20 March is ‘World Happiness Day’. Based on this, Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Breda University of Applied Sciences, and Parktheater Eindhoven organize activities around happiness in the week of 20-27 March. This ‘Dutch Happiness Week’ is all about creating a happy and sustainable society. And you know what? Since last year, the Dutch Happiness Week (DHW) is also being organized in Breda!  

The activities organized during the DHW all have something to do with happiness or the sustainable development goals. The idea behind the DHW is to not only think about your own happiness, but also about that of the city, employees, students, basically everybody. The themes that come back during this week are for example ecology, learning, health, cooperating, and poverty. 

The more the merrier, so especially during this happiness week, everyone in the city is more than welcome to help. You can help with the organization of the events or with your own project. If you can think of a project related to happiness or the sustainable development goals, feel welcome to mail to pepels.g@buas.nl and show your idea at the Dutch Happiness week. The idea doesn’t have to be new by the way, if it is a project you worked on already, for example for school, you can still show your project. You can also help by showing a talent related to your study, whatever study that might be. You could take care of a radio show or make sure the event can be live-streamed. You can do these kinds of activities within BUas, outside of BUas, offline, online, whatever you prefer.  

To get an idea of how broad the different projects within this week are, you can check out the website (http://dutchhappinessweek.nl/). To mention some of the successes of last year: during previous editions, citizens of Eindhoven and Tilburg could nominate a place in the city where they feel happy. These ‘Places of Happiness’ were combined into a brochure. Also, a musical, about dreams and challenges, starring disabled people was organized. At BUas, visitors of the DHW could write down their ideas for the city. For instance, a language school for foreigners! 

For questions or if you want to sign up for the event, you can contact Ger Pepels pepels.g@buas.nl  or Anne van den Broek broek.a@buas.nl, and for more information you can read this leaflet about the DHW. The Urban Living Lab helps to realize the Dutch Happiness Week. If you want to read more about the Urban Living Lab in Breda, you can read this article. 

Let’s create some happiness together!