Stan's story
Like many other students-to-be, I, Stan van der Weijde (21 years old) from Dordrecht, took a gap year after finishing my secondary education. During this gap year, I went travelling, alternating between working and backpacking. Travelling to Japan on my own, travelling to Morocco and back with friends in a self-built camper van. Working again and then off to Zanzibar. There, I began my onward journey through the continent of Africa on a tropical island. Lying in a hammock with a gin and tonic in my hands. After two months of lazing around on this island, catching up on reading and, above all, partying, my urge for adventure was whetted.
A Tanzanian friend of mine, Joshua, wanted to return to his home town of Arusha during his holiday. After many low-budget adventures and wonderful moments, we went back to Zanzibar with Dala Dala's (vans), Borda Borda's (motorbikes) and an illegal crossing on a wooden sailing ship to usher in the new year. When I woke up on 1 January, my budget had been halved and I thought: let me go and have a look at nature, because I had only seen a lion on an old van Persie shirt. Another friend, Hillary, invited me to visit Uganda. Beautiful country! A German friend told me over WhatsApp about mountain gorillas and the stories of her visit to DR Congo. Hmm, just google, mysterious and very beautiful, it caught my attention. Many mothers would have a heart attack if her child indicated that she wanted to visit the last Mountain gorillas and climb an active volcano. Pigheaded as I am, I went anyway. Accompanied by my guide Amani. An experience that I will never forget. An experience I will never forget. That is what I call it now, but all of this is in the shadow of what seized me next.
My guide and I were driving through the city centre, when I saw a child of about 9 years old sleeping in the grass on a water bottle near a roundabout. I asked my guide where his parents were and why he was sleeping here. He reacted very sober and said that he lives in the neighbourhood and these children live here on the street. "Stan, those over there, there and there also live on the streets and there are many more like that". The inhumanity of the stories I heard from both the guide, my friends there and the children was too bizarre for words. Something had to change here. I hadn't thought of it yet, I didn't even know it yet, but I felt it.
But I couldn't do that, could I? What are you thinking, I asked myself. You don't even have £1000. Stan, seriously, what can you do? Here, on the other side of the world? And who are you, another one of those westerners who thinks they have to do something right? Does it make sense for you to set something up now? Even if you were to help these children, to what extent do good intentions really make a good impact? It kept me awake. I decided to share my experiences, feelings and the situation with my friends and family via WhatsApp. I sent a Tikkie.
How expensive are houses here? Are we going to investigate? All right, let's go.
With €2500, I went back to DR Congo on 12 March after a month at home. This time with a plan to build a home for these children. Unrealistic, far from what I once thought was possible and therefore unprecedented that we managed to do it. We opened our doors in July 2020 and since then 22 children can call 4WatotoHouse their home and school. We have been open for 8 months now. About 11 months after the start of construction and 13 months after my last gin and tonic, I can proudly say that I am the chairman of the 4Watoto Foundation. Where today we employ 15 people within the organisation in Congo and where more than 80 volunteers, divided over 3 departments (marketing, media and education) are active.
DR Congo. Sometimes chaos, disorganised, many misunderstandings and painful discoveries. Yet it is also full of life, potential, joy and people. Because there, too, people have birthdays and normal life goes on. Everywhere we are, there are people. We are together, human, in a similar boat and fix things together. Differences can always be found if you look for them, but the same goes for similarities.
I am proud of humanity and to be human, even though we can do so much better. With 4Watoto, we try to contribute to an even better future.
Come, let's show that anything is possible if you go for it together.
Aline's story
A year ago, I, Aline (30), was still working as a restaurant manager at a hotel in Goma. You don't need to tell me that a lot can change in a year! Today I am the manager of 4Watoto, but above all I am a mother of 24 children. I would like to take you with me on my journey by telling you my side of the story.
Let's go back to the beginning. I grew up in Goma, and apart from my studies in Uganda, I have lived here all my life. Before I got involved in 4Watoto, I was a restaurant manager in a hotel and manager of my father's department store. One day, when I was not at the hotel, I got a call about a guy who wanted to organise a dinner for 24 people. Once back at the hotel I met Stan. He explained that he was planning to arrange a dinner for 24 street children. I thought it was a very nice gesture and it was great to give something back to my community through my passion, which is cooking. Good food gives you a happy feeling, and to be able to realise this for these children made it extra nice.
That evening I asked Stan what the plan was for the children. Was this something one-off, or was there more to it? He said that he did not know yet, but that doing nothing was not really an option. We shared our phone numbers to stay in touch.
The next day we discussed our options. Soon we came up with the idea of renting a place for the children. Stan came up with a house in the Ndosho district. I did not think this was such a good idea because I thought it was an unsafe place for the children. Also, the house did not look like an environment where children could grow up normally. I talked it over with Stan, and finally we decided against it.
After thinking about it for a while, I came up with an idea. Maybe it would be better to rent a piece of land and build a house ourselves. That way, the place could be made special so that the children could grow up in optimal conditions. Because I think that if you want to help children, we should not settle for an environment where we ourselves would not want to live. My grandfather owned a piece of land, and he also thought it was a great initiative. Therefore, we were allowed to rent the land relatively cheaply in order to build on it.
I took on the role of project manager for the construction. From buying the materials to supervising the workers, I was actually doing all kinds of things at once. When the house opened in June 2020 after 3.5 months of construction, I felt like a dream come true. I was amazed at what we managed to do in such a short time. Of course, we still had many goals to reach and challenges to overcome, but being able to give shelter to so many children felt great. These children finally had the chance to grow up as normal children, and that was what we wanted for them. I also prefer not to call the 4Watoto House an orphanage. I think we have a very different attitude and living environment than orphanages.
This is our family's home!
After the opening I was still worried about some things. It is of course bizarre that we have set this up just like that. Especially when you know that the first amount that Stan came up with was only 2500 Euros. We had little money, and now we had to provide schooling, food and basically everything the children needed. We don't have a lot of money in our account, so it is difficult to guarantee security for the coming years. But I think God will help us through. Every time we were tight on money during construction, I prayed to God, and we finally made it!
Because of my new role as manager for 4Watoto, I have quit my previous jobs. I am needed full time here. Not only as a manager, but especially as a mother figure for the children. When the house opened, the children and I had to get used to it. Suddenly, I had to make entire daily schedules, make sure that food was on the table every day and arrange for staff. That was not easy for me. Another thing that was difficult was disciplining the children. They were children who had to look after themselves on the streets. They were like their own parents. For some of the children, it was difficult to understand that they are now being taken care of. Therefore, they sometimes had trouble obeying the rules within the home.
We are now about nine months on, and things are going very well here. The children are better disciplined and all are growing up healthy! They are learning all kinds of things during the schooling, and are starting to become better at reading and writing. It is very good to know that these children could not do this before they came here. In the beginning we had one teacher for all children, but this was not useful because of the age difference. That is why we hired a second teacher, so that the children can develop even better.
