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Sabine De Vos
Ambassador from the very beginning
At the end of 2007 CUNINA will exist for 17 years. From the first day I became an ambassador. My first foster child Marlon Joseph Parong from the Philippines is in the meantime married and father of a boy. Thanks to my help and that of CUNINA, he graduated with a BA in Information Science. He now works for Ford. An opportunity he would never have had without our help.
Since 2004 I help little Bhuwan in Nepal. He lost both his parents to AIDS and can now go to school thanks to the CUNINA hostel in Khandbari where he lives.
And so CUNINA helps thousands of children daily: to go to school, to get water, to get medical help,….Since I first became an ambassador for CUNINA, I have witnessed its growth, other people becoming convinced of our good cause, I tried to attract attention to our good work.....I believe that CUNINA can after nearly 17 years show a fantastic track record and should be proud of its achievements.
Every encouragement, every smile from a child…..spurs us on to do more by ensuring that more people learn about CUNINA. That way we can help more children. Browse through our site to learn more about our work and our projects, and who knows maybe you, like many before you, will also want to help and give the children, whose cradle stood in the wrong place, a way to a better life.
They and us will be very thankful.
Sabine De Vos (www.sabindevos.com)
Luc Appermont
Why I gratefully accepted to become an ambassador for CUNINA.
When Sophie Vangheel and Sabine De Vos made an appointment with me in a café near the VTM studios in Vilvoorde, we at once connected. Very quickly we were on the same wavelength when it comes to CUNINA. It was above all the enthusiasm by which Sophie defended CUNINA that made up by mind.
Since I had had 3 foster children for years, I knew CUNINA's philosophy. Above all the fact that you dodn't just pay a monthly sum, but that the money went specifically to education and health made CUNINA of such value. It is very important and necessary to combat hunger and poverty in the developing countries, to improve education and hygiene. Not less essential is the guiding of children towards adulthood through creating the possibility to study, and thereby opening the possiblity of their own place in their society and the possibility of a job in their own environment.
Sophie was recently on a mission in Nepal and brought back some photos of my godchild Deepak with the family. In an accompanning letter Deepak wrote how happy he is and how grateful his parents are for the chance that CUNINA has given their son. I also receive letters, photos and school results of my other 2 godchildren, Cherryl from the Philippines and Sam from Haiti, regularly. They write about their studies, their family, their life and their plans for the future. This means you see them grow up, posing proudly in their school uniform with their family members. You see that you are making a difference.
Offering help with an outstretched hand is fine and commendable. True change can only be achieved by the people themselves, with our help and under supervision. Instead of going to the hungry people and giving them fish and bread, you do better by teaching them to bake their own bread and fish so that they can support themselves. Of course there is still a long way to go, but the results are more than encouraging.
Luc Appermont
