HOW IT STARTED

Jos Neijenhuis, founder of the Foundation: "As director and founder of FOX Holidays (now of ANWB) I was closely involved in the relief work of the devastating Tsunami in Sri Lanka in 2005-2006, then one of our holiday destinations. Not a house remained intact. "

"After crying out for help from our friends in Sri Lanka, we started an action with FOX to raise money for the poverty-stricken families on the coast, who had lost everything due to the devastating waves. Because most of the victims had fallen among the poor fishermen. We build fishing boats as quickly as possible so that at least fishing could be done again. It became a very personal action, because whoever donated 1000 euros could have a fishing boat built including the fishing nets for that amount. Each boat was provided with a Dutch flag with the name from the donor, who received a certificate with a photo of the family and the boat.Our approach was to have the boats built and delivered without intermediaries and all kinds of unnecessary agencies, so that every cent went well.

The campaign was a huge success. We were able to build more than 700 boats and make entire villages happy. During our 'boat project' I often came to Sri Lanka. For example, the village of Kosgoda, just south of the capital Colombo, came into contact with one of the worst affected areas. The people here had lost almost everything and sat apathetically in self-made huts and shacks. I gave them some courage by saying that major relief efforts had started in the world and that their hopeless situation would soon change. Back in the Netherlands, a few months later I received a call from the monk of the village, Kassapa, who told me that nothing at all had happened except for some fresh drinking water and some rice.

The situation was simply untenable. Three days after that phone call, I caught a plane and went back to Sri Lanka to have a look for myself. Indeed, nothing had changed, despite all the millions that had been donated at the time. A few days later I started myself, just with a local contractor. Started building 4 houses for broken families. In a few years, it eventually became 62 houses, giving approximately 250 people a good shelter. In 2009 a workshop / art school was also built in the village to give very disadvantaged young people from the area the opportunity to develop their talents. We focused on ceramics and painting. It was great to see how much talent was there. 100% of the proceeds went to the Foundation and the community of the village.

Once you start, you won't stop. There is so much to do. It is impossible to give everyone a decent home. That is why I continued with an effective small-scale project: building chicken coops for poor families, so that they can still earn a little with the proceeds from the eggs. There are now dozens of chicken coops.

In Nepal, Orange Angel works together with the Angel Nepal Foundation, which performs small miracles there with very limited resources thanks to the efforts of Angelique van Hoof. Together with her we have set up sewing projects in the remote and 'forgotten' area of ​​Chitwan, so that women can make their own clothes. Furthermore, another unique project has been set up for widows in the area. When a woman becomes a widow, the income often disappears and she is all alone. We give her a goat or piglet, which she can take care of and fatten up, so that after 10 months she can sell it on the market and live on the money and buy a little piglet or goat again. "