OVER ONS
We are Ronald Bredewoud and Soraya Bredewoud-Lahr. In January 2023 we went on holiday to Gambia to see the beautiful colored birds. We met Sulayman Camara online who would act as our bird guide for this holiday. Upon arrival in Gambia, we first met this friendly guide personally and he would take us to the most beautiful places throughout our holiday. Because we were in Africa for the first time, we also wanted to get to know the local people. We booked an excursion where we first went to a village where they danced for us and later to a local school where the children sang for us. In the interior you really see what poverty is. Houses that are about to collapse and roads where it is almost impossible to drive a car. We bought some balloons and sweets and when you gave them to the children they were so grateful. Yes, it really did something to us. Giving a small gift like a balloon gave you radiant faces in return. When we returned to the Netherlands we knew that we actually wanted to do something. We have started by sending a small contribution per month to our guide, which he can use at his own discretion to cover the costs of maintaining his family. Simply because you can be sure that it will arrive 100% where we want it. Actually, we don't think this goes far enough and the idea arose to do something for the poor village where our guide Sulayman comes from, but... how do you approach this!!! Soraya decided to create this website where we can share our experiences but also show what happens with the money we hope to raise. We will return to Gambia in January and hopefully we will be able to donate a nice amount for food and clothing in the village where we collect the money. We will also investigate how we can send (second hand) clothing to Gambia as cheaply as possible. All in all, a leap into the deep for us, but where we can hopefully make life a lot more fun for a number of people. We certainly understand that there is poverty in the Netherlands too, I spent a day at the food bank and of course we also find that really sad. Only here you still have a food bank and you don't have that there. We hope that this project will be a great success and that we can all see what has been achieved on this website. Ronald and Soraya.