Amsterdam Alcoholics Get Beer To Clean Up Streets

Amsterdam has employed the chronic alcoholics as street cleaners, AFP reports. Beer / Flcikr The city has launched a new initiative that is designed to keep the alcoholics from causing trouble. The alcoholics receive €10, a half-packet of rolling tobacco and five cans of beer for a day's work. Gerrie Holterman, who heads the Rainbow Foundation project, said that the alcoholics were “causing a nuisance in Amsterdam's Oosterpark: fights, noise, disagreeable comments to women. The aim is to keep them occupied, to get them doing something so they no longer cause trouble at the park." The alcoholics are divided into two groups of around 10 people, with each group working three days a week. Their working day begins at around 9:00 am and ends at around 3:30 pm. The alcoholics are very happy with this new program. Also, people living in the neighbourhood seem happy, greeting the cleaners as they work.