ROTTERDAM, 13 May 2026 – Lien Bhaggan from Rotterdam has been named Taalheld Zuid-Holland 2026 and is now in the running for the national Language Hero Prize (Taalheldenprijs). The prize celebrates adults who are learning to improve their reading, writing, numeracy or digital skills.

_{Image: Anita Witzier, ambassador of Stichting Lezen en Schrijven, surprised Lien Bhaggan during her language class. Photo: Stichting Lezen en Schrijven.}

Bhaggan was surprised during her language class by Anita Witzier, ambassador of Stichting Lezen en Schrijven. The national award ceremony takes place on 24 June, with ten nominees from across the Netherlands competing for the 2026 title.

Rotterdam nominee reaches final

Bhaggan represents South Holland in this year’s national selection. She had difficulty reading and writing for years, but now follows a course and attends a local language group every day. That daily commitment is exactly why this story matters. Improving basic skills (basisvaardigheden) as an adult takes time, courage and the willingness to walk into a classroom when many people would rather hide the problem.

Anita Witzier brings surprise

Stichting Lezen en Schrijven called in March for course participants to be nominated for the Taalheldenprijs. Bhaggan was selected as the South Holland nominee and was surprised during class by Witzier. The foundation says every nominee has shown that it is never too late to grow in language, numeracy or digital skills. It also stresses that behind many learners there is someone who noticed, started the conversation and offered support.

In total, ten people have been nominated for the national Taalheldenprijs. Together, they represent adults across the country who have taken a visible step towards stronger basic skills.

Low literacy affects daily life

In the Netherlands, one in five people aged 16 to 75 has difficulty with basic skills such as language, numeracy and digital skills. That can affect work, health, money matters and confidence in everyday life.

The hardest part is often not the learning itself, but the shame around asking for help. Stichting Lezen en Schrijven wants the Taalheldenprijs to make these stories more visible, so more adults feel able to take that first step. And honestly, that first step deserves applause, not embarrassment.

Public vote opens in June

Besides the jury prize of €2,500, the nominees also have a chance to win the public vote. Everyone in the Netherlands can vote for their favourite nominee from Monday 1 June to Sunday 21 June. Voting takes place via www.taalheld.nl, where the nominees will introduce themselves. The Taalheldenprijs is organised by Stichting Lezen en Schrijven, with support from Achmea and the National Postcode Lottery.

Rotterdam story with wider meaning

Bhaggan’s nomination gives Rotterdam a personal story inside a much bigger national issue. Reading a letter, filling in a form, understanding a payslip, using a smartphone or helping a child with schoolwork can all become harder when basic skills are not strong enough.

That is why language courses and local learning groups matter. They are not only about spelling or grammar. They are about independence, confidence and being able to take part in daily life without constantly having to work around the things you cannot yet do.

Vote for Lien Bhaggan

Voting for the public prize opens on Monday 1 June and closes on Sunday 21 June. You can vote via www.taalheld.nl once the voting page is live. The national Taalheldenprijs ceremony takes place on 24 June. If Bhaggan wins, Rotterdam will have a national language hero to celebrate, and frankly, we do enjoy a Rotterdam win with a good human story behind it.

ROTTERDAM, 1 April 2026 – Rotterdam Architecture Month 2026 will turn the Keilekwartier into a live testing ground for circular building, with a new Materials Yard at the centre of the programme. Throughout June, you will be able to see how reused materials, shared responsibility and local collaboration could shape the future of building in Rotterdam.

_{Photo: Fred Ernst}

Rotterdam Architecture Month is putting a difficult question front and centre this year: how do you build without waste when the construction chain is still fragmented? The 2026 edition takes that question into M4H, where the city’s circular ambitions are no longer abstract policy language but something you can walk through, look at and discuss.

At the heart of the month is the Materials Yard (Materialenwerf), a flexible new site in the Keilekwartier where used building materials will be collected, processed and prepared for reuse. It opens on Wednesday 3 June and serves as the main festival hub for the rest of the month.

