The Dutch Navy helps the street children of Romania - part 1

www.sos-straatkinderen.com

In January 2009 I got a phone call from sergeant Spalburg of the Navy. He told me that he belongs to the crew of the biggest ship of the Dutch Navy, the Hm Ms Johan de Witt. In April 2009 they planned to sail to the harbor of Constanta, together with another ship the Hm Ms Rotterdam. They expected to have 150 crew members on board and 550 marines. They would be there as part of a NATO exercise together with 14 ships from different countries and also for a diplomatic mission! Even the president of Romania planned to visit them. But also companies would visit them through conferences that would be held on board of the ship.

Before their departure I was invited to visit them on board of the ship in Den Helder. There they told me that they would like to do something for the street children! A few weeks later I received good news from the First Officer of the ship Johan de Witt. "Very many crew members had volunteered to help" he told me. Amongst other things, they would paint our shelter house for the street children in Constanta! A lot had been broken up because in that house a new heating system and also new electricity wiring had been installed. That cost a lot of money! So it was very necessary to paint it. Also they would do all kinds of repairs there and also in our family house in Corbu.

The Hm Ms Johan de Witt has been in the harbor of Constanta for 10 days. An enormous amount of work has been done. It was very special, a really unique experience for all of us, but also for the street children. And especially also for our Romanian colleagues! The children were invited for a tour on the ship and they got all kinds of very nice food from the cook of the ship. They had a real feast : all things that the children liked a lot! The children also visited the medical doctor on the ship for an extra checkup and care (we had consulted our Romanian doctor beforehand about this). The dentist of the Hm ms Rotterdam also received the children for a dental checkup. Also they organized a sports day for all the street children!

The publicity around all of this will be beneficial for the work we are doing there! Several newspapers in Holland have reported about this special happening. In Constanta it even has been shown on local television. In Holland there was a radio interview by Johan Middelkamp, the chairman of our work group. We are very thankful that even the Dutch navy and the crew of the Hm Ms Johan de Witt and the dentist of the Hm Ms Rotterdam have been willing to help the street children!

We all enjoyed it very much and the children were really impressed by those big ships and that those "sailors" wanted to do so much for them.
A very special friendship has started there between the marines, the street children, our workers and the staff members.
Will you help us to continue this work? We will keep you informed!
Thank you for all the help in the past period!

Greetings,
Theo van Hoof

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

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• S.O.S.
• ;street
• children;
• kids;
• street
• Romania;
• Constanta;
• Drop
• In
• Center;
• hunger;
• renovation;
• mothers;
• babies;
• teens;
• docter;
• tendist;
• food;
• clothes;
• Navy;
• Marine;
• Bucharest;
• sewers;
• streets;
• homeless;
• pregnant;
• church

[andy916923]

Very nice! There are people every where in the world having different problems, sometimes caused by disasters, thieves, a wrong interpretation of law, human values, competences, field of expertise, knowledges or profession, priorities or common sense!

[onlypilgrimhere]

God bless them!