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Actors Yuli Minguel (l) and Kaltoum Boufangacha (r). © Jan de Groen

“Did this really happen in the Netherlands?” These actors could hardly believe the script
A desperate mother who lives near the train station and thinks: Should I do it or not? Or should I put the kids to sleep? Families who have to poop in sandwich bags because the water is shut off at home. A selection of the true stories of victims of the benefits scandal, who are now coming together in a theater performance.
Iffet Subsists 18-05-23, 19:33 Last updated: 19-05-23, 08:09

If anyone should play a leading role in a theater performance about the benefits affair, it's Yuli Minguel. For the simple reason that she also became a victim herself.,, This is very important for my own processing of the process. It feels like a gift,” says Yuli.,, All the scenes came to me so deeply that I cried a lot during rehearsals. Tears that had to come out more often and much earlier.” She dedicates the play to her daughter Lua Lion, who died during Yuli's fight against child care.

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Her story? She became a victim of postal code discrimination and faced preconceptions from care workers “about low-income black mothers with poor insulation,” says Yuli. She ended up on a suspect list, even though she was a social worker herself. During the week that she had to defend herself against emergency agencies, her three-month-old daughter's heart stopped in the baby carrier. She thought her daughter was asleep.
True theater
“In that week, I was so stressed. On all sides, I was looked at distrustfully and inhumanely, purely because some emergency workers are in tunnel vision. On Sunday, my daughter was taken off artificial respiration in the hospital, and the next morning I had to answer. It was terrible. All this time, I held myself responsible for Lua's death,” says Yuli, who tells her story with wet eyes during rehearsals. On that particular November 5, 2018, she was ruled in favour. There were apologies from various authorities accusing her.
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I thought, you see, I'm not crazy
Together with Kaltoum Boufangacha, Yuli is one of the players of the theater show Lost Innocence. Together, they will perform a two-man show at various theaters in Rotterdam in the coming months. When Yuli read the script, she recognized herself in it. “I thought, you see, I'm not crazy. All this time, I've been doubting myself. And that is also the danger, isn't it. All those agencies put you on the fear axis. You have to be very spiritually armed not to keep living on that axis. I couldn't have done it.”
“This is really a completely different way of experiencing theater, because it really happened,” actress Kaltoum Boufangacha continues.,, When I read the script, I thought: man, did this really happen in the Netherlands? Is there no nuance to it? So no. The audience hears one fierce story after another.”
Pooping in sandwich bags
One of the scenes that Kaltoum performs is about a mother who lives near a train station and who wants to end her children's lives.,, That you're thinking about killing your child because you think that's the solution. I find that scary. You come into a dark type of your whole being. But a mother, in such a state, can do that.”
For example, there are more confrontational scenes, Yuli continues.,, I was particularly shocked by stories of families who have to poop in sandwich bags because the water is shut off at home. They couldn't flush the toilet. Violent!” The piece also touches on topics “that we are not used to talking about in the Netherlands,” says Yuli. “Like institutional racism.”

No one could explain how this could have happened.
Yuli and Kaltoum play around 25 characters. The setting is dark, set up with tables that serve as a kind of truth commission where confessions are made. The audience sits in the committee's gallery, around the setting. “It's nice that the audience can look at each other. They're constantly mirroring each other,” says Kaltoum.
The script was created based on conversations with participants from Volhouders Rotterdam. A peer group that finds support together.
Honor and Conscience
It also includes a scene by Linet Etnel Hall Block. She had to reimburse the tax authorities 26,000 euros.,, No one could explain how this could have happened. I never had the money myself. Everything went directly to the daycare,” she says. Linet and her partner both had good jobs. She worked as an official at the Social Services. “All this time, I thought it was karma. That someone has put a curse on me. Perhaps I had once wrongly rejected something to a family. At the same time, I knew that I was always acting in good faith.”

Everyone must have seen it so that this should never happen again
The aftermath is still there, she says.,, You don't restore by turning a button. That's also why it's important that this performance is there. Everyone must have seen it so that this should never happen again.”
Another scene comes from the duped Maria Morais - Van Vliet. Her story is scripted as follows:,, I was in the schoolyard, and I thought: am I the only one who has this? I had heard something about the use of algorithms in the government. I thought: Surely it's not true that I ended up in such an algorithm?” Mary looks back on that day while gulping on the phone. Not her husband, who is Dutch, was charged by the tax authorities but she, purely because she has a Cape Verdean name.,, When I was in that schoolyard, it felt like I was undressed. For the first time, I felt unwelcome in this country. Like I'm a criminal.”
Crazy times
Kaltoum hopes that the performance holds up a mirror to the audience: “We're living in a crazy time where we don't look at who you are as a person. We let robotic mechanisms determine our connections. I hope the show learns to look at each other without judgment.”
From May 18, the Rotterdam Neighbourhood Theatre will tour the country with Lost Innocence.

<img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-3454" src="https://kindertoeslagaffaire.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Afbeelding23-300x202.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="202" />
Victims of the benefits scandal demonstrate in front of the tax office. With Yuli Minguel in the middle, addressing the attendees. © ANP/ANP

Date

09 July 2023

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