Foundation Blaricum-Sumatra-Medan

A warm welcome to this website which belongs to the Foundation Blaricum-Sumatra-Medan, commonly know as Stichting BSM. BSM stands for Foundation Blaricum-Sumatra-Medan.

Why Blaricum? Its small village in the centre of the Netherlands, the location of a Primary School, called the Openbare School Bijvanck. (Bijvanck is the name of the area). “Openbare” means that every child is welcome no matter religion, political parental preferences, job, or income.

The island Sumatra is one of the biggest islands in Indonesia within the city of Medan, with about 2.5 million inhabitants. You might compare it with Sweden in Europe.

What do these places have in common?

Nothing particular but I, Pierre Pourchez, have been a Primary School teacher in the village of Blaricum for about 35 years and my birthplace happens to be Medan.mAs a teacher, I wanted to teach my students more than the average of the usual subjects like: Math, Dutch language and grammar, Geography and improving and enjoying skills like Music and having fun during the Gym. It started about 1995; I pondered on how we could involve the Dutch students in projects for children of similar ages to them, but who were far less fortunate than them.

Initially, the OBS Bijvanck started with the organization PLAN but it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.

Our students were creative and hard working hard and they tried to earn and collect money for PLAN. The disadvantage was: “Where did the money go to and what are the results and is it possible to witness these efforts?"

After ending the contract between the school and PLAN, we decided to look for a project in a more substantial and clear way.

Holiday in Indonesia

In 1999 my wife and I went on holiday to Indonesia and tried to make contact with relevant people and organisations who were working with children in need. And we did succeed: we met Mrs Lenny Kosasih, Chair Lady of the Yayasan Abdi Kasih in Martubung/Medan.

When I came home, I presented what I’d seen: the bleak and desperate situations of homeless and disabled children in Indonesia. I spoke with the local board of Yayasan Abdi Kasih and witnessed first hand the often dirty and poverty stricken situations about 60 children. Some were sleeping on the floor and only one tap providing clean drinking water was available for 60 children. The floors and classrooms were simple and scantily decorated, dark grey concrete and felt joyless. Anyway, coming back after a very impactful and thought-provoking trip, I presented this situation to my colleagues and board of OBS Bijvanck in Blaricum.

The beginning of BSM and Abdi Kasih

We decided to adopt Yayasan Abdi Kasih for five years and confirmed to donate every year a small amount of money, creatively collected by children in the same age but in the Netherlands. During the beginning we considered it a victory donating 100 euro’s, earned and collected by nine years old children. The first five years yearly raised it to 250 euro’s. But contacting more business and professional charity organisations like Cordaid, talking with the ASN Bank, we managed it to get more substantial support and students who have left our Primary School continued in collecting money for Yayasan Abdi Kasih.

25 years later…

Now, after almost 25 years of a structural cooperation between the Dutch OBS Bijvanck in Blaricum and the Yayasan in Medan we are proudly able to look back summing up some successful results:

A brand-new kitchen with a huge support of Cordaid, including a real fridge
Over 8 water taps available for all kids, we started with 1
Good and proper toilets and clean watersupport
Fishing ponds and gardens to work in, taking care of their own food
Getting fully filtered drinking-water out of the ground by a proper pumping system.
Good clothing
Proper floors everywhere in the building
Medical support
Living in an area that is safe and well-protected.

And now we proudly can announce our philosophy: “If you are doing good yourself, you always will be able to take care of someone else.”

And we have to go on: children need education, food and clothing. They have the right to become adult people with some simple skills to grow.

For that we need money and it would be great to send a donation, we just simply need it.

DONATE?

All amounts huge or small, financial supports are more than welcome. Transparency and honesty is what we stand for and even if you want a personal info of our financial behaviour, we consider you more than welcome, except for publishing private names of sponsors and donations.

On our site you will be invited to help us and to donate by using the QR-code or transferring according the traditional way.

You will be able to find all bank-info you need in order to transfer.

THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH!

DONATE