News

There is a digital newsletter, but it is only available in dutch. News will also be placed in english on this page.

December 2009
CHRISTMAS WISH
Kinderen in Ontwikkeling wishes you a merry Christmas and a beautiful 2010!

November 2009
New accomodation orphanage
With a donation by the Addax Petroleum Foundation (Geneva) this year 2 new houses have been built on the orphanage compound. 12-15 Children and a caretaker will be accomodated in each of these family units. The main house will be less overcrowded than it was before and this results in better compliance to the requirements of the Social Welfare Department regarding hygiene and occupancy. During a visit from Mr. Robert Bulstra (Addax Petroleum) in November the new units have been officially delivered.

Also during this visit Mr. Bulstra has settled the donation we received from the members of the (former) XPLORE project (the group young people that went to the orphanage during the summer of 2007 for a few weeks of building activities). After their return this group has raised a lot of funds and recently they have made available EURO 1850 for the children in the orphanage: 800 euros of this amount have been used (via Kinderen in Ontwikkeling) to sponsor the school fees for Rhoda, a 15 year old girl that is now attending 1st class of Junior High School. We are very happy with this donation: thank you XPLORE!

October 2009
Awareness raising on high school and preparations for the farming project
On Friday October 16th the Gymnasium Novum school in Voorburg had a thematic day on community services. For the first year group Ilse has given a few workshops on the activities of our NGO Kinderen in Ontwikkeling and on doing volunteer work in an african orphanage.
Also we are busy preparing the start of our farming project in spring (2010). The Louis Bolk Institute is advising us and early November our Board will have a meeting with Mr. Sam Adimado from GOAN, who will be visiting Holland by then. GOAN (Ghana Organic Agriculture Network) will execute the farming project for us.

June 2009
New school sponsorship: Emmanuel
Thanks to ex-volunteer Lotte, 16-year old Emmanuel can start his second year on Kumasi Technical School (SHS) in September. Lotte worked in the orphanage in 2007 (through the XPLORE project) and has kept a warm interest in the orphanage and in Emmanuel ever since. She has also warmed up her parents Karin and Huub and her brother Pim for this idea, and together this family will now provide Emmanuels’ sponsorship. Super action from Lotte! We are very happy for Emmanuel…

Emmanuel

Lotte and Paulina

Lotte, Karin, Pim and Huub

Also the schoolfees for twin brothers Charles and Tomas (14 years old) have been paid for this school year! This donation came from Mrs. de R., who turned 65 last November and raised money for the orphanage on that occasion. In March we have already purchased a large amount of rice and Lactogen from this donation, and the rest was reserved for this new school year for Charles and Thomas. In September they will start their third (and last) class of JHS in Bekwai. Once more many thanks to Mrs. de R.!

May 2009
Joska raises money by selling compliments
Our NGO has many friends, but we are especially proud of our little friend Joska. On Queens Day she has sold compliments and the revenue (18,50 euros) she has donated to us for the children in the orphanage. Thank you Joska!!!

Joska with her moeder Merlijn and her brother Hugo

April 2009
Sponsoring for Michael and Prince
Ex-volunteer Els will sponsor the schoolfees for Michael (5 years old) and Prince (6 years old) as from now. Starting this trimester, they will attend KinderGarten at the school in Bekwai. Els has deliberately chosen to sponsor 2 kids, so that the boys can go together and be in the same class. Hurray for Els!

Michael

Prince

11 March 2009
Dutch NGO “Westland Helpt Afrika” supports the Hand in Hand project in 2009
On March 11th Ilse was invited to present the Hand in Hand project for the handicapped to the dutch NGO “Westland Helpt Afrika”. Based on this meeting, the NGO chose our project as one of the two projects that they will raise money for in 2009! The first activity is their yearly Pentacost Cycle Tour. At the end of 2009 we will hear the total revenue of all their activities and then we will decide, together with Westland Helpt Afrika, how it will be spent in Nkoranza.

February 2009
Arrival of container
The content of our container has reached its destination! It is divided over the two locations of Alafya: the new orphanage in Sunyani and the overcrowded house in Bolgatanga. And the old football outfits that JAC and SV’35 donated (because of their fusion to SVC’08 in 2008 the club has got new colours and all teams have got new outfits) now have a perfect new destination at the Marist Preparatory School, where we sponsored a new sports field last year.

31 December 2008
Kinderen in Ontwikkeling wishes you a wonderful 2009!

In January we will report on all our activities of the past months, including a visit to Ghana in november/december.
For now we wish you, also on behalf of the children, a happy ending and a nice start of 2009!

15 August 2008
Once again shoppings for the orphanage
Thanks to Bettina we can again show some pictures of the groceries we arranged for the orphanage: this time supplies like soap, cleaning and disinfection materials, toiletpaper, etc. Also Pepsodent has been purchased. We are glad to be able to present pictures like this on our website since we like to show our sponsors what materials are purchased with their donation money.

25 July 2008
Food deliveries for the orphanage
It is not always possible for us to obtain pictures of items that we have sponsored for the orphanage, that depends on the situation and on wether there is someone present who can take a picture for us and email it to us. Now that Bettina is in the orphanage this month, we have some lovely pictures of sponsored food, that we are happy to show here. Thanks to all our sponsors for enabling us to help the children in this way!

22 July 2008
Ex-volunteer Diederick returns to the orphanage!
Diederick, who worked as a volunteer in the orphanage in 2004, is travelling to Ghana again today. This time together with his sister Anne Eva. Together they will work in the orphanage for 3 weeks. For the children it is always a pleasure when volunteers are coming to the orphanage: extra hands, extra attention, extra care. We wish Diederick and Anne Eva a safe journey, a wonderful time in Ghana and especially for Diederick a happy reunion with all the kids!
Diederick in 2004 in the orphanage

10 July 2008
Baby milk powder for orphanage purchased
The Swiss Bettina, who has already volunteered several times in the orphanage, has this week travelled to Ghana again. We had asked her to arrange the babyfood, with the money from the Music & Dance Benefit in Almelo. That was the choice of Manon, Elise and Nina for spending their benefit money. In total Bettina has bought 96 cans of Lactogen 1, 48 cans of Lactogen 2 and 60 cans of Cerelac. And she has also arranged transportation of all these cans to the orphanage. So for now the babies in Agroyesum can eat as much as they want!

3 July 2008
Decoration of Honour for Ineke Bosman of the Hand in Hand project in Nkoranza
End of June Ineke paid a short visit to Holland, during which we have met her briefly. At that time, she herself did not know yet that after returning to Ghana, she was to receive a very honourful reward: on July 3rd Ineke received a Decoration of Honour from the Ghanaian president Kufuor. A true and well deserved reward for her years of beautiful work in Ghana and for her unlimited, loving care for the children of the Hand in Hand project. Our congratulations for Ineke!

1 July 2008
Football outfits donated for the Marist Preparatory School
On July 1st 2008, football club SVC´08 has been founded (`Scheveningse Voetbal Combinatie 2008`). It results form a merger of 2 former clubs: SV´35 and JAC. It was decided that after the merge the new SVC´08 will play in new outfits, which means the old outfits of both clubs will no longer be used. A lot of those were in perfect shape and SVC´08 has therefore decided to donate the outfits to three projects in Tunesia, South-Africa and Ghana. And so we have received four big bags with football outfits, destined for the Marist Preparatory School in Ghana where we have sponsored the establishment of a football field last December. We thank SVC´08 for this great idea and for the new destination for this splendid outfits! We are working out the transport details now and then soon the times of SV´35 and JAC will rerevive in the Ashante Region in Ghana!

