Astrid writes in her newsletter: “Employees come and go here. Most of them we have to dismiss, usually after a one-month trial period. To a few we give some extra time hoping that they will settle down and show their full potential. But regularly we have to say ‘good bye’ and again start preparing new people for the job…..”
Of course no one would have expected that the functioning of the community home would be plain sailing from the start. But we had hoped that we would have a somewhat smoother run. To train people in Juigalpa is one of the pillars of our project, and rightly so, because we cannot make concessions when people are involved. But fortunately it is not ‘all struggle’ and we have successes as well, e.g. Eva has been working in the activities centre for nearly a year to our full satisfaction.
There are some developments in the Netherlands too. Recently we started talking with a potential candidate for our Vivir Juntos board. And it was a boost when a collection in a church in Leiden raised just over €400 for Vivir Juntos. Unfortunately a similar campaign in an Amsterdam church was cancelled in spite of the work that had gone into the preparations.
We are also waiting to hear about the decision of one of our funding organisations with whom we maintain contact. They will meet in July and we hope that they will take a positive decision for our project. These business affairs do not automatically fall into place, so we need to put our shoulders to the plough. And that’s why we are on the Board.
Jeroen Boggia
Acting Chairperson, Vivir Juntos Foundation