10 % of the profit made with the book and workshops ‘Mindful at school’ will be used for this goal: create chances for art education (in places with less opportunities) by means of education and/or learning resources, and anything that can be conducive to that in the broadest sense*:
2018 The first donations were given to the Steiner School in Arua – Uganda and the foundation Stichting Naar School in Haiti which were able to buy new products for the pupils to use for art education. The founder of Stichting Naar School in Haiti also joined a free training course ‘Mindful at School’.
2019 Irma donated 30 books ‘Mindful at School’ at several schools in Gambia and bought pens, colouring pencils, paper and exercise-books for the children. She also payed 300 euro to the Lybert School in Banjul to help three children who lost their dad to be able to continue school.
2020 The Dutch foundation Kenya Child Care received 24 books ‘Mindful at school’ and the primary school in Kilifi in Kenya is now using it.Â
2021Â The Tibetan foundation Jhamtse International received a donation.
2022 The book Mindful at school is digital available for a very low price for students in Suriname, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.  The profit of this is for Yep Africa Learning Centre in Gambia.Â
15 books of Mindful at School have been send to the St. Adrian Orphanage Junior School Jjongoza in Kalisizo. With the help of the foundation Bennie helpt Gambia other books and educational materials have been donated to schools in Gambia.
*The foundation HeART 4 Education has been shut down since the 28th of December 2018 because costs to continue a small foundation were high, but as you can see, the 10% will still find its way to the children.
Kenya Child Care is the wonderful initiative of Linda Kragtwijk & Marije Eits. More information can be found at their website.
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Mr. Essa Bangali is the dean of the International Lybert School in Banjul (Gambia). Mr. Kebba Biyai contacted me with this school of his children. He is a very friendly tour guide. If you are in Gambia, you can contact him: +2207775160
If you like to visit the school or offer your help, please contact mr. Bangali: internationallybert@yahoo.com
The Steiner School in Arua Uganda has 370 pupils. The director of the school is Jimmy Olega. We met in an Art education project in Denmark and I am impressed by the wonderful work he is doing, with a very big heart for (art) education.
Info: Steinder School Arua P.O. Box 384 Arua, Uganda Bank account # 0700100692 – BIC: HFINUGKA
Location: Arua, West Nile sub-region, Uganda, East Africa
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the World. Over 80% of the people are illiterate and unemployed. Marijke Zaalberg used to live in the Netherlands and 20 years ago she decided to move to Haiti to start the foundation ‘Naar School in Haiti’. She is doing an amazing job. She lives in Haiti 9 months a year and with her colleagues she improves lives of 800 children. Main goal is education, and next to this they offer children a warm meal every day and if needed, healthcare and a house.
More information about the foundation can be found at this website.
Email from Uganda (with permission to publish)
Dear Irma,
This film underneath touched my heart. Please have a look at the website of the foundation Jhamtse which supports this amazing work of Buddhist monk Lobsang Phuntsok.Â