27 June 2008
Benefits of flea-market Day care centre “De Kolibrie” from Gouda donated for the children in Ghana
Again we received a donation resulting from a fundraising action from Day care centre “De Kolibrie” in Gouda. The children have not yet forgotten the stories about the orphanage that they heard from Suzanne, who worked as a volunteer in the orphanage in 2006 and has been working at the day care centre for a long time. This month there was a flea-market and the children were asked to pick a charity to donate the benefits to. Their choice was: the children in Ghana. We hereby thank all the children and staff of “De Kolibrie”!

27 June 2008
Money from the Dance & Music Benefit Party Almelo: food for 9 babies
Manon, Elise and Nina, who organised the Dance & Music Benefit party in April, have decided to spend the money on Lactogen to feed the babies. At this moment there are 9 babies in the orphanage. With the money from the Dance & Music party (680 euros), these 9 babies can be fully fed for approximately 4 months! Former volunteer Bettina (from Switzerland) will visit the orphanage in July and she will take care that the Lactogen is bought. When she returns home she will also send us a nice picture of the babies. Manon, Elise and Nina, thanks again!

21 June 2008
`Wereldwinkel ´s Gravenzande` starts with the sale of jewelries from Ghana
As from today, the jewelries made in the project for handicapped children in Ghana that we support, will be for sale at the fair trade `Wereldwinkel` in ´s Gravenzande. A special Ghana-table is established in the shop, where the bracelets and necklaces are being sold. Also some more information on the project can be found there, as well as some beautiful pictures of the children that make the jewelries in the sheltered workshops of the Hand in Hand project in Nkoranza.

29 May 2008
Another new donation thanks to Rachelle
Again we received a donation referring to Rachelle. In June last year, Rachelle has received Holy Communion for the first time. At that occasion she has raised money for our children. Rachelles mother since then monthly donates to our NGO and as announced earlier, also Rachelles grandmother makes an annual contribution on behalf of Rachelle. Now we have once again received a donation: this time from Helga and Maggy, who have givens us 150 euros in the name of Rachelle. We are very happy with this contribution for the children in Ghana. Thanks to Helga and Maggy, but also once again thanks to Rachelle, for her lovely action that still raises new funds!

30 April 2008
Sales on Queens Day 2008
This year again we had a stand at the free sales market in Amsterdam on Queens Day, where we sold for the benefit of Kinderen in Ontwikkeling. We were very lucky with the wether, since against all odds it did not rain all day. And we were also lucky with the revenues: at the end of the day there was an amount of 203,88 euros for our charity! Thanks to our many visitors who bought things or made a donation; thanks to all friends and family that had given us materials to sell, and thanks to Digna, Urban, Sanne, Jurriaan and Ilse for taking care of the stand all day!

26 April 2008
Dance & Music Benefit Party Almelo raises 681 euros
The Dance & Music Benefit on April 25th 2008 in Almelo, has raised 900 euros for the children in Ghana! This event took place last friday in the lovely party centre of Frans Elkerbout in Almelo. There were several acts and performances, jewelry and souvenirs were sold, there was a lottery, a lot of music and dancing and all visitors enjoyed a lovely and joyful evening. At the end of the event an amount of 681,39 euros was donated to Kinderen in Ontwikkeling and that is a fantastic outcome and great news for the kids in Ghana! At this moment we are talking with Manon, Elise and Nina about the best way to spend the money. More about that later, but for now a very special thanks for:

• Frans Elkerbout for supplying the party location and his marvellous dj-ship
• all artists that voluntarily contributed to this event: rapper Ivan SP, singer Johan Otten, the youth rappers, the streetdance group, the photographer and the lasershow
• footballplayer Kwame Quansah who attended the party and volunteered to let his picture be taken for the charity
• everyone who helped with preparations, during the party or making/selling jewelry
• Manon, Elise en Nina for organising this event and for their great enthousiasm doing so
• Manon especially for coming up with the whole idea and for her inspiration and her neverending efforts to make this event a succes!

the lasershow	Manon, who initiated the event
Kwame Quansah with Manon and Elise	Manon, Elise en Nina hand over the cheque to Ilse

31 March 2008
Shipment of baby items to Ghana: twins are due
For the first time Kinderen in Ontwikkeling is providing individual support. The reason is a long story, and not a very nice one. It regards Augustina, a mentally disabled girl of about sixteen years old that lives at home with her mother and during daytime goes to the Operation Hand in Hand project. This is a community where disabled children live, are taken care of, go to school and – when they grow older and when they are capable of it – work in sheltered workshops and make the most beautiful jewelries. In charge of this project are Ineke Bosman, dutch tropical doctor, and her husband Bob Maram.
Recently Augustina is mislead by a man in the village, she followed him into the bushes and there he abused her sexually. Afterwards she turned out to be pregnant and now she is 7 months and expecting twins! She is not capable of looking after herself, let alone of her two (yet unborn) children, so her old mother – who is already working so hard to care for her handicapped daughter – will in future also have to care and provide for her two grandchildren. A terribly sad story! We want to help her and we have started right away with some short-term help: from our storage where all the collected secondhand goods for Ghana ar stored, we have put together a starters package for babies, so that the babies of Augustina at least will be given the chance to make a good and well cared for start in this world! Today we have sent a couple of boxes with labour and baby necessaries: diapers, bottles, teats, baby clothes in a supersmall size (newborn), some toys and cuddly toys, baby sleeping bags and bed cloth, baby bathrobes and towels, etc. Thanks again to all our generous donors the past few months. If after birth it should appear that breastfeeding is not an option, we will sponsor the first year of Lactogen for Augustina. And for the rest we are still thinking if and how we can help this family for the long term.

11 March 2008
Sponsored industrial sewing machine has arrived at Scott Trade School
As announced in October 2007, we have started a cooperation project with the Scott Trade School, in the small village of Senfi, Ghana. Senfi is situated near the new orphanage in Anwiankwanta and the school in Bekwai. The Scott Trade School is a trade-school for mostly girls, where they have the opportunity to learn a trade, in order to become selfsupporting and independant. The school provides nutricion and cooking lessons, and teaches trades like sewing and hairdressing. With the lessons they also improve their english (speaking, reading and writing) as well. The school has a professional (bread) oven, a kitchen-cooker, a dozen original Singer-sewing machines and a real hairdryer. Kinderen in Ontwikkeling has sponsored the purchase of an industrial sewing machine for the Scott Trade School. This machine gives the students practice with a machine just like one that they would have to work with in a future work environment. As exercise or practical work assignment the students will do sewing jobs for the Save Our Lives orphanage, like bedcloth, curtains, linen and possibly even the school uniforms. A great win-win project that we are very happy to announce! This week the machine has arrived and been installed at the school in Senfi and the students are very eager to learn how to operate it. This action is facilitated by the donation we received by the United Nations Women's Guild (UNWG) in 2007.

Mrs. Charity Scott, founder of the Scott Trade School, and some of her students, proudly showing the new machine. See for more information the website of the Scott Trade School.

3 March 2008
Karlijn sponsors 120 cans of Lactogen
Former Ghana-traveller Karlijn, who worked in a hospital in Ghana and through her fried Esther also brought a visit to the orphanage, has decided to donate 500 euros from her sponsor money to the orphanage, meant to spend on milk powder for the babies. This buys 120 cans of Lactogen, and with the current number of babies this means four months of food for all babies in the Save Our Lives orphanage. Karlijn, thanks a million!

