It was a cosy jamboree at ‘location Zeeland’ of the Pompe Foundation, a private organisation for forensic psychiatry, on Tue 13th December. Zeeland is a small village in the province of Brabant, Netherlands, and has a long- stay facility from the Pompe Foundation where people who have seriously fallen foul of the law are jailed more or less for life. ‘Location Zeeland’ offers the inmates a meaningful way of spending their days.
The annual Christmas fair attracts many stalls from ‘outside’, but this year one of the inmates, Willem, who is a strong supporter of our Ruach community, also set up a stall to provide information about our project in Juigalpa. Besides information about Ruach, Willem also had collected many items from other inmates that were sold in the stall and a special item, a fancy new heater, was auctioned and sold to the highest bidder. In all, Willem made €264.55 for the Ruach Foundation, a magnificent result!
But that wasn’t the end of Willem’s support. He also arranged for our general letters to be regularly read out in church services, which made the Ruach project come alive for many people, inmates as well as visitors. The Roman Catholic pastor called it a ‘win win’ situation when I talked to him via Skype, because several inmates whose world has become very limited and narrow were touched by the work in ‘far away Juigalpa’. And so the pastor wholeheartedly agreed to a proposal to also earmark the Christmas service collection to our work!
The care manager who was also touched by these initiatives asked Willem to write an article for the Newsletter of the Pompe Foundation which will bring our project to the attention of an even wider public. So we should expect more follow-up campaigns in 2018.
I personally would like to thank everyone who participated in these campaigns for their moral support and financial support and also of course on behalf of the Ruach Foundation who made this Christmas card for you.
Translation Christmas card
The Fundación Cristiana Comunitaria para personas con discapacidad Ruach says: Thank you!
When we love, we try to be a better person . When we try to become a better person, everything in our surroundings becomes better – Paulo Coehlo
Thanks to you and your love for our work, our ‘home mates’ and the participants of our Activities Centre, we were able this year, together, to contribute to changes in Juigalpa and to the awareness of so many people with whom we have been in touch. We are improving the situation of adults with an intellectual disability. ¡Gracias!
Together we can make a difference.
Blessed Christmas Days and An Inspired 2018