Another successful project has been launched under the wings of Home of Good Hope (HoGH) in Namibia: the dental care project. Under the inspiring leadership of Monica Imanga, who couldn’t bear the thought of children from 'her' slum going to school hungry, Monica's Soup Kitchen has grown into an extraordinary local aid organization.

What started as one nutritious meal a day for 40 children now provides hope and prospects for the future of 1,200 children in the township of Goreangab in Windhoek. Over the years, individual visitors, interns, companies, organizations, and HoGH Netherlands have contributed financial aid and support on-site to help this remarkable project flourish and expand.

Activities focusing on dental care and oral hygiene, including brushing teeth and visiting dentists, had already been carried out. Since the beginning of this year, the focus has shifted to the structural improvement of dental care and oral hygiene in a five-year project aimed at a group of 50 children. Thanks to an incredible donation, the first year has been covered, and groups of 10 children are taken by bus for dental and oral hygiene care to a dentist in Windhoek, with whom an agreement has been made.

It is quite overwhelming for the children who have often never been to the city of Windhoek, let alone to a dentist. Subsequently, Monica provides them with daily guidance and instructions on brushing their teeth, ensuring they build healthy habits.. The future of this wonderful initiative brings a mix of anticipation and uncertainty. While the current sponsor is committed to continuing after evaluation, the project requires an additional co-sponsor to ensure its sustainability in the years ahead. After all, there's nothing more rewarding than seeing these children beaming with pride, showing off their sparkling clean smiles.

Unfortunately, it didn’t remain dry on that Saturday in December. Nevertheless, the Christmas market on the Tip in Gilze was visited by many with an umbrella. And.....this year there was also a special visitor for us, namely our new secretary Henri van de Laar.

Home of Good Hope (HoGH) is always present at the Christmas market to inform interested parties about its project the ' Monica’s Soup Kitchen'. And of course also to raise money through fundraisers for the much-needed support of about 800 children from the slum of Goreangab in Windhoek, Namibia. And we have been doing this for over 15 years now!

To give these brave children a happy Christmas, we campaigned for this special project at the Christmas market. Thanks to the PLUS supermarket in Gilze, which made a large bag full of food available for this purpose.  We do this with love and pleasure. It is very satisfying to receive grateful messages from children from Namibia, some of whom have grown up, who have graduated or found a good job thanks to the support of Home of Good Hope.  We have been supporting Monica for many years now, ensuring that she can distribute a nutritious meal to vulnerable children in the township of Goreangab in Windhoek. And we make sure that tutoring is given to the children because education is just as important. This is the only real way out of poverty. From an early age, the children at HoGH are guided and stimulated in this by two trained teachers sponsored by us

HoGH looks back on a very cozy, intimate Christmas market in Gilze with music and singing, lanterns, Santa Claus, mulled wine and many visitors who spontaneously supported our campaign. This was also the case for Toos Gerrits from Gilze, who was able to guess the value of the bag of groceries with an accuracy of 61 cents. Toos, pleasantly surprised: "I didn't even look in the bag, because I already thought it was for a very good cause!"

Gerdien and Jelmer spent the first two days of their holiday in Namibia in Windhoek.

"The first few days are dedicated to the Home of Good Hope foundation. Prior to our trip, we raised money for this foundation. A lot has come in, we never expected so much! Of course we are very grateful for that! The intention was to make purchases for the foundation. However, so much has been raised that there is also money to send children to school and to buy things like school uniforms. Today was all about helping at the location and doing some shopping for the soup kitchen. 

In the morning we took a local taxi into the township, looking for the right place. That wasn't easy, at first we couldn't find it in a neighborhood full of illegally built houses made of corrugated iron. There were people, traffic, children, poverty and garbage everywhere, no safe atmosphere for a tourist. The taxi driver was also lost which stressed us out. But luckily we found the right place near the local chicken claw bbq. 

Monica was already waiting for us with the children. She runs the place with a number of volunteers and teachers. The site consists of 3 small classrooms and 1 slightly larger barn made of corrugated iron. By the way, all the buildings are made of corrugated iron. They call it a tin village. 

In the classrooms there is a kind of pre-school for children who cannot go to school. Monica tries to get these children into school as much as possible, that is her main goal. The children were busy with the lesson, but also with Gerdien's blond hair and Jelmer's leg hair. Apparently, leg hair is special. We were petted by a lot of children as if we were cats. 

