Dutch aged care home offers ‘free’ rent to students

The Dutch aged care facility Humanitas Deventer, located 60 kilometers outside of Amsterdam, has successfully trialled six students receiving free rent in the facility I return for 30 hours work a month.
The ‘work’ is mainly assisting in the dinner preparation and just spending time with the residents. The CEO Gea Sijpkes says the six students bring ‘life’ to the residents.

'The elderly tell stories, they have a lot of interest in the young ones. They always want to know whether they have girlfriends and whether they are staying overnight,' she laughs.

'They have conservations that are much more like everyday life than when they are only a group of elderly people talking. Then it is mainly about illnesses, or that somebody has died.

'Now they are talking about the music party that the students go to in Amsterdam!'