Helping Refugees Access Legal and Financial Information with HelpSite
A Volunteer’s Mission to Support Families in Need
In Terneuzen, a small town in the Schelde Estuary in the Netherlands, Bart D. dedicated years of his life to volunteering with his local municipality. Each year, about 40 families—including singles, couples, and young people—relied on support when moving into new homes. Many of these families were refugees who needed guidance with legal requirements, financial allowances, exemptions, and other administrative hurdles.
Bart’s role was to make this transition easier by sharing knowledge, pointing families to the right resources, and answering the same recurring questions over and over again. It was work that mattered deeply to the community, but it wasn’t always easy to manage with limited time and resources.
The Challenge – Paper Sheets and Manual Sharing
Before discovering HelpSite, Bart and his team used a printed sheet of questions and answers. Whenever a new family arrived, volunteers would hand out the sheet or explain the information in person. While this system technically worked, it had several limitations:
As someone with a background in software development dating back to the 1980s, Bart knew there had to be a simpler, more scalable solution.
The Solution – A Simple, Free Knowledge Base
When Bart came across HelpSite, he immediately saw its potential. It was a lightweight, easy-to-use tool that didn’t require technical expertise or a large budget — exactly what a volunteer-driven initiative needed.
What stood out to Bart about HelpSite:
Instead of managing and distributing paper sheets, Bart and his team could now point people directly to a knowledge base where everything was up to date and easy to access.
The Impact – Supporting Dozens of Families
With HelpSite, Bart’s volunteer team supported more than 35 people directly by giving them quick access to legal and financial information. The platform also helped new volunteers onboard faster, since they could review existing content instead of learning everything from scratch.
Even though Bart has since stepped back from his volunteer work, the knowledge base he created didn’t disappear with him — it remained available as a resource for others. This continuity meant that his years of work continued to benefit the community long after his day-to-day involvement ended.
Bart’s story demonstrates how even small teams can create meaningful change when given the right tools. By combining his expertise with HelpSite’s simplicity, he showed how a lightweight solution can replace hours of repetitive work and provide real value to people in need.
Advice for Other Volunteers
When asked what advice he would give to others considering HelpSite, Bart’s response was practical and encouraging:
“Start small and share as you build.”
For Bart, the key was not trying to have everything perfect on day one. Instead, he started with the most common questions, published them, and added more content as new needs came up. This step-by-step approach kept the workload manageable while ensuring that families always had something useful to refer to.
Start Your Own HelpSite
HelpSite’s free plan makes it easy for small teams, volunteers, and nonprofits to create knowledge bases that have an outsized impact on their communities. Whether you’re supporting refugees, training volunteers, or answering repetitive customer questions, the process is simple:
Like Bart’s story shows, even modest efforts can make a lasting difference.
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