In addition to the pre-school, there is the soup kitchen. Nowadays, about 1200 children are fed here from Monday to Friday. They make the food at a different location. Here they hand it out from the morning until the end of the afternoon or until everything is completely gone. The number of children has increased enormously recently due to the severe drought in Namibia. Children as young as 5 sometimes walk 10 km to the soup kitchen for food. What was striking is that fortunately the vast majority looked reasonably well-groomed and fed. The school uniforms also contributed to this. Everyone's hair was perfect, I was able to see a lot of African braids. However, the shoes were almost always broken. 

Fortunately, the vast majority go to school. They come to eat quickly beforehand, so they can concentrate better at school. The little ones, some as young as 2 years old, sometimes walk to the soup kitchen on their own without shoes and torn clothes. You could see that Monica and the other employees paid more attention to the youngest and poorest children. Bizarrely, they knew almost all the children's names. 

In addition to poverty, there is a lot of violence, prostitution, sexual violence and addiction problems in the neighborhood. Access to medical care is restricted. There are options, but they are often very expensive. Many turn to witch doctors, who give bizarre advice.

Monica also provides psychological support to some children. She studied psychology in addition to her busy job in order to be able to better guide the children. For example, she has taken in 12 children in her 2-room house. Children with disabilities, orphans and children who are not safe at home due to maltreatment or sexual abuse. Truly an incredible woman!

The food is in short supply. For hours we scoop plates from 70-liter pans. Throughout the day, children come from all over the world. They wait for their turn, bow when they get something, quietly finish their plate, settle for it and take it neatly to the dishes. No one complained, no one left their plate lying around, everyone remained polite and happy with what they got. The portions were very small, it wouldn’t be enough for a European child. Outside, they got a piece of fruit with lemonade, then they ran home or to school.

In the afternoon we went shopping with the donated money. Today, mainly stock for the soup kitchen such as noodles porridge, flour, pasta, vegetables, fruit, baby food, diapers, and milk. Tomorrow, I'll probably buy more durable stuff like toys. We bought carts full of food. Monica was super grateful for everything she got. The car was fully loaded and we took it to the storage.

All in all, a day full of surprises and impressions. Tomorrow is another day!

Thank you all for your contribution, also on behalf of all these children.

The next day is the last day at the project, unfortunately. In hindsight, of course, it was far too short. Enough reason to go back to this wonderful project. Tomorrow, the road trip through Namibia and later Botswana starts.

Today I started shopping for the project. It was all about toys, teaching materials, clothes, shoes and slippers. Again we were able to fill our carts. As quickly as the cart was filled, so slowly did it go at the cash register. Because all purchases must be accounted for, we need a VAT receipt. Apparently, that's not 1 push of a button. No, first to the special cash register, there comes the special VAT receipt guy who has to try to log in which doesn't work, system crashes 4x, then everything by hand, lost pen, ask manager because VAT receipt guy doesn't understand it anymore and so on. It took over half an hour. Unfortunately we had to go to 3 stores, this repeated itself over and over again. Could be smoother, you might think, but we think that more often in Africa.

We Dutch are way too structured for here anyway. Making a large schedule in advance is really not doable. Letting go of that a bit is getting easier but it takes some getting used to.

Around noon, we went back to the soup kitchen to hand out all the shoes and clothes. By clothes we mainly mean underwear, which most children don't wear because there is no money for that. Being bothered by the monthly period is extra annoying for girls here. In addition to the lack of clean underwear, they often lack hygiene products. That's where Monica comes in. Fortunately, they still go to school this way, otherwise they will stay at home for a week. Yesterday, we bought a pallet full of this stuff.

In no time, all flip-flops, shoes, underpants and warm sweaters were measured and distributed. The underpants were all given to the children on their heads. Hilarious sight when they walked away proud and happy with their new shoes.

Here, too, the children wait quietly for their turn. They are all so very cute, sweet and beautiful, it really hurts that we can't help them all. Anyway, of course that isn’t realistic, this is a drop in the ocean. When everything was gone, we immediately regretted that we hadn't bought more. Still, all the children were satisfied.

For the classrooms, we bought toys, puzzles, drawing materials, books, drawing paper and much more. Really a good addition to their stock. The teachers were very happy with it.

Furthermore, it was super busy in the soup kitchen. Together with another volunteer, we fed hundreds of children. Counting was not possible, it all went way too fast. After a few hours, all the hot food was gone. Monica immediately went to get bread for the others. It goes on and on.

At the end of the afternoon we saw the kitchen where they prepare everything. The foundation rents a kitchen a short distance away. Super small for what comes out in terms of food, but they get by with it. The kitchen is also hygienic and well structured. Nice to see that yesterday's shopping is being used there.