27 February 2008
Supply of school materials
The Marist Preparatory School in Sabin Akrofrom has purchased new school materials! During the visit of Ilse and Els in December, a joint donation was done by Els (from the sponsor money that she collected) and NGO Kinderen in Ontwikkeling. With this donation now 1000 exercise books, Bic pens, A4 papers, a stapler machine and some reading books for the school library have been purchased.
By the way, if you have any (used) english books for children, they are most welcome to be added to the school library!

10 February 2008
Sponsorship for college Ibrahim
To our great joy we have managed to arrange full sponsorship for Ibrahim, the eldest boy in the foster home! Private sponsors have agreed to pay the costs for Ibrahims further education. Since September Ibrahim is already in college at the School of Business Management and Administration, in Accra. During Ilse’s visit in December we have discussed the details with him and collected the required information. In the meantime the sponsorship has been formalized and Ibrahim is delighted with that.
And as for us… we are very happy that Ibrahim is offered this wonderful opportunity, proud of him for being worth this chance, and enormously grateful for this beautiful sponsorship!

30 January 2008
New donation thanks to Rachelle
We have already announced about Rachelle, who at her Holy Communion collected donations for our ngo (June 2007). Her grandmother then promised her to make an annual donation in future. This week we received her donation for 2008. Warm thanks (again) to Rachelle and her grandmother !

15 January 2008
Donation from Belgium
This year again we received a big private donation from the sponsors in the area of Brussels, who last year sponsored the schoolfeees for the sisters Rose and Rebecca from the orphanage. So this year too the sisters will be able to attend school again. Once more many thanks for your great contribution!

14 January 2008
Trip to Ghana
In December/January Ilse went to Ghana for a business visit and holiday. She visited several projects, had a meeting with the Board of Save Our Lives Ghana, and spent a very special Christmas in the orphanage! But also safari, beach and culture were part of the programme, and re-experiencing Ghana and the Ghanaians. Her friend Els, who was in the orphanage for one month in 2006, joined Ilse on this trip. A report of this trip is only available in dutch, but contains photo’s as well so it might be interesting for our English visitors as well.

Arriving back home Ilse brought a long list of new actions and found a very full in-box as well. We are now working hard to get back on schedule again, but we kindly ask for your understanding when answer to an email might take a little bit longer than usual.

December 2007
Christmas card from Tim (7 years old) for the children in Ghana
Tim (7 years old) was offered to send a christmas card to someone who really needed it…and he had determined that he wanted to send his card to children in a developing country. Tims mama immediately thought about the children in Ghana! And so Tim has sent a very lovely card, with glitters and a very sweet tekst for the children in the orphanage. And he even remembered to put an English translation on it as well! A really nice thought of Tim, and the card will definitely be sent to Ghana. Thank you Tim!

23 December 2007
Seasons Greetings
We wish you a merry Christmas and a beautiful 2008!

21 December 2007
Football field inaugurated
On the last schoolday before Christmas Holiday, the sponsored sports field has been officially opened today. On the Marist Preparatory School in the little village Sabin Akrofrom in Ghana (a little outside of Kumasi) today the new sports field was launched. Two football teams were ready to play a big celebration match and the rest of the school sat around the field as supporters, cheerleaders and drummers with great enthousiasm. On behalf of the dutch sponsors (NGO's Kinderen in Ontwikkeling KIO and National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development NCDO) Ilse arrived from Holland to do the official kick-off and for all the children it was one great party today. The atmosphere is already great for the African Nations Cup that will start on January 20th in Ghana!

klik hier voor meer foto's

14 December 2007
Kinderen in Ontwikkeling and NCDO sponsor new sports field in Ghana
Together with the National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO) our Kinderen in Ontwikkeling foundation is sponsoring the construction of a sports field at the Marist Preparatory School in the village Sabin Akrofrom. This school is relatively close to the Save Our Lives orphanage. We arranged that the schoolbus will now and then take the children from the orphanage to the school so that they can use the sports field as well. This reflects our policy to support projects that reinforce each other.
NCDO helps people and organisations in the Netherlands who dedicate themselves to improving the position of people in developing countries. It supports these local development projects with advice and subsidies. Kinderen in Ontwikkeling and NCDO both subsidise 50% of the costs of the sports field. The field is currently being constructed and should be finished before the end of 2007.

8 December 2007
Anonymous donation
Through the website of "GeefGratis" we received an anonymous donation of 360 euros! We will spend it well and through this channel we would like to thank the anonymous sponsor very much!

21 October 2007
Christmas cards sale
On special request, this year we are selling christmas cards for our charity. All venues will be used for the Save Our Lives orphanage. Cards are suitable for both companies and private persons and are available in sets of 10. More information on our dutch website: click here. Some examples:

12 October 2007
New project: Scott Trade School
The first cooperation project is a fact: Kinderen in Ontwikkeling will support the Scott Trade School in the small village of Senfi, that is situated near the new orphanage in Anwiankwanta and the school in Bekwai. The Scott Trade School is a trade-school for mostly girls. The school was founded in 1999 by Ms. Charity Scott, who grew up in Senfi herself. Together with her husband Chris Scott she wants to achieve that all girls in her village have the opportunity to learn a trade, in order to become selfsupporting and independant. At the Scott Trade School the girls get nutricion science and cooking lessons and they can learn trades like sewing or hairdressing. With the lessons they also improve their english in word, reading and writing as well. The school has a professional (bread) oven, a kitchen-cooker, a dozen original Singer-sewing machines and a real hairdryer. Boys can go to the trade school as well: there is a real shoemaker/cobbler workplace.

shoemaker/cobbler workplace	kitchen-cooker	sewing machines	nutricion science	hair dryer

Kinderen in Ontwikkeling sponsors the purchase of an industrial sewing machine for the Scott Trade School. This big and sophisticated industrial machine gives the students practice with a machine just like one that they would have to work with in a future work environment. As exercise or practical work assignment the students can do sewing jobs for the Save Our Lives orphanage, like bedcloth, curtains, linen and possibly even the school uniforms. A great win-win project that we are very happy to announce! See for mor information the website of the Scott Trade School.

2 October 2007
Sponsors also use the online donation module
Although most donations are being transferred directly to us, our sponsors also use the online donation module of "GeefGratis". With this module money can be transferred directly and digitally, and the sponsor can chose for anonimity (or not) and to receive our digital newsletter (or not). Recently a private donation of 600 euro has been made through this module!
We thank this sponsor for this large donation and also we want to express our appreciation for the activities of "Stichting GeefGratis", that create a lot of opportunities for smallscale charities in the Netherlands.

28 September 2007
Housewarming/birthday party for a good cause
One of the close friends of our charity has decided for his housewarming/birthday party that was held today, to ask all guests for a contribution for the charity instead of presents. The outturn of the collection box and digital money transfers is: 170 euros! Thanks and many happy returns!

8 September 2007
Long-term effect of Charity Match 2006: dvd sales
It took us a while before we had collected all photo and video materials, but then at once a compilation-dvd has been produced with movies and foto's of our first event last year: the charity match with Lucky Ajax at the Olympic Stadium. And, thinking commercial as a charity should do we decided to offer this dvd for sale to all who were involved in the charity match. Most buyers offered a generous price for this dvd. Meanwhile most payments have been received and the dvd-sale has raised another 285 euros! And ofcourse a lot of fun viewing it and a lot of good memories to that beautiful day on June 4th 2006! Many thanks to Marco for producing the dvd's.

