Like my parents, I was born in Indonesia. My grandparents from my father’s side are originally from Friesland. In 1955 our family had to move to the Netherlands due to the political situation. In 1998 I decided to go back to Indonesia to visit the house where I was born, in Jakarta. Three years later I also visited other islands of Indonesia, including Bali. And since 2003 I have been back to Bali every year.

What struck me was that I met children on the beach, while they should be at school at that time. When I asked them about the reason, it turned out that their parents did not have sufficient money to let them go to school, and had to get a loan at the bank to pay the costs. And if there was not enough income to pay back the loan, there was only one solution: keep the child at home. This motivated me to start helping them and was the foundation’s beginning, officially established in February 2010.

So now I visit Bali every year, to visit the schools, the family, and the children, and monitor the activities that are funded through the Foundation. Every time again this is a wonderful and gratifying experience!

Let me briefly introduce myself to you, being the new Secretary of the Foundation as from November 2022.

My name is Simone Winkel, born and bred in Mijdrecht. I am 48 years old and live in Mijdrecht with my partner Frank. Together we have four grown-up sons, three of which still live with us at the moment. Presently I am working as an independent professional in home care.

With the boys grown up, I have time to do more things on the side. So when Tjeerd asked me if I would like to take over the position of Secretary, I did not need much time to think about it and say yes. I am happy to contribute to a Foundation of which I am 100% convinced the money is spent exactly how it is meant to be!

I am 54 years young and I live in Middelburg. How do I come to the foundation?

I have known Tjeerd for exactly half of my life and from the very beginning that Tjeerd founded the foundation, I have heard his stories about the children and education in Bali. Now Tjeerd has recently asked me to become treasurer of the foundation. I said yes to that because I saw with my own eyes how valuable the foundation is for the children in Bali. In 2019 I had a fantastic first introduction to the beautiful island of Bali. It was great to meet my own sponsor child, from whom I had been receiving photos and updates for years. In the three weeks that I was there, I traveled with Tjeerd and I was also able to experience how the ins and outs of the foundation here in Bali work. Moreover, I was also able to make myself a bit useful with all the work that came with it! Now the task for me from the Netherlands is to use myself as treasurer for the foundation.