Monica took us to her house at the end of the day. That's where we met her family. Unbelievable what a woman this is. With 12 children, she shares 4 beds in 2 rooms. She pulls out all the stops to give them a good future. Unfortunately, not everything works out. One of her daughters studied medicine, unfortunately this has become too expensive since April. Hopefully that will change in the future.

There is still money left over from our fundraiser. You have given so much that we could not spend it all. We leave this money in the foundation until there is a good plan for it. For example, children will go back to school in January. For this there is a budget for uniforms and school fees. Perhaps there will be playground equipment for the children to enjoy. Anyway, everything in good time and at the African pace.

Now it's over and we continue with the journey. It's a double feeling to continue in luxury like this. That's not right and it's really unfair. We already know that we are not going to let go of the foundation, it is far too important for that and we are far too rich.

Sincerely,

Gerdien Vorenkamp

Marc and Henri visit Monica's soup kitchen in Namibia

We were pleasantly surprised when we heard that Henri and Marc also wanted to visit Home of Good Hope's soup kitchen in Windhoek during their trip to Namibia.

In addition to the hugely successful collection campaign among family, friends and acquaintances a few weeks before their departure, they conducted a campaign among employees of the municipality of Tilburg with the slogan 'Take toothbrushes”, resulting in a large number of toothbrushes. In doing so, they responded perfectly to Home of Good Hope's extra commitment to good dental care and dental hygiene. A wonderful initiative by just 2 involved people!

It turned out to be a fantastic experience for them that they write about themselves: "Certainly, we were lucky that Monica, the staff and the children gave us such a warm welcome. It was our first day in Namibia and it was a fantastic start to our trip through Namibia. It may even be the highlight of our trip”. During their trip through Namibia, Marc and Henri visited the Soup Kitchen twice and they became more and more enthusiastic about the good work of Monica and her people. In addition to taking care of the meals, they were particularly enthusiastic about the support aimed at good education and thus the future opportunities of these children. And so, on their last day, together with Monica, they bought the first necessities!

Last year, Monica came into contact with a group of children who had moved from the north of Namibia to the township (slums) of Windhoek. They were children of refugees from Angola, abandoned and left to fend for themselves. The children slept on thin mattresses in tin huts, They had nothing and no one to take care of them and came to Monica and her soup kitchen to eat.

Of course, the children did not knock on Home of Good Hope's door in vain. Monica spontaneously took the fate of these children to heart. Together with a priest, she made sure that the children received a baptismal certificate and could be officially registered.

Monica also made sure that the children were taught. For example, they were brushed up with arithmetic and language so that they were prepared to go to primary education.

A few weeks ago the time had finally come, the primary schools started again after the summer holidays (it is now summer in Namibia). Proud as they were of their "pre-school diploma", they could now go to school and these vulnerable children can look forward to a future full of 'Hope'! 

The rain cleared just in time on Saturday and the Christmas market in Gilze could be visited without an umbrella. Home of Good Hope (HoGH) Gilze en Rijen is always present to inform visitors about its project 'Monica's Soup Kitchen'. And of course to raise money through campaigns to support approximately 600 children from the Goreangab slum in Windhoek, Namibia. And this, from the Netherlands, for 15 years now!

To give these brave children a Merry Christmas, we campaigned for this special project at the Christmas market. With thanks to the PLUS supermarket in Gilze, which provided a large bag packed with food for this purpose. Many people contributed by taking a gamble and guessing the value of the contents of the bag for 1 euro. In addition, all kinds of Christmas items were for sale from the beautifully decorated stall at a reasonable price, all to continue supporting 'our' children.

We do this with all our love and pleasure. It is very satisfying to receive grateful messages from children from Namibia, now adults, who have graduated or found a good job thanks to the support of Home of Good Hope. Like Christian, who graduated this summer as a lawyer. Our help gave his life a different turn, and he is very grateful to us for this.

We look back on a very pleasant, intimate Christmas market in Gilze with music, lanterns, Santa Claus, mulled wine and many visitors who warmly supported our campaign and we wish everyone happy and happy holidays!

It was enjoyable at the annual market in Rijen. Autumn holidays and nice weather created a perfect ambiance. For many people this was a perfect reason to visit this annual market. And a great day for the market stallholders, including Home of Good Hope (HoGH). We have been present for many years to provide information about and ask for support for the ' Monica Imanga's Soup Kitchen'. A successful HoGH project for a large number of children from the Goreangab slum, Windhoek, Namibia. 

