In 1979 women in Den Bosch started the Vereniging Vrouwenopvang (Women’s Shelter Association), out of criticism of the existing shelter De Tunnel, where in their view women were patronised. At the association, women applied for their own benefits, paid their own rent and decided their own way. The address was secret.

For three years they negotiated with the municipality about a building. Then they squatted one.

The municipality did give some money, but not enough to cover the costs. The washing machine broke down every month. Police, lawyers and social services all referred women to the association. “We are a cheap facility,” a staff member said on the radio. “Women always do everything for nothing anyway.”

On 1 May 1987 they stopped. They organised a handover event: they wanted to hand the shelter over to the national government, the province and the municipality. Nobody from the government came. “The afternoon turned into a farce. They simply silence you to death.”

After that, talks followed. Perhaps they could continue as part of De Tunnel. The very shelter they had once started out against.

This is how a sounding board becomes a service counter. Because the volunteers become exhausted and discouraged. Because there is only money for those who are an institution.

I am not telling this because the service counter is bad. Whoever calls in the middle of the night now gets someone on the line. I am telling it because this is how it went: the sounding board was not abolished. It became exhausted.

The Vrouwenkrant Tilburg shows the shift very precisely, in a single word that changes over the years:

“So we don’t speak of a board in this association, but of a core group.” (1977)
“The core group, or the ‘board’” (1978)
The Stichting Vrouwencentrum (Women’s Centre Foundation) “gets a board for the first time”. (c. 1981)

That loss could also be heard at the handover of the CBV archive. At the end, several women expressed their sadness that the CBV no longer exists. A community centre now sometimes offers courses to women with a migration background. But for many women that is not an option. There are men there too.

One of the moments that has stayed with me most from my time as a fellow was the handover of the archive of the Centrum Buitenlandse Vrouwen (Centre for Foreign Women, CBV) to the Regionaal Archief Tilburg. There was a small event where women of the CBV talked about their time there.

The women of the CBV organised their own emancipation. They gave courses in Dutch, and arithmetic too. Some women came from such a remote area that they had never been able to learn arithmetic. And in Brabant they suddenly had to do the shopping, with money.

Fatia came from Somalia. She took courses, became a volunteer and was later employed. She told what it was like to hold her first payslip. Then she took the CBV’s mediation course. She guided women who had just arrived in the Netherlands, along the same road she had travelled herself. And she developed a guideline for talking with Somali families about female genital mutilation. That method, she said, is still being used.

If a woman had not turned up at the course for a week, Zehra would go and ring her doorbell. If the husband opened the door, she would say: your wife absolutely must come back. This is very important. For the future of your children too.

Informal networks like these are exactly what a service counter cannot offer. Zehra knew the women. She knew who was missing and whose doorbell to ring. A service counter waits until you come yourself.

Sources: Radio Vrij Den Bosch (BHIC, access 1952), inv. no. 134, side A: “Vrouwenopvang gaat sluiten” (May 1987). Vrouwenkrant Tilburg, 7 December 1977, 8 November 1978 and 31 December 1986. Gathering at the handover of the archive of the Centrum Buitenlandse Vrouwen to the Regionaal Archief Tilburg, 2026.