Bas Bongers

I live in Herveld with my wife Lieze. Along with my daughter and two step-sons, two cats, chickens, and rabbits, the family is complete.

Since 2020, I’ve gradually become involved with Fotas. We’ve been sponsoring a student for some time, of course, but due to the loss of our second secretarial assistant, the administrative workload became too much to handle, so I started helping out.

What I appreciate about providing secretarial support at the Fotas Foundation is that I can follow the progress of all of our (now over 400) students. We aim to provide an update at least once a year, which is also shared with the sponsors.

Often, the studies go as planned, and the student advances a class each year. But sometimes, unfortunately, a student is unable to complete the academic year. From the feedback we receive from Fr. Herman, it appears that living conditions in Tanzania are sometimes more like survival conditions, and students are therefore unable to complete their studies. Studying in Tanzania is truly a privilege, certainly not available to everyone like it is in the Netherlands.

I’ve never had the opportunity to travel to Tanzania to experience the living and study conditions. For now, I have the stories, photo albums, and information from Tanzania, and I’m following the students remotely.