3 September2007
Private donation from the Middle East
To our surprise but also joy, our ngo appears to have a broad outreach: today we received a private donation of 250 euros from the United Arab Emirates with best wishes for our charity. We are honoured that we are known even so far away and we would like to warmly thank the sponsor from here!

12 August 2007
Moving older children to Anwiankwanta
In the past few days the older children have moved to the new building in Anwiankwanta! This way these kids live very close to their school (which is in Bekwai) and that means that in future they can live at home instead of at the schoolcampus. This not only reduces the schoolfees, but also the hygiene and food quality at school are not always guaranteed and the children are often ill at school. We hope that living in the Anwiankwanta home will improve their health situation. Besides that the new house that Dinda and Annemarie have established for the chldren through their ngo Stichting SOLA, is a beautiful house where the kids have space, facilities and peace to do their homework and study. How things will be managed and staffed in Anwiankwanta is not quite clear to us. We are still in discussion with the management of Save Our Lives Ghana on this topic.

6 August 2007
Expansion activities of our NGO
In our Annual Report 2006/2007 we have announced that in 2007 we wished to expand to new projects. In the meantime our new Board has also confirmed these plans. It is our intention to build a strong network in the region, so that we can achieve scale benefit and synergy for the benefit of the children. At this stage we are talking about cooperation with several parties in the Ashante region. In the fall we hope to make further announcements on these plans.

2 August 2007
Project Hilde & friends great results!
Today most of Hildes' XPLORE group arrives back home. These past few weeks they have been working hard at the new building in Anwiankwanta, and with great results! Their aim was to make the new orphanage ready for habitation, and the older children are able to go and live there. In less than 3 weeks they have

• arranged water and electricity: built a watertower, dugged a borehole, bought a pomp reservoir. Electricity was not completely finished when the XPLORE group left, so that will be completed later. For the time being they have bought a generator, so the electricity in the house is already available.
• arranged furniture for the house (6 benches, 3 closets, a book closet, a multifunctional table to eat, write and also be used as pingpongtable, matrasses, pillows, sheets)
• bought a deep freezer to store fresh fish for the children
• dugged large holes for garbage and compost
• constructed a small grass footballfield with 2 goals for the children
• built a half-high stone wall along the side of the area that adjoins the road, so that the children cannot run on to the road

All this thanks to stichting SOLA and several private sponsors. Together with Kinderen in Ontwikkeling Hilde also laid the foundation for our plans to start a farm on the area surrounding the orphanage. On our expenses they have levelled the area with a buldozer and fenced it with barbed wire and wire netting. The land has been measured (1,8 hectare in total) and a large piece of it can be used for farming activities. This is now ready for agriculture. Kinderen in Ontwikkeling and Rotary Voorburg-Vliet cannot wait to start with the farming activities. As soon as the orphanage has definitively moved to Anwiankwanta we can start with our plans!

Hilde and her XPLORE group have done a fantastic job, and in between they also found time to play football with the children and to organise a party in Anwiankwanta on their last day, with all the workmen and the bigger children that helped with their work. Kinderen in Ontwikkeling has arranged a lovely barbecue for this final party, out of gratitude, respect and appreciation for all their heavy work. Three big cheers for the XPLORE group!!! Soon we will receive some pictures from Hilde to illustrate these stories!

30 July 2007
New goods received... so new collection has started!>
After the container arrived at the orphanage last May, we thought to have a short break before starting a new collection for a next transport. However, the collection started itself: several people have offered us things for Ghana in the meantime, so there is already a pile for a new container in our storage room! Linda&Erwin, Frans&Maria and Jolanda already donated bags full of clothes and toys for the orphanage and from Carla&Edgar we received a baby-playpen, a babybath, a maxicosi babychair and a complete and beautiful perambulator! We can't wait untill we can ship this to Ghana!

12 July 2007
Hilde off to Ghana with group of 12
Ex-volunteer Hilde is returning to the orphanage today! And she is not going alone, but with a group of 12 on a youth-exchange program. Hilde was a volunteer in the orphanage in 2004 and has joined Dinda and Anne-Marie since. They were the first volunteers ever in the orphanage in 2003/2004 and have then decided to build a new orphanage. For this purpose they founded the ngo Stichting SOLA, and meanwhile the new building has been finished. Hilde and her group will take care of the last practical things like water, electricity and furniture, but also a fence around the area, the leveling of the site, maybe a play- or sport facility, etc. We hope that Hilde and her group can arrange the removal to the new orphanage during their stay in Ghana. Fantastic what Hilde and Stichting SOLA have achieved, we wish them success and wait eagerly for further news.

26 June 2007
Two new Board Members
We are very happy to announce that Janneke Kramers and Gudrun van Oirschot are joining our Board! When our ngo was founded we started with 1 board member, but it has always been our intention to expand to a broader board during the course of 2007 and now we have succeeded. Welcome to Janneke and Gudrun!

19 June 2007
Art Month at day care centre Gouda results in donation for the orphanage
Ex-volunteer Suzanne (who was in the orphanage in 2006) works at the day care centre in Gouda. In April an Art Month was organized. The children made some serious art works and those were auctioned amongst parents and friends. The total sales amount was 78,10 euro and this was donated to our ngo for the benefit of the orphanage in Ghana. A nice action, for which we want to thank all the children of BSO Gouda and Suzanne!

3 June 2007
Rachelle receives Holy Communion
On June 3rd Rachelle received Holy Communion for the first time. She decided to ask her family and friends not to buy her presents, but instead to make a donation to our ngo. Also at the cermony there was a collecting box for the orphanage. In total Rachelle earned an amount of 291,46 with this action. We will take care that this money is very well spent in the orphanage. Many many thanks to Rachelle for this special gesture and also thanks to Rachelles grandmother who has promised to make an annual donation in future!

20 May 2007
Donation United Nations
With great pride and gratitude we can announce that we have received finances from the United Nations Women's Guild (UNWG). This is a voluntary organisation (founded in 1967) of women connected with the United Nations. The purpose of the Guild is to foster friendship, to encourage appreciation of each other's traditions and customs, and to work for the welfare of needy children. Currently the UNWG has 500 members who come from 89 countries. After submitting our project request we received a cheque for 1000 US dollars!

11 May 2007
Presentation at Rotary Voorburg
On April 26th Ilse had been invited by Rotary Voorburg to give a presentation on the ngo Kinderen in Ontwikkeling. It was a very nice meeting, the atmosphere was pleasant and the audience was very sympathetic. Besides the lovely reactions after the presentation there was also a "financial reaction": a donation from Rotary Voorburg and also some private donations from individual members. In total we received an amount of 400 euro as a result of this meeting, for which we thank Rotary Voorburg a lot!

10 May 2007
Container arrived at the orphanage
After 11 weeks the container with everything we collected has arrived in the orphanage! When the container was in the harbour in Ghana it took al loot of time and effort to get all the forms and stamps necessary for clearance. We didn't succeed in getting a 100% exemption from import duties, but the most important thing is that all the baby stuff, childrens clothes, toys, computers etc. are now in the orphanage.
Many thanks to Interbeton for transporting the container from the harbour to the orphanage for us, especially to Rens en Marco who arranged this and even got us some pictures. And once again thanks to everyone who helped us make the transport possible and to everybody who gave us things for the orphanage.

The kids are helping to unload the container.

. The job is done. Everything is stored in the orphanage.

Time to try the new toys!