Why the Materials Yard matters

The idea behind the Materials Yard is simple, but the implications are larger. If Rotterdam wants to become fully circular by 2050, with no waste, far less raw material use and a climate-neutral construction sector, the city needs more than better tools. It also needs a different way of working.

That means designers speaking to demolition firms earlier, contractors joining the conversation sooner, clients allowing room for uncertainty, and public bodies, makers, researchers and residents sharing responsibility rather than guarding their own corner. Rotterdam Architecture Month 2026 argues that circular building cannot work if every party keeps optimising only its own part of the process.

M4H becomes the testing ground

This year’s festival is based in M4H, the former port and industrial area that is now being reshaped into a mixed urban district. For Rotterdam, it is a logical place to stage this experiment. The municipality and Port of Rotterdam Authority have already marked M4H as the city’s circular development area, where making, living and working are meant to come together in new ways.

The Materials Yard, designed by Studio ACTE, is intended as a working meeting point where supply and demand for reused materials can meet. It also makes the chain behind reuse visible. Instead of treating circularity as a polished end result, the project shows how many steps, decisions and partnerships are needed to make reused building materials viable in the first place.

Materialenwerf. Photo: Frank Hanswijk

Keilepand looks at collective power

While the Materials Yard focuses on the movement of materials, the nearby Keilepand turns to the social side of circular building. Under the title The power of community (De kracht van de gemeenschap), an exhibition developed with the KeileCollectief explores how cooperative and collective models can support circular area development.

That gives the programme a useful balance. You are not just being shown reclaimed materials and flexible structures, but also the kind of shared effort needed to organise them. The exhibition makes the case that cooperation is not an extra layer added at the end, but one of the basic conditions for circular development to work at all.

What you can expect in June

For four weeks, the Keilepand and the area around the Materials Yard will host a broad public programme. Expect workshops, films, tours, talks and markets, including vintage furniture and household items, as well as practical sessions where visitors can work with materials from the yard itself.

The full month runs from 1 to 30 June 2026, with the festival heart opening on Wednesday 3 June. That makes Rotterdam Architecture Month 2026 less about polished future talk and more about showing you, in real time, how a circular city might actually function when materials, people and responsibilities are forced into the same space.

ROTTERDAM, 1 April 2026 – Roparun has donated €2,845 to Rotterdam-based Stichting Voor Jou to support a retreat weekend for women living with or after cancer. The June programme is already fully booked, underlining how strong the demand has become for spaces focused on rest, recovery and shared experience.

The donation will help fund Coming home to your body (Thuiskomen in je lijf), a retreat taking place from 26 to 28 June 2026 for women living with or after cancer, including women with metastatic cancer. For Stichting Voor Jou, the support helps keep the weekend financially accessible to participants who need it.

The Rotterdam foundation says the retreat is built around rest, recovery, reflection and peer support. The programme includes group coaching with horses, haptotherapy-based exercises (haptonomische oefeningen), dance and bodywork, yoga, meditation, relaxation exercises, conversations, healthy meals and time outdoors.

A retreat shaped around recovery

The weekend itself will take place at conference centre Samaya in Werkhoven, while the horse coaching element will happen at a location in Arnhem. The aim is to help participants reconnect with their bodies, build trust in themselves and in life again, and take home practical ways to relax more effectively in daily life.

Just as importantly, the retreat gives women space to share experiences with others in a safe setting. That kind of contact can be hard to find elsewhere, especially when illness, treatment and recovery affect not just the body, but also confidence, identity and everyday routines.

A growing need for deeper support

Stichting Voor Jou has been organising relaxation weekends for women with cancer since 2013. In 2024, the organisation launched a pilot version of this retreat in response to a growing need for more depth and emotional processing in a calmer setting.

