Dear All,
It feels like a long time since we saw you at the Christmas market in 2019. And what a lot has happened since then; in the world, in the company, and in our foundation. It’s high time for an update! Despite everything, we at the Hilverda Foundation haven’t been standing still.
For those who don’t know us yet, we’ll begin with a short introduction; the Hilverda Foundation was founded in 2009 in honour of the 100th anniversary of the Hilverda Group, which at the time received a royal distinction and became the Royal Hilverda Group. The foundation’s objective is to support street children and orphans in countries where the Royal Hilverda Group is active. We support small-scale projects that focus on education and development. By helping underprivileged children complete an education, we put them in a position to find paid employment later and then support their own communities.
Our existing project in Kenya, where we have sponsored five children to complete their primary and secondary education since it began, has now been expanded. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we provided emergency aid in the form of food and computers to enable them to work from ‘home’ (in the shelter where they live). More children have also been able to start their primary school education. In addition to this, and partly thanks to your purchases and donations at our Christmas market stall, we’re very proud to announce that we’ve started a wonderful project in Colombia in cooperation with the local foundation Straatkinderen Medellin. Five students between the ages of 18 and 21 have now started their further education. The photo shows one of them, Cristian, in the foundation’s living room. He wrote to us:
“Hello, I’m Cristian Camilo Marín Uran, 19 years old, and studying my fourth semester in engineering in industrial design. I’m grateful to Hilverda Group for all the support they give us to achieve our goals. With the funds you send us, I can pay my tuition fees, academic materials, internet bills, and other support. Thank you so much!”
We receive regular reports from all our students in Colombia.
We’ve also made good contacts in India with a local foundation that supports children in their education. We’ve decided to sponsor three children through this foundation: Vadivarasan, Nithin, and Azhaguselvan. Unfortunately, they haven’t been able to start yet because schools in India have been closed for some time, but we will keep you informed.
In any case, we plan to inform you about our activities more frequently through newsletters, social media, and a brand new website currently under construction. Anyone interested will then be able to read more about the children and students we can help with our foundation, and our plans for the near future. We hope to see and speak to you again soon!
Kind regards,
Karina, Eveline, Jan-Jorrit, Anne-Mette and Karen