has been helping vulnerable people from Amsterdam for 35 years. People who cannot go to the usual authorities are welcome to contact them. They are currently housing thirty people.
Once in Amsterdam, aid workers discovered that Boukili was not registered anywhere. She was also not insured. “We called the municipality of Tilburg, but they told us that they had no contact with the woman because she was not in the system,” says El Mesri.
The foundation searched for accommodation for Boukili for a month. “We called all the formal and informal acquaintances we have,” says El Mesri. Eventually, there was room in a nursing home for elderly people with dementia. Boukili herself is starting to suffer from dementia and needs extra care.
She now lives with 36 other elderly people in the nursing home. She is very happy with her own studio. El Mesri quickly noticed that Boukili has a lot of humor. “She is an example for the other people we take care of. I joke with her a lot.”
The foundation hopes to be able to continue helping people like Boukili for a long time to come. “We are only a small organization, but we do our best.” Mrs. Boukili is very happy with this effort. She is so enthusiastic that she wants to volunteer at Assadaaka Community.