For more than 15 years, under Monica's inspiring leadership, around 600 children have been receiving a healthy meal every day. Vulnerable children from poor (incomplete) families, living in meagre buildings without their own water supply and electricity. Children who are encouraged by HoGH to go to school and are supported with homework classes. From disadvantaged to promising.

As a 'charity' we are at the annual market with an appealing stall. And many visitors to the market know where to find us. The 'kiss for a euro' was very much appreciated and provoked nice reactions. Even if you couldn't win a prize, the people thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate kiss. 

With enthusiastic and committed volunteers, we have again been able to realize a nice yield this year. A profit that directly and fully benefits the children in providing the daily meal, education and sports. We certainly owe that nice yield to some generous prize donors. You can't have a 'lottery' without nice prizes! And we had a lovely grand prize, a crate with groceries from 'Jumbo' Kiske Hapers, a beautiful flower voucher from De Roozelaar and tasty lunch vouchers from Smaak Lokaal. Thank you very much!

At the annual market we made a lot of people happy, here and in Namibia.

Because the living conditions of the children in the slum have deteriorated further, the help of Monica and Home of Good Hope is much needed.
Fortunately, there is help for these children and we can also help Monica again and again with the extras that are desperately needed.
Monica and her volunteers are very busy.
And as we wrote last time, the Soup Kitchen is being used en masse, the homework classes are running at full speed and the sports season has also started again.
Good news is that it seems that this year the long-dreamed wish of a permanent building will be fulfilled.
But more is needed and thankfully, due to fortunate circumstances we have been able to do a lot more this spring.

Extra sponsored
This spring we were able to sponsor the much-needed extras.
Thanks to Fair Mundo Travel. A small travel company with a mission that not only organizes trips, but also really wants to mean something to people who need it.
We consulted Monica to find out what was desperately needed.
First of all, there was a great need for warm blankets for the children. In the winter season it can freeze at night while during the day it is more than 20°C.
The people in the township live in rickety corrugated iron houses with a lot of draft. It is very cold at night and the children get respiratory infections and especially a lot of colds!
There was also a need for shade tents (gazebos) with windbreaks. The children can wait outside underneath these so that they do not have to stand in the bright sun and the washing-up crew will also find shade. The gazebos can be folded after use and stored indoors.
Finally, there was a need for good stainless steel tables for handing out the food and preparing the extra sandwiches.
And then of course also extra tables and chairs for the children in the homework classes and / or at the childcare.
Monica first asked for a quote to see if it was all within the budget. And yes, a great wish could be fulfilled.
Thanks to the fantastic help of this small travel company, Monica was able to purchase a lot of warm blankets and scarves for the children. There were also two large shade tents with windshields on the side, so that the children do not have to wait in the scorching sun and the dishes can also be done in the shade and out of the wind. And in addition to the 2 new tables and 8 new chairs for the children, two stainless steel tables for the staff have also been purchased, partly to be able to hand out the food and partly to prepare extra sandwiches.
Fair Mundo Travel is going to Namibia this summer with one of their trips and will try to visit Monica and her soup kitchen. Contacts have been found and there has already been consultation with Monica.
We are curious and hope that it succeeds.

April 2023

Monica and her team are working hard to create a better future for the children.
The summer holidays for the kids  ended more than 2 months ago and the photos show us that Home of Good Hope is doing well. The Soup Kitchen is used a lot, the homework classes are running at full speed and the sports season has also started again. 

It took some arranging but eventually we managed to meet Monica. The night before I had almost given up again because an 'Umwelt' sticker was needed to be able to drive into Aachen, also for an electric car. But Lau brought a solution because he found out that the football stadium was also accessible without this sticker and that we could have lunch there, in the football canteen (De Klömpchensklub). We are happy to take the costs of all this for our own account. The trip went smoothly and there was plenty of free parking on site.

That daily meal is and remains very important for the children from the Goreangab Township. With our support and support, the children can visit the “Soup kitchen of Monica” every day. Monica let us know that the children who come to eat with her are doing very well, the children are still enjoying it. The little ones are fed first thing in the morning and the schoolchildren visit Monica after their morning lesson. And every day the pans are completely emptied down to the last crumb after being handed out.

Fortunately, after the Corona period, the football competitions have also started again in Namibia. This is also the case for the renewed youth football team of Home of Good Hope (HoGH). A team of young schoolchildren who, together with about 600 children from the Goreangab slum, are served a nutritious meal every day in the Monica Imanga’s soup kitchen, which has been the driving force behind HoGH Namibia for many years.

A new teacher is teaching the children of the Home of Good Hope (HoGH) soup kitchen in Windhoek.