That pilot was evaluated very positively, with the organisation pointing to meaningful insights, emotional depth and the added value of elements such as horse coaching and haptotherapy guidance. The 2026 edition is already fully booked and has a waiting list, which says plenty about how needed this kind of support has become.

Why Roparun is supporting it

Roparun director Lesly Wolters said: “With this donation, we are supporting an initiative that truly helps women living with and after cancer move forward. Especially during a period in which trust in one’s own body can come under pressure, it is of great value to find rest, recognition and new strength. This retreat weekend offers space for that in a warm and personal way. That fits with Roparun’s mission to contribute to quality of life for people with cancer.”

That mission has been part of Roparun’s work for 35 years. The organisation supports palliative care projects for people with cancer, including hospices, wish ambulances, wigs and holidays for people with cancer and their loved ones.

Rotterdam remains the finishing point

For many people in Rotterdam, Roparun is still most visible during the annual Pentecost weekend event, when thousands of participants run and cycle from France and the Netherlands to the city. In 2025, the fundraising event brought in more than €4.7 million.

This latest donation is much smaller in scale, but very specific in its effect. For a Rotterdam foundation like Stichting Voor Jou, it helps protect access to a retreat that offers women living with or after cancer a little more breathing room, and a little more support, at a time when both matter.

ROTTERDAM, 23 March 2026 – Fourteen organisations from South Holland are in the running for an Appeltje van Oranje, the annual award from the Oranje Fonds for social initiatives that strengthen society. This year’s edition focuses on organisations helping people break through poverty and debt problems in a lasting way, with several Rotterdam names making the longlist of 50 candidates.

The Appeltjes van Oranje are awarded each year to three organisations in the Netherlands and the Caribbean part of the Kingdom that make a special contribution to a more connected society. This year, the Oranje Fonds received 99 submissions and selected 50 organisations as contenders.

Rotterdam names on the list

For Rotterdam, the list includes several familiar names working close to communities where support is urgently needed. Among the South Holland organisations selected are Stichting Warm Rotterdam, Thuis in West, Stichting Humanitas, Stichting vader en zoon Feyenoord, Stek, stichting voor Stad en Kerk, Stichting Cult North, Stichting Voedselbanken Nederland, regio Rotterdam, and Stichting JAN.

The full South Holland selection also includes Stichting de Buitenwacht, Leerwerkbedrijf Stichting Ecoware, Stichting Facts, Stichting Shout, Stichting Don Bosco Rijswijk and Stichting Zuster Mina.

That makes fourteen organisations from the province in total, a strong showing in a year centred on poverty and financial vulnerability. The Oranje Fonds says it is specifically looking for organisations that help people reduce or prevent poverty in a sustainable way by strengthening their knowledge and skills.

Focus on breaking poverty cycles

This year’s theme is Samen Armoede doorbreken, or breaking through poverty together. The Oranje Fonds points to poverty as a persistent problem in the Netherlands, affecting health, opportunity and people’s ability to participate fully in society.

According to the press material, more than half a million people in the Netherlands live below the poverty line, while another 1.1 million live just above it. The Oranje Fonds says existing poverty policy is often too complicated or not sufficient enough, which is why local social initiatives remain essential.

How the selection works

The next public phase is the ten-day voting period, which runs from 18 May to 27 May. During that period, anyone can cast one vote through the special voting website for one of the fifty contenders.

The organisation receiving the most votes will become the first official nominee. The remaining nine nominees will be selected after a pitch day in June, when organisations present themselves to each other and to a jury. The jury then decides which groups complete the shortlist.

Final awards in October

Three winners will ultimately receive an Appeltje van Oranje on 8 October, when Queen Máxima presents the awards. Each winning organisation receives a bronze statue designed by Princess Beatrix and a cash prize of €25,000.

To qualify, initiatives must be active for at least two years and play an indispensable role in society. For the Rotterdam and South Holland organisations now on the list, the next challenge is turning regional support into enough visibility to move from contender to nominee.

More information

A full overview of all contenders is available at www.appeltjevanoranje.nl.