Dear friends, 

End of December will be my bday and I would love to support a good cause. And I need your help for that!

Did you know this? According to the statistics, at the end of 2021 there were 100.000 kids and young adults (younger than 25) in The Netherlands that have lost one of their parents!!!

I would like to collect & donate money to the foundation called 'Achter de Regenboog' 

This foundation is there for children and young adults in the Netherlands who are confronted with death of one (or both) of their parents. 

They support the kids and their parent/care taker in the grief process through various ways. One of the ways is that they organize a so called:  'lotgenoten weekend' During this weekend, you can meet other kids/parents that also experienced loss of their parent/partner and give space to the grief, pain, anger or whatever is there to be expressed. I took part in such weeekend with my son in 2019, two years after the death of his father.

It's so important to make space for grief, but often times we don't know how. I also lost my father in a car accident when I was 23 years old. Even though I was an young adult, I had no clue how to mourn. I even felt a sense of shame that this 'event' has happened to my family, so I didn't talk about it. It has had an tremendeous impact on my life and still has. Only this year (20 years later) I felt ready and called to start my grieving process with a proffesional help.

Luckily, times are a bit different now, there are much more resources & help available nowadays. My wish for those kids & young adults is that they receive all the support & help in their grieving process, that they don't feel alone, lost and misunderstood.