How it started

• In 2007 Dik and Debby van Osch were on their honeymoon in Southern Africa. Combining business with pleasure, they visited several projects in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia for the foundation they started themselves: The Child and Welfare Foundation from the Netherlands. In Windhoek they were staying in a bed and breakfast where they met Monica. Monica overheard a phone call between Dik and the director of SOS Children’s Village in Windhoek. Monica told Dik and Debby that she lost her daughter to HIV/AIDS and that she wanted to do something for the children in the community! Her vision: To set up a soup kitchen that she wanted to call “The Home of Good Hope”! After seeing what life was like for the children of Goreangab Dam, Dik and Debby went back to the Netherlands to organise structural fundraising with the “Kind en Welzijn” Foundation. They continued to do so, until in 2011 volunteers Maria Vernooij and Jopie van Lisdonk took over and started the Dutch Home of Good Hope Foundation!
• Meanwhile, in 2007 Eileen Greene from Canada helped Monica to establish the foundation Namibia Home of Good Hope. In Namibia, it is an officially registered foundation with the objective of improving the fate of children in Goreangab..
  At that moment Monica cooked food once a day for about 50 children. The soup was distributed from Sandra Boyen’s house, Monica’s friend who lives in Goreangab.
  Back in the Netherlands, Dik and Debby’s Foundation “Kind en Welzijn“ pays the bills for the Wholesale where Monica does her shopping for her soup kitchen directly from Netherlands.
• The following years, the family Van Osch visited the soup kitchen, but it is too expensive to go to Namibia every year. All costs are paid by the volunteers themselves.
  And all the money raised goes directly to Monica.
• In 2009, Esther Leegwater did an internship with Monica and helped her in the soup kitchen. Meanwhile, about 160 children receive a warm meal daily in the soup kitchen. In Sweden, Frida Nilsson and Hannah Wadman raised money for the soup kitchen. In the same year, these Swedish volunteers make an extension to Sandra Boyen’s house. The construction is made so that it can be moved in view of the future.
  Because Monica has a dream. She would love to own land on which she can run a child care center. She would also like to have her soup kitchen there and give health information. In the autumn, Andrea Roessler from Germany visits Monica’s soup kitchen and Andrea helps Monica. And through her, Barbara Bitschnau visits the soup kitchen the following year.
• In 2010, Maria Vernooij and Jopie van Lisdonk visit Namibia together for a month. They show her the ropes of using the Internet and help her build a network in Namibia. They visit the council and submit an application for a piece of land that lies opposite the soup kitchen. Child Welfare in the Netherlands acts as guarantor for the purchase of the land.
  Maria contacts “IWAN“, a voluntary organization in Namibia and asks them to help Monica fulfill her dream. The IWAN knows the ins and outs.
  In the same month the volunteers of IWAN already provide new pots and mugs for the soup kitchen. In the autumn they lay a stone floor in the building. Monica has also started the project with homework. Volunteers help her to help children with literacy and numeracy.
  In September, Dik and Debby van Osch pick up Monica in Windhoek. She came to the Netherlands for one week to raise money for her soup kitchen and for the purchase of the land.
  In 2010, Monica also meets Barbara and her boyfriend. They are from Austria and are going to sponsor Monica too.
• In 2011 Maria Vernooij and Jopie van Lisdonk start a foundation, "Home of Good Hope" in the Netherlands. Together with Dik van Osch, Hanneke van Kempen en Eus de Haas on the board, they started to recruit sponsors to help Monica’s dream come true.

Please look at the 5 project boxes at the top of this page to read more about our active projects.