1) helping people with financial problems
2) guide refugees
3) organise activities for poor people
4) give shelter for homeless people
5) creating social jobs or help finding jobs
The OCMW was founded in the seventies and it was just a social centre. in 1976, there was a law that the OCMW was improved by the government.
The OCMW get their money from the Belgian taxes which comes from the working people in Belgium.
This organisation is a public place where everybody can come to tell their problems. But they can't always help the people. They can give them advise or get them a job, but sometimes people need special help that the OCMW can't offer them, and then the OCMW send them to an other organisation.
In Europe every country has a organisation like the OCMW, but it isn't always the same. But the basic rules are the same.
Illegal refugees can come there too, but only for medical care.
People can only get financial help if they can prove that they don't have money. The OCMW visit your house to see how you live and then they can decide if you need any help. The condition is that you want to find work. If you don't want to work, you have a big problem because they don't want to help you.
This organisation olso have some houses to rent. some of them are from the OCMW and some houses are from the government.
The OCMW is e very good organisation which works very well, but the last years there are more and more strangers who come to this organisation and they don't have enough of houses or money for them.
