It is generally assumed that in the countryside of Northeast Netherlands children enter primary school with a language delay. Despite the apparent consensus, unequivocal evidence demonstrating that the number of young children with language delays and the magnitude of these delays is, however, lacking. The first aim of this dissertation was, therefore, to examine whether children in Northeast Netherlands indeed enter primary school with language delays, compared to national norms and to same-aged children in other parts of the country. The second aim was to examine the role of socioeconomic and cultural determinants of language development in young children at the beginning stages of primary education.The findings revealed that there are no overall language delays in young children at the beginning stage of primary education in Northeast Netherlands. The predominant image that young children in this region start primary school with a language delay, needs to be adjusted. However, there are clear indications that within the general population in Northeast Netherlands, a relatively large group of children suffers from persistent language delays. It is suggested that changing demographic composition of the villages in the northeastern countryside is related to the differences in language skills that are indicated in this research. Empirical evidence is found for this assumption: this research has revealed that the relationship of socioeconomic factors such as maternal education and language skills of young children are mediated by cultural factors such as the literacy use of parents, their beliefs about child rearing and education, and their expectations regarding children’s academic achievement
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The structure and financing of collective long-term care and support in the Netherlands changed dramatically with the introduction of the Social Support Act (WMO) the 1st of January 2015. This act arranged that municipalities assist people to live in their homes for as long as possible by providing various forms of aid and support. This aid and support however, is in addition to the help that people arrange for themselves and / or receive in the form of volunteer aid (mantelzorg) by family, friends and neighbours. Furthermore under this Act people only become eligible for state financed sheltered accommodation in the exceptional case of severe physical or mental illness. The fact that under the new regime of the Social Support Act municipal support is made additional to volunteer aid, it is important to understand what role family, friends and neighbours potentially can play and in fact do play. This is especially important in regions were unbalanced population decline through out-migration of young people, effectively changes social structures and accelerates the ageing of the population. For this reason we designed a limited pilot-study to test the possibilities and the necessity of a broader study focussing on potential and every day practice concerning volunteer aid for elderly in regions characterized by unbalanced population decline. In this pilot study we will focus on a rural municipality in the north of the Netherlands: Oldambt.Within the framework of this pilot-study we focussed on living arrangements and social network of two groups of senior citizens; one group of men and women aged 65-79 and one group aged 80 years and over. Based on demographic data kindly made available by the municipal office of Oldambt, in this paper we will draw a picture of these citizens living in the municipality. Going deeper into the material and the municipality’s structure we will than focus on one of the municipality’s communities, Finsterwolde, with its village, hamlets and surrounding rural area. For the purpose of this pilot-study we constructed a sample of 30 men and women aged 80+-elderly and asked them to fill in a questionnaire. Based on the outcomes of these questionnaires we than had five in-depth interviews with some of them. Finally, on the basis of the gathered material, we will draw some general conclusions while presenting some new questions for further research into the living conditions and social support systems for elderly in a region with unbalanced population decline and accelerated ageing.
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This paper deals with Rural Tourism in Twente. A comparison is made between Twente and several other regions in The Netherlands. Economic results like Employment and the development in Tourism over the last few years is taken into the comparison. It becomes clear that Twente is a region with a well-developed rural tourism infrastructure, supported by several tourism initiative boards and local communities, which a marketing strategy to attract middle aged and elderly persons, looking for an active and educational holiday. In region marketing, the focus is clearly on the rural tourism possibilities of Twente.
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Air-to-Water (A2W) systems are innovative technologies which make possible to supply drinking water to regions without any nearby surface or ground water source. Such systems use green energy (solar, wind) to condense air humidity and provide fresh water in rather remote locations. As water production is area dependent, they operate at relatively small fluxes (few cubic meters per day, per unit), which makes them especially suitable for small isolated communities that are not supplied by municipal water supply services. Even though they have reached quite high technology redness level (TRL), in-situ, real scale, tests are still required to optimize energy performance and evaluate production at very specific meteorological conditions. In this project we propose an in-situ evaluation of the performance of a real scale A2W system produced by a Dutch company (Dutch Rain Maker, model AW-25) in the semi-arid region of Northeast Brazil. The cooperation with a HBO institute (Water Technology lectoraat, NHL Stenden) will provide the necessary analytical and technical support as well as extra expertise to conduct the tests. The project uses the opportunity given by the state government of Ceará State which built an infra-structure to provide space for in-situ tests for experts and companies who would like to test water technology solutions for arid regions. Finally, it is also intended to help establishing partnerships between European SME and Brazilian end users, i.e. municipalities of the Ceará state and small agriculture companies in the region.