1 May 2007
Queen's Day Fair raises money for our NGO
Ilse and some friends sold goods at the Queen's Day Fair in the Sarphatipark in Amsterdam. Of course the revenues, 220,12 euro, wil, go to the orphanage in Ghana.
Many thanks to everybody who gave us things to sell, helped selling them, bought things from us or donated money at our stand.

23 February 2007
Container on its way to Ghana!
After almost a year of collecting charity goods, today is the big day: our container is on its way to the orphanage! With 145 boxes of baby stuff, bottles and teats, cotton diapers, child clothes and shoes, toys, puzzles, cuddly toys, 3 baby pens, a maxicosi and a baby rocking chair, a baby bath, a baby bed, childrens bicyles and tricycles, a walking exercizer and besides that also furniture, computers, printers, a scanner, a microwave over and an electric overn, tools and farming tools. On the last day a number of packs of disposable nappies and childrens tooth brush etc. were added. We are very grateful for everybody that made this transport possible!

• Breadbox Shippingfor the transport of the container plus introducing us to a harbour agent for clearing and customs. Joris thanks for your great offer and Joery and Mischa thanks for all the arrangements!
• UTS Nederlandfor offering 100 removal boxes, which helped us to load the container efficently. Thanks to Mr. Van Herk for this offer.
• Rotary Voorburg-Vliet for supporting this transport, including collection of tools and farming tools and their practical help.
• But also the "carriers" that helped loading the container Friday afternoon: thank you all for your hard work!
• And finally once more many thanks to all the people that have donated these goods to us!

The boat will depart from the harbour of Antwerp on Monday and will arrive in Tema, Ghana, 15 days later. From the harbour the container will be transported by truck to the orphanage, where it is already impatiently anticipated!

The truck with the container arrives.	Everything is packed! The carrying team is satisfied.

21 February 2007
Finish Sprint for our collection for Ghana
The past few weeks our collection has made an enourmous finish sprint! From all corners of the country we were offered charity goods for the orphanage: baby pen, child clothes, baby care and toys, furniture, computers and even a microwave oven. We do want to give credit to alle those people: thanks to Frederiek, Mischa, Jan, Edith, Franc&Toesja, Frans&Maria, Ineke, Bert&Elles! And on top of that, very nice to announce that Dinda and Anne-Marie, first volunteers ever in the orphanage and founders of Stichting SOLA that is building a new orphanage for Paulina and the kids, came to bring a bus full of stuff on Wednesday evening. It is lovely that we are cooperating with each other in such a pleasant way! Furthermore thanks to Marijke and during the last phase also to Machteld, who offered us their storage rooms.
The last few weeks we have been busy taking stock and sorting out all the collected goods, and document them by box for customs. Also all forms, tax clearances and customs formalities have been prepared. So now everything is ready to get loaded in the container next Friday!
A part of the collected clothes were really warm winter clothes (baby-skisuit, winter coats, fleece sweaters and wollen scarfs, gloves and hats). We decided that these equipments are much more needed and better off in a cold country than they would be in warm Ghana, so a few bags and boxes have been donated to the "Stichting Roemenië Solidair" (Romania Solidarity Foundation). In March this foundation will drive 2 trucks to Romania and so the clothes will be well delivered shortly!

7 februari 2007
School fees Lucy on the occasion of the birth of Daisy
Today Daisy is born! Her mummy and daddy have asked family and friends to donate - as a present for Daisy - money to pay for the school fees of Lucy from the orphanage. A beautiful start for Daisy and Lucy!

4 February 2007
Transport will also include a computer! Still wanted: monitor and keyboard
Now that we are in the finishing phase of our transport (we hope to ship a container to Ghana in February) we received a very nice message: Yves and Ellen are donating a secondhand computer for the orphanage! They have 1 complete pc available, that will be destined for the administration of the orphanage. Besides that they offer an extra computer, that could be built into a gaming computer for the kids. But for that one we still lack a monitor and keyboard. So if you have a spare monitor or keyboard, please let us know!

25 January 2007
Salomey goes to school from farewell present ex-collegues Ilse
The money that was collected by the ex-collegues of Ilse at the Ministry of Economic Affairs as her farewell present, will be used to pay for 1 year school fees for Salomey, a girl of ca. 17 yrs that now goes to Junior Secondary School in Bekwai. A lovely spending of a lovely present!

22 January 2007
Private donation from Spain
From Madrid we have received a private Christmas donation of 450 euros for the orphanage in Ghana! Barbara, who lives and works in Mardrid for 2 years, has given a presentation on an international congress on Mobility Management in september last year and received this payment from the organisation. She thought it would be a good idea to transform this into a Christmas present for the orphanage! This donation will be used mainly to pay the school fee for one year for Emmanuel (14 years). Emmanuel is the older brother of Lydia (10 years), who is already sponsored by Bram as a gift for his godchild Mirthe. We are happy that now both brother and sister will be supported an education! The remaining money will be spent on fresh vegetables and fruits for the children in the orphanage; this is very rare in their daily menu so they can very well use some extra! Muchas gracias Barbara!

21 January 2007
Annual Report of our NGO: looking back on our first year and looking forward to 2007
We have completed the first year of our charity, and it was an amazing year! Reason enough for a short look back and ofcourse also a preview for 2007. Our first annual report is only available in dutch, click here to read it. We are very proud of the trust and confidence that many people gave us this year, and more than grateful for everybody that has contributed to the succes of our first year. And we hope that you will continue to support us also in 2007!

17 January 2007
Two charming initiatives from Drachten (NL)
The profits of two very charming private fundraisin actions in Drachten have spontanuously been donated to us! The first action is a man who has been selling soup at his work in 2006, and saved the total annual profits of the soup-sales for us: on December 31st 2006 the revenues were 302,64 euros! The second action is a so called 'garage-sale'-project: friends that went on holiday brought back souvenirs from Ecuador, Vietnam, Thailand and China, and these souvenirs are for sale weekly in "Jacomiens' little shop". The profits of 2006 were 265 euros for Kinderen in Ontwikkeling. The total result of these two initiatives is an amount of 567,64 euros for our charity, for which we kindly thank both initiators!

15 January 2007
Private donation from Belgium
From Brussels we have received a private donation of € 1.000 euros for the orphanage in Ghana! This donation will a.o. be used to pay the school fees for one year for the two sisters Rose (almost 16 years) and Rebecca (13 years). The sisters also have an olther brother in the orphanage, Ibrahim, and a younger sister Zita. Ibrahim has recently finished school; he is now temporarily helping in the orphanage but we are trying to get a further education for him. Zita is being sponsored for her school fees since last year; this is the girl that Ilse started sponsoring in 2005 during her first visit to the orphanage (when the charity was not even founded). The donation from Belgium makes it possible for all sibblings to get a proper education now - many thanks to this generous sponsor!!!

4 January 2007
Ex-volunteer Amarinthe returns to the orphanage for 2 months
Amarinthe worked in the orphanage in the beginning of 2006 and has now returned to Agroyesum! She will stay for 2 months, has been collecting a lot of money to spend on the children and the orphanage, and is thrilled to see the kids again! She shares her adventures on her website www.amarinthejooren.waarbenjij.nu. Amarinthe, enjoy your time and good luck!

29 December 2006
Again a lot of goods for the orphanage
Today Arnold and Diane came to us with their children Valérie and Christian and brought us clothes and toys for the orphanage. Many others gave us their babyclothes, cuddly toys and toys during the last few months; thanks to Ineke, Cindy, Brenda, Linda, Ria and Giel, Freek and Judith, Martin, Danielle (via Raymond) and Maria.

24 December 2006
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy 2007!

14 December 2006
Friesland Lease: donation instead of christmas cards!
The company Friesland Lease from Drachten has chosen to send no christmas cards to her network this year, and instead to donate to the Save Our Lives orphanage through our foundation. For the amount of money that they normally spend on christmas cards, they will sponsor the following items for the orphanage:

• 1 year school fees for Dominic, a 15-year old boy from the orphanage
• 1 year 1x per week hot chocolate for all children. They dip their bread in it, it is very nutricious and a nice treat for the kids.
• 10x Pepsodent (it takes about 1 per week in the orphanage)
• 1 month fish with all meals (daily portion usually exists of rice and some chicken)

Friesland Lease will send their seasons greatings to their customers and relations through digital channels this year, and include some information about the skids in Ghana. An admirable idea and a very creative way to spread the Christmas spirit! We thank the management of Friesland Lease and in particular alsoMirjam Marinus for arranging this action!

1 December 2006
Ex-volunteer Suzanne has collected money for the orphanage
Again an ex-volunteer from the orphanage is still very involved an committed to the children! Suzanne has worked in Agroyesum in spring/summer 2004 and has been collecting money ever since she returned home, through several fundraising actions. She donates us an amount of € 676,23 for the orphanage! With this money, Suzanne first sponsors a full year of school fee for Gifty, a 14 year old girl from the orphanage (and the sister of the twins Charles and Thomas that were mentioned in the last news item). Furthermore Suzanne sponsors the milk for the morning porridge for one month (is made of cans of Ideal Milk) and 1 box (24 cans) of baby milk powder. This Lactogen is very well used, since a few weeks ago 2 new babies have been admitted to the orphanage. They are twins, girls, and they were only 6 hours old when they were brought in. With this action by Suzanne they can make a fair start! Many thanks to Suzanne!
< Gifty ... Suzanne >

24 November 2006
School money for twins Charles and Thomas paid for
The donations that we received from the wedding guests of Ans and Frans in July this year, would a.o. sponsor the school fees for 2 kids for one year. It is nice to introduce their names here: this money is spent on a year schoolmoney for the twin brothers Charles and Thomas, 12 years old. They are now in stage six of Junior High School and they are doing excellent at school! The pictures show their school pictures in their uniforms!
< Charles ... Thomas >

28 October 2006
Lasting gift for Mirthe
On 28 October a little girl called Mirthe became 1 year old. Godfather of Mirthe is Bram, and he wanted to give her a special present for her first birthday. And so he did! As a gift to his godchild Bram will pay the education of Lydia, a 10-year old girl from the orphanage in Ghana. Lydia will go to the Junior Secondary School in Bekwai. A good education will provide better chances for Lydia in society in the future. A lasting gift and a beautiful thought at the same time! Many thanks to Bram for this lovely idea!

25 October 2006
First business sponsor!
We are very pleased with the announcement of the OLCD (dutch Eye Laser Centre Drechtsteden) from Papendrecht for an annual donation. Besides our private sponsors, this is our first business sponsorship on a regular base! It is our hope that many other companies will follow this example..... anyway great thanks to Mr. Martin Struijk of the OLCD!

24 October 2006
Goodbye present ex-collegues Ilse
Ilse will change jobs as from November 1st and her farewell party was on 24 October. Besides warm words and a beautiful speech, her former collegues of the Ministry of Economic Affairs gave her a cheque for her charity organisation! There had been a large collection amongst collegues and this resulted in a total amount of € 356,50. I could not have wished for a better goodbye present!

23 October 2006
Els back from Ghana: feedback
This morning at 6.00 am Els has returned from Ghana and was welcomed by Ilse at Schiphol Airport. And Els brought back many enthousiastic stories about the orphanage! Besides taking care of the children and giving them joy and personal attention, Els has also bought a lot of equipment for the orphanage. With the sponsor money that she collected before, she has bought new matrasses, pillows and musquito nets for the beds of the elder children. Furthermore she bought tables and benches on which the smaller children can eat and a whiteboard so that now the elder children are teaching the younger children in the evening. For the 12 kids that go to school in Bekwai Els has supplied new uniforms and all the children received a pair of new shoes. For daily care she sponsored 40 towels, 20 sponges and 40 toothbrushes. And last but not least for the babies Els donated special milk powder supply for 2 months.
From a dutch volunteer that is working in the orphanage at this moment, we have learned that all these materials that Els has donated, are in full use at this moment. Applause for Els !!!

oude slaapkamer

nieuwe slaapkamer

nieuwe banken

terug op Schiphol

14 October 2006
Big collection in Chaam
We have received a large collection from Mrs. Leijten of the company "Leijten & Partners" in Chaam. Mrs. Leijten is collection child cloths, toys and other things for projects that can use these very well. She offered us a large party of materials. The first part of it we picked up in Chaam on 14 October, but we will have to return with a trailer! Also we are short of storage space, but we will definately fix that. And as announced before: we hope to manage to close the deal with the transport to Ghana very soon now. Mrs. Fien Leijten, thank you ever so much!

28 September 2006
Els on her way to Agroyesum
Today Els is leaving to Ghana for one month to help in the orphanage as a volunteer. Els is expected to arrive in the orphanage this weekend and she is really looking forward to meeting the children! We hope to hear from Els now and then during her stay, so that we can share in her experiences there!

8 September 2006
Activities with wedding donations Ans and Frans
As announced before, the weddig of Ans and Frans on July 29th raised a great number of donations! They had asked all their guests, as a wedding present, to donate for the orphanage in Ghana. With a few recent donations the total amount of the wedding donations is now € 1.912 ! Meanwhile Ans and Frans have decided on how this money will be spent:

• School fees 2006/2007 for 2 kids, including notebooks etc.
• For the year 2007 daily bread for all children
• For the year 2007 for each kid 2 eggs per week
• 2 extra workers for 2007: housekeeping help for washing/cleaning/cooking, so that 1. the hygiene in the orphanage will increase and 2. the caretakers will have more (effective) time to spend on the children
• toothpaste for a couple of months for all children

Once again our warmest thanks to Ans and Frans and to all their wedding guests!

26 August 2006
Ex-volunteer Iris sponsors schoolmoney
In the beginning of this year, Iris has been working in the orphanage in Ghana for a few months. Meanwhile she has returned to the Netherlands, but she has not forgotten Agroyesum and the kids. And so Iris and her mother have decided to sponsor one of the children in the orphanage, Ernestina, for her schoolmoney. The amount for all 2006 has been paid yet! A chance for Ernestina to get a good education and to get a proper job later..... well done Iris!
link Iris

25 August 2006
Postcards for sale
Since this summer we also sell postcards. Profits will go to the Save Our Lives orphanage. As of now were you can order the postcards through our website. The postcards are sold in a set of 5 different designs. For more (dutch) information click to here.

21 August 2006
Donation of 360 euros through dutch website " Nationale Goede Doelen Test"
An anonymous donor has generously given us 360 through the dutch charity selection website www.nationalegoededoelentest.nl! Lots of people use this website in order to stay anonymous on their donation. We respect that and wish to thank the generous donor through this channel!

20 August 2006
Donations for wedding Ans and Frans
On July 29th the wedding of Ans and Frans took place, on a lovely sunny saturday. They had asked all their guests, as a wedding present, to donate for the orphanage in Ghana, through our foundation. Now we can announce the revenue of these wedding donations: 1.877! A fantastic amount of money, for which we want to thank all wedding guests and the married couple themselves! Ans and Frans will now explore with us the best destination for this money and in september we hope to make further announcements on this action.

19 August 2006
A load of clothes and toys
This Saturday, Karina came by to drop a load of clothes and toys, all the way from IJmuiden! Karina and family: thanks and we hope you had a great time at the K3 concert afterwards!

13 August 2006
Lots of goods donated during the summer period
Again a lot of goods have been collected. The last weeks a big pile of clothes, babystuff, toys and cuddly toys have come in. We are almost bursting out of our storage! That is why we are happy to announce that we are very busy talking to a company that offers us a transport to Ghana, only some logistic details still have to be solved so hopefully soon more news on this transport. Meanwhile a big thanks to all our donors: Rinia, Karin, Jacoba, Ineke, Elles and Bert, Brenda, Rosanne and Erik, John and Franta and last but not least Linda and Erwin plus their friends/relatives!

4 August 2006
Donation raised by ex-volunteer Margot
Former volunteer Margot, that worked in the orphanage shortly after Ilse last year, has also been collecting money for the Save Our Lives Foster Home! After her return home, in her office at BDO Accountants & Advisors Margot put a money-box on her desk with a couple of pictures of her time in the orphanage. A lot of her collegues put a contribution int the box, and this week we received from Margot the total amount of 150 for the orphanage. Margot thanks for your enthusiasm!

31 July 2006
Another donation thanks to the World Cup Football
We already received a donation of winners of a football-pool, but this week there was another donation that is resulting from the World Champignonship. Employees at the Netherlands Railways in Utrecht also organized a football-pool and at their Legal Affairs Division the three winners decided to donate their prices to our foundation. Thanks to Maria, Harold and Adriaan the World Cup triggered another 70 for the orphanage!

30 July 2006
Revenues Tip Night The Hague 2006
Tip Night 2006 has been a great succes on June 24th in five big cities in the Netherlands. In total circa 35.000 euros have been collected for six projects, and this amount will be doubled by sponsor ICCO to 70.000 euros! Due to this great succes, the counting and allocating the revenues over the several projects is taking the organisation a little bit longer than expected. In The Hague an amount of 3362,70 has been collected for our project alone (including the doubling of ICCO). The revenues of Utrecht, the other town where the orphanage in Ghana was selected as beneficiary project, is not known yet. We hope to hear that as soon as possible! We would like to thank all employees of companies that joined this action and chose our project, for their efforts, and of course also the public for their generous tips! For more information on Tip Night see their website www.nachtvandefooi.nl.

10 July 2006
Donations following World Cup
After the final match in the World Cup Football, this Monday in lots of offices the results of the World Cup pool were announced. As mentioned before the Directorate-General of the Minsitry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management had destined 40% of the profits to our foundation, a very nice idea of initiator Marco. Today the winners were to be officially announced and Ilse was invited to this meeting in order to receive the donation and shortly present the orphanage and the foundation. What happened: three pricewinners decided to donate their price money also to the children in Ghana! A lovely extra bonus to an initiative that was loveley already. In total this action resulted in an amount of 247,=for the orphanage. Ron, Tina en Renske and ofcourse Marco: thanks a lot for that!

11 June 2006
Revenues Charity Match
Today we can announce a preliminary status of the revenues from the charity match! With the payments that are still on their way included, the total revenues are now almost complete. The counter is now on: 7.505,03 !!!!!!!!!!! This revenues are 100% revenues for the orphanage, because all costs of the event have been sponsored. We are happy, proud and especially grateful for this revenues and we thank everybody that made this day possible and contributed to its succes!
To mention them explicitly: all our sponsors, the visitors, the players, the spontaneous donors, the people of the stadium and of our music and catering.... and not to be forgotten the volunteers that helped us during the day! die ons op de dag zelf geholpen hebben met de organisatie! Special thanks to the volunteers of Phanos, that served the bar in the canteen all day. You have all contributed to a unforgettable first event for our foundation and to a great revenue for the orphanage! Shortly we will publish more about how we ar going to spend this money.

5 juni 2006
Cuddly Toy
Mostly it is the other way around, but this time we have a cuddly toy to advertise! This one has been found last Sunday in the Olympic Stadium! If the owner cannot sleep without it, please send us an email so we can send it back! Besides that, we have received several cuddly toys, baby stuff and cloths for the orphanage again during the last weeks. Maureen en Denise: thank you both!

4 June 2006
Charity Footbal Match
Sunday June 4th was our big day: the charity match with Lucky Ajax in the Olympic Stadium was there! It has become a memorable day in every way! For a start ofcourse a very nice fundraising action for the orphanage, but besides that also a very succesful first event for our charity, a wonderful 10-year-anniversary for VenW UNITED, a nice event without any incidents, a colourful Olympic experience with beautiful sunny whether a swinging introduction to ghanaian culture and above all a lovely, relaxed day for all who were there! There was a lot to enjoy for everybody:
* for Lucky Ajax, that had never played in the Olympic Stadium ever in their history,
* for dutch comedian Freek de Jonge, who was guest player at Ajax and played a fantastic match,
* for all VenW UNITED players, who made their boy's dreams come true,
* for the two youth teams, that playd a great match in a very special setting,
* for Madam Ambassado Grace Amponsah-Ababio, who enjoyed her kick-off at the youth match and the ghanaian football-atmosphere at the stands,
* for Minister Karla Peijs, who did the kick-off for the main match together with her grandson Kasper and saw him score in the Ajax goal,
* for the public, that enjoyed the games, the stimulating ghanaian drums/singing, the sun, the ghanaian snacks, the atmosphere, in other words the whole event!
* and ofcourse for the Stichting Kinderen in Ontwikkeling, that supports the orphanage in Ghana and that will receive the revenues of this charity event!

The total revenues of this event will be announced later this week. More reports of this event are (in dutch) published on the websites of Lucky Ajax, VenW UNITEDand JAC. And nice to mention is that even the national television mentioned this match (SBS6 in the programme "Hart van Nederland")!

1 June 2006
Football-pool with a good cause!
With the World Championship coming soon many companies have a football-pool amongst their staff. This is also the case at the Directorate-General Water of the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management. However the people organizing the bets decided to donate 40% of the money to the Stichting Kinderen in Ontwikkeling. A very lovely initiative!

23 May 2006
Very special: a wedding with a good cause!
On July 29th 2006 Ans and Frans from Eindhoven will get married. Since they already have eachother and everything they need, they have decided that they do not wish to receive presents for their wedding. Instead they will ask all their guests to donate a contribution to the orphanage in Ghana through our foundation. After the wedding we will see what the total amount has become and discuss with the bride and groom what specific purpose the money will be spent on. To them and their guests we will report afterwards, so that they also know what has been done with the money. A very special form of wedding gift, for which we already want to thank Ans and Frans and their guests!

22 May2006
Prominent Visitors at Charity Match
Minister Karla Peijs (Transport, Public Works and Watermanagement) will be performing the kick-off for the Charity football match on June 4th, of Lucky Ajax against VenW UNITED. Preceding the main match there will be a youth match, between ghanaian boy team from Amsterdam (FC Amstelland) and a dutch boy team from The Hague (JAC). For this match the Ghanaian Ambassador in the Netherlands, mrs Grace Amponsah-Ababio, will do the kick-off.

26 April 2006
Visit Ilse to Ghana
Today Ilse is leaving for a working visit to Ghana and to the orphanage. She will be there untill May 14th.

