2019 July
Less than two months ago, on May 9, Anna Home burned. A lot has happened in that time. I’m going to tell you about it.
The money
We have received more than € 100,000. An awesome amount. Together you have enabled us to rebuild Anna Home. The money came from individuals, from campaigns, from foundations. It came from the Netherlands, Belgium and America. We think that we can build the house with this. We have not thought about the interior yet. In Choibalsan about 30 million Tugriks have been collected for this purpose, around € 10,000.
Construction
Boldsaikhan has spent a lot of time obtaining permits. For the construction itself of course, but also for extending the district heating, electricity and sewer. It seems strongly that everything is now possible as we would like it. Ground research has been done, but I believe no oil has been found. Entirely in accordance with Mongolian custom, they started building the fence. A high stone wall that provides some safety during and after the construction. You would hope that there will come a time when it is no longer necessary and that there is just a friendly little hedge between the different houses. But you can see such a wall throughout the country. The electricity has also been installed so that the builders can use it.
In the previous newsletter I announced that perhaps a Dutch construction expert would go to Choibalsan. We had already ordered his plane ticket when he had medical problems and it turned out to be impossible for him to fly. He did advise and assist Boldsaikhan from the Netherlands. Very unfortunate for us, but certainly also for him.
But that was not the only problem. Just like in the Netherlands, the contractors in Choibalsan have a lot of work. None of them turned out to be able to start in the short term. And so we had to decide that we should no longer strive to be ready before the winter. It does not work. Boldsaikhan cannot do magic. It means he has to find a solution to house the children during the winter. We will try to do as much of the construction as possible, so that the house can be ready as soon as possible in the spring.
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Meet and greet
In February of this year we were in Anna Home. It seems years ago. Then we invited Boldsaikhan to come to the Netherlands for two weeks. We bought him a ticket long before the fire. Despite all the misery, he and we have decided that this visit will go on. We think it is important to introduce him to as many donors as possible. You can hear first-hand what life is like in Anna Home. For that we will create an opportunity on Saturday, August 31 from 2 to 5 p.m. at my house at Sixhavenweg 26 in Amsterdam. Will you keep that afternoon free? At the beginning of August I will send you another invitation. We will give everyone who is there a booklet with histories of a few children and with very nice pictures made by Aart Sliedrecht. With that booklet we want to show why we have maintained Anna Home for 13 years now and how useful that is.
Maarten