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Association in the spotlight
Embracing life vzw
Kathleen Hales
Can you present yourself Kathleen ?
I am Kathleen (55) and I grew up in Brugge as a child of an English father and an Austrian mother. I live in Melle and I have 4 children and 2 grandchildren and I work fulltime as a bookkeeper.
How did you got in contact with Africa ?
In 2002 I travelled for the first time to Ghana. Very soon I got passionate by the African culture and the way of life but I also saw a lot of problems in the field of education. So when I came back from this first visit I had the strong feeling that I could do something and even more that I really wanted to do something.
Finally in 2008 I went back to Ghana. Immediately at my arrival I was told not to stay in the country because there were presidential elections and it could become unsafe for me. So I decided to go to Togo where I met a lot of people of Ngo’s working in different fields.
Also here I was confronted with a lot of problems in the schools. Lack of infrastructure, no or not enough financial means to pay the teachers, not enough school materials and also a lot of parents who couldn’t pay the school fees of their children.
One day a director of a school contacted me to ask me for help. He had 1000 students but not one school building!
With this situation in mind I came back to Belgium where I immediately took action. I made an appointment with M. Sagbo, ambassador of Togo who advised me to establish a vzw to generate financial means for the school projects.
In march 2009 ‘Embracing life’ was a fact !
I choose this name because the aim of the vzw was not only to give financial help. I wanted to give the people hope. I wanted to show the people that one should always embrace life.
Which activities do you have with ‘Embracing life’ to achieve this goal?
Organizing cultural evenings with food and music is a very important part of our activities because it brings people together. These evenings are always moments where I can present the project in Togo and the aims that we already realized.
Together with that we try also to cooperate with different vzw’s to reach a larger public. Last year for example we organized the ‘lente-happening. A market with people of different countries, games and activities for children (like henna and music) and to finish the day we had a concert with west-African musicians
We are always looking for other possibilities to make Togo known by the Belgian people. So we made a quiz around Togo and now we are looking to make educational cases that can be hired by schools.
Sometimes we also go to markets or events to sell Ice creams or to help in the organization of the event. In return the organization gives us some money that we can use for our projects.
A lot of time and energy goes in the search for sponsors and writing files for subventions.
When you look to the future of Embracing life? Do you have dreams ?
My big dream is to find some loyal sponsors so that I can really focus all my energy for a 100 percent on the project without running all the time looking for money. That I even could be able to work fulltime for Embracing life.
Another dream is that one day I can organize a real big benefit concert with Will Tura and Adamo ! 2 big stars in the Belgian music scene.
Thank you very much Kathleen. The FAAB team wishes you good luck and hope that we can help you realizing at least a part of your dreams.
Info about embracing life and the project in Togo you can find on : www.embracinglife.be
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