Permanent volunteers with administrative duties

Dick Haarsma (Vice President)

In 2008 Tjiska and me have been together guest parents and hosted two Bosnian children in our house for the Pax Amersfoort organization. From 2009 till 2013 I was active for Pax Kinderhulp in the activity commission and a year later as chairman. Since 2009 I travel to Bosnia to meet the children who were hosted in our house. At that moment I realize I would like to do something for the Bosnian children and their families. I would like to help them with material and goods witch I bought in their own country to support Bosnia too. I try to visit Bosnia twice a year. Since 2014 Erwin and I have joined forces through which we can do even more to help children in Bosnia. I enjoy to help 2Bchild to be a successful organization as well in the Netherlands and above all in deeds in Bosnia. 2Bchild is a volunteer organization which volunteers are dedicated to Bosnian children and I feel very connected to it.

Nancy te Nuijl (President)

I registered in 2011 with Pax Kinderhulp in Amersfoort to take a Bosnian child in my home for a holiday. Having enjoyed the experience so much i put my name down for the following year and at the same time joined the Board of the working committee. Performing secretarial, pr and sponsorship duties i became more and more involved with the Bosnian children. Privately and with Pax Kinderhulp i also visited Bosnia a couple of times. Unfortunately it became increasingly difficult for Pax Kinderhulp to find host families and the campaign was discontinued. However my interest didn’t wane! Attending a 2Bchild information evening and on seeing the invitation on Facebook for people interested in seeing the project with their own eyes, it made sense to me to go along. My enthusiasm for the work that 2Bchild did only grew and hitting it off with the other volunteers was asked to help in making 2Bchild a success.

Erika van Schooten (Secretary)

Together with Erwin I have been a host family to Bosnian children for 10 years.13 children and 6 compagnions were our guests. At the same time I was a volunteer for Pax Kinderhulp Amersfoort mainly serving on the activities committee. In 2006 I traveled together with Erwin for the first time to Bosnia. We have over the years learned a lot about Bosnia. During this period i also got the Bosnian language under my belt which proved immensely beneficial in contact with the families and children. All these years we offered children small-scale help. In 2014 this results in a cooperation with Dick and we call it 2BChild! For 2BChild I usually take care of communication between Bosnian compagnions, children and our donors. I also came up with the idea of writing a book over our experiences. This book became an enormous success and i am now seen as the ‘experienced expert’! J My book Dobro Dosli is still available via Bol.com. The profit goes ofcourse 100% directly to the Bosnian children. Click here for more information.

Erwin van Schooten (Cashier)

I have been a host family for 10 years(2004-2014) to Bosnian children that via Pax kinderhulp were on holiday in The Netherlands. I was also active on the Board of Pax Kinderhulp Amersfoort working group. Since 2006 together with Erika we visited children in Bosnia, including some of whom had been guests in our own home. These trips brought us into contact with Bosnian families, government bodies, e.g. social services, schools etc. and consequently 2Bchild was born! I am actively involved within 2Bchild with public relations, keeps the books and maintains the website. I am also the contact for sponsors, Press and other agencies, thereby also supporting a number of projects.

Temporary volunteers

In addition to the permanent volunteers there are also a number of people that help with different activities. Their support is very important to us. Some of them help with one particular project, while others help on a regular basis. 2Bchild aims to give all volunteers satisfaction, no matter what their input is, in the work they carry out. Please contact us if you would like to help! The following volenteers are here for:

Stephan and Sonja van den Hoven

We are Stephan and Sonja van den Hoven and since 1998 to 2010 have been active in Pax Kinderhulp Amersfoort. Initially as a host family for children from Vukovar (Croatia) and the year after as a member in the activity committee of working group Pax Kinderhulp Amersfoort. Also volunteered as reserve quest parents and it happened so that we hosted children from Tuzla and Kljuc in our house. We also had a number of Bosnian compagnions (who helped Pax and us with the Bosnian children) as guests in our house. Especially through the compagnionos we remained in contact with Bosnia and we visited in Bosnia our children and compagnions. The follow up by several guest parents, (we were always following with interest) and through a financial and active contribution to 2BChild we try now to improve the situation for a number of children and their families permanently.