Stichting Help

Through customs with all the fabrics in one piece!

That was indeed rather tense, but thanks to the watchful eye of an airport employee, all the humanitarian goods in my five suitcases came through intact, without being so-called "confiscated". Thanks to Arkefly, I could take this much extra luggage free of charge. There I was again then, back in my beloved Sosúa, where I am always so royally received in the hotel Casa Marina that it's just like coming home. And so to work.

The new accommodation of the Colegio Asher is slightly larger, but also quite dark, and especially hot. It's really very hard for teachers and pupils to concentrate in these conditions, and after a couple of hours you are completely exhausted. We keep hoping for a new building for the school that the Asher Foundation will own. The many beautiful pieces of cloth were received with cheers and the children are very eager to attend the handicraft lessons. One little girl had been unmanageable for quite a time, and would absolutely not do anything that she was asked in any way whatsoever. After she understood that she could go to handicraft lessons, and had sat behind a machine, she has become a different person. Now she wants to do everything, and I mean everything, as long as she can go to handicraft lessons. A small miracle, thus! Fiol, Judith’s sister, who comes from education and meanwhile also gives lessons at the Colegio, is also going to give handicraft lessons. Both sisters looked equally delighted at the beautiful pieces of material and immediately thought of what the children would be able to do with them.

I went to the Colegio several times. With Dave of the Sosúa Kids Association, who handed out beautiful red caps to all the boys. With Maudie, Saske, Joris and Melanie, who had also brought many pieces of material for me from the Netherlands, and brought and handed out other wonderful things for the children. But especially also with Marina Mytnik from Italy. She and her husband Luciano made several visits to the Colegio. Marina is an art teacher and accustomed to giving lessons to children. She had contacted our foundation and happily wanted to volunteer to give some art lessons. The children loved this and thus they made a beautiful painting together. Judith is very enthusiastic about her way of teaching. When Marina is back in Sosúa again, she will definitely be giving the pupils some more lessons. Although well over half the income from our foundation goes to the Colegio, a lot more money is still needed. We do not have money for medical aid for the pupils, whereas I saw again that this really is very necessary.
There are plans in the future to give practically oriented lessons as well. A type of technical school. Now they have started with the handicraft lessons, and hopefully soon in other areas too.
We also gave money again to our other project, the Sosúa Kids Association, for the school uniforms. This means we are again helping more than 100 children to go to school. With Janet, chairwoman of this organisation, I visited two poverty-stricken families whose children get school uniforms, shoes and rucksacks due to our joint efforts. I was in their boiling-hot shack, made partly of corrugated iron sheets, windowless, in their kitchen with empty pans. There is no money for breakfast, it really is something if they even get one meal a day. Upon seeing this, you really are reduced to silence. Many tourists, who leave their plates behind full of food, should be made to visit this at least once.It was another valuable trip, and I see how we can achieve a lot together. Life for poor children in the Dominican Republic is very tough, but we can definitely soften it a little for some of them. You have certainly contributed to this.