Her exceptional talent for languages had led her to choose to study ‘Languages and Cultures of Latin America’ in Leiden, Netherlands. Whilