Dear Sponsors

Time slips through my fingers. It's always been like that, but for a few years now this impression has increased. In the past, everything was always doable, but lately I've been increasingly feeling like I'm getting nowhere. I'm sure it has to do with the years I've lived. I've been married to Aziz for fifty-one years now, we've raised three children, had three grandchildren, and meanwhile we've been realising our project: The Centre of Hope. Yes, a lot has come together. I don't want to miss any of it.

«It’s good to leave each day behind, like flowing water, free of sadness. Yesterday is gone and its tale told. Today new seeds are growing. »

Rumi. Sufi mystic from Afghanistan and one of the most important Persian poets of the Middle Ages.

When I look back on the past twenty-four years, I keep on realising that time passes far too quickly. And when I try to take stock, I think that each day should have had more than 24 hours, each month more than four weeks, and each year more than twelve months, in order to cope with all that we should and still want to do here. Yes, having more time would be nice, but getting it is impossible. What is possible, however, is to make the best of the time we have been given. And we were allowed to do a lot, and it makes us grateful to think of all the people we were allowed to accompany, to remember how much joy and love we were allowed to experience, but also to distribute and still are allowed to do so.

Grand-Bassam, in October 2022

Dear Sponsors,

I am pleased to be able to take the time to write these lines to you. It is important to me to not only put a few lines on paper, but to also tell you about our Centres in as much detail as possible and to tell you again and again how grateful we are that you are part of our lives.