25 April 2006
Toy cars, trains and cuddlytoys!
Today we received all Marks' old toys! All sorts of stuff the children in the orphanage will be very happy with, including a selfconstructable crane and a complete train. Thanks, Mark!

24 April 2006
Organisation Tip-Night chooses us as project for this year!
Today we heard the good news that our charity has been chosen as one of the projects for the Tip-Night 2006! The Tip-Night was held for the first time in 2005 in Groningen, and will this year be expanded to Rotterdam, Nijmegen, Utrecht and The Hague. Its intention is that during one night in as many cafes and restaurants as possible, the tip-money will be donated to a charity. Every year the organisation chooses a number of benificiary projects and this year that will be our orphanage in Ghana! The Tip-Night will be on June 24th 2006, for more information see www.nachtvandefooi.nl.

19 April 2006
Thessa sponsors rubber nappies!
After Ilses return from Ghana last year we have searched all over Holland for rubber nappies (the ones you put over cotton diapers). We couldn't find them anywhere... untill last week. After all that time we found them! Thessa was so sweet as to instantly sponsor 120 peaces and 10 plastic pants as well! Ilse will take these to Ghana when she visits the orphanage. Many thanks to Thessa!

18 April 2006
Twynstra Gudde sponsors Charity Football Match
Tuesday afternoon the donation with which Twynstra Gudde sponsors the event in the Olympic Stadion on June 4th, has been presented in a very original way! Ilse was invited to give a short presentation on the orphanage and the charity, during a conference of TG. After this presentation Suzanne van Kinderen, chair of the meeting, officially handed over a football to Ilse, on which the amount of 2500 euro was written: the sponsorship for the charity event! Many thanks to Twynstra Gudde for this sponsor action and special appreciation to Barbara Lubbers from TG whose initiative and enthousiasm made this action possible.

11 April 2006
Again baby equipments donated
From the circle of friends and collegues this week again we have received a lot of baby clothings, diapers, rattles and cuddly toys. Thanks to Bert and Elles, Hanneke and Elise. And even when Ilse goes to the hairdresser she returns home with a big bag of babystuff these days: thank you Tamara from Miami Hair Boulevard!

2 April 2006
Donation babymilkpowder for 2006
As announced before, the donation money from 2005 is invested in Lactogen. Last week this was purchased: for the year 2006 monthly 10 cans of baby milk powder!

24 March 2006
Large amount of things for the orphanage
Roy en Daphne have donated us a car full of baby clothes and other stuff, as well as toys for the children. The storage room is already well filled! We are still working on a transport facility, but meanwhile we are already very happy with all the donated goods! Also thanks to Frans and Maria for the clothes and toys from Niels!

16 March 2006
Charity footballmatch for Ghana
We are very proud to announce our first big fundraising action:

Charity match in the Olympic Stadium (Amsterdam)
Sunday afternoon June 4th 2006 14.30 hr
Lucky Ajax vs. VenW UNITED

• Lucky Ajax is a team of famous ex-players that have once played in the first team of Ajax Amsterdam.
• VenW UNITED is a team of collegues from the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management. This year VenW UNITED celebrates its 10-year anniversary and to make that jubilee extra special, they have planned to play a special match. On a special location, against a special opponent, and especially for a special charity! Herefor they have chosen the Kids in Development Foundation ("Stichting Kinderen in Ontwikkeling") and hence the Save Our Lives orphanage in Agroyesum.
• The Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management supports this charity football match by paying the costs of the Stadium. So the whole revenue of the ticketsales will be for the profit of the orphanage!
• Click for more information on the programme and the ticket sales.

14 March 2006
More stuff brought in
Again we received several clothings and toys for the children in Agroyesum. Thanks to Elise, Brenda and Mirriam.

11 March 2006
Mirjam in progress!
Volunteer Mirjam, who was in Agroyesum was last summer and is now back again for a few months, is making a lot of progress! She is busy helping Paulina straigthen up the administration and budgets and she is trying to raise local funds at the moment. Furthermore, with financial support of her ex-colleagues, she has arranged that a new toilet is installed in the orphanage. Way to go Mirjam! Her stories can be followed on her website.

7 February 2006
Donations!
Dear all, today we received a transcript of our bank account and that was a very pleasant surprise! Thanks for all your generous donations, both incidental and monthly, and also for all the kind and encouraging comments that came with it!!!!!

5 February 2006
Board of Advice first meeting
On Sunday February 5th there was a joint meeting of the management and the Board of Advice. During a dinner the members of the Board of Advice got to know each other and agreed on working arrangements and procedurs. As from now, besides the management also the Board of Advice is really in action now!

4 February 2006
Lots and lots of things for Ghana
Last weekend we received a whole lot of things for the orphanage at once. This was arranged by Mirriam and Bas, who not only donated clothes of their own children, but also collected among Mirriams collegues at the Ministry of Social Affairs. This has resulted in ten big bags filled with cloths, shoes, teddybears and toys! So we can start using our new storage room at once. Many thanks to Bas, Mirriam, Monique and Dorien! And also thanks to John, who donated toys coming from his son Jamie, and to Ellen for the bag with toys coming from Noah and Allison.

30 January 2006
Storage for the foundation
Today we received permission for free use of a storage room. So now we can store all the clothes, toys and other stuff that people want to donate to us for Ghana. Several people have offered us things already, and we hope that when springtime comes more people will clean up their houses and cupboards and we will receive many more things...... Marijke thanks for the use of your storage!

20 January2006
Mirjam travels to Agroyesum
Mirjam van der Poel, who was a volunteer in the orphanage together with Ilse last summer, is returning to Ghana! This time for a longer period, untill the beginning of June 2006. Mirjam decided that she wants to continue her volunteers work, only with a little change. Her target for the coming period is: administrative support, raising local funds and restyling the interior of the orphanage. Mirjam leaves on Sunday January 22nd and will be back on Sunday June 4th. Her stories will be posted on her website (in Dutch). The website shows also her first visit to the orphanage, summer of 2005, and now we will be able to find all her new adventures on it. We wish Mirjam a lot of success and ofcourse also a fantastic time in Ghana!

18 January 2006
Board of Advice operational
After a few enthousiastic meetings, the Board of Advice is now complete. The board will exist of 3 members, and we are very proud to introduce them to you. In alphabetical order: Jelle Landa, Frea Rijnsbergen en Ellen van der Spoel. More information on our Board and its members you can find on our dutch site, click here.

15 January 2006
Donations 2005 above expectations
Although the organisation has only started in the second half of December (and in 2005 we have mainly been busy with the foundation and the construction of the website, and hence in 2005 we have not been raising funds yet), we appear to have received a lot of donations already, around Christmas. Above expectations, we can therefore close our accounts for 2005 with the fair amount of 506 in donations. This finances, for the whole year 2006, 10 cans of Lactogen (baby milk powder) per month. Many thanks to all who donated!

18 December 2005
Website launched
After a very hectic period, during which we have worked very hard constructing the website, it has been launched on Sunday December 18th. Special thanks to Jelle, Willem and Robert for their help and efforts!

2 December 2005
Charity "Stichting Kinderen in Ontwikkeling" officially born
Today the charity organisation "Stichting Kinderen in Ontwikkeling" (which translates into english as Children in Development Foundation) has been officially founded by notary Paul Eversdijk (Matzinger & Eversdijk). An important day for us! Within a few days the registration at the Chamber of Commerce will be completed and then we are fully operational!