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Inclusion Works

Inclusion Works: Meet Imra

She’s a gift-shop assistant, a nursing-home volunteer—and a Special Olympics gold medallist!
First photo: A woman in a colourful top smiles at the camera and holds up a parcel wrapped in blue paper with flowers. There are spools of ribbon and wrapping paper in the background. Second photo: A woman wearing sunglasses, a t-shirt and a skirt swings her tennis racket towards a tennis ball. She is standing on a blue tennis court.

Imra de Wolf leads a very busy life indeed! For the past 10 years, she has worked in a gift shop near her home in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands. There, she sews craft products—such as aprons for children. She also helps customers select the perfect gift, which she can artfully wraps for them. Apart from developing her customer service and craft skills, Imra says that working in the shop has also helped to improve her calculations skills, which she had struggled with before.

Outside of work, Imra spends two days volunteering at a local nursing home. She hands out meals and serves tea and snacks. An important aspect of her volunteering is also taking the time to chat with the elderly residents. Imra explains that the nurses are so busy that they do not have the time to give one-to-one attention to each resident—so she plays a vital role. “I have really good contact with the elderly,” Imra says. “When I come back from holidays, they always saying that they had missed me!”

No doubt the nursing home residents were cheering Imra all the way when she took time out of her busy schedule to compete at the Special Olympics World Games in Abu Dhabi earlier this year. Imra returned home with a gold medal in tennis singles and a silver in doubles!

Imra’s work and volunteering achievements prove that INCLUSION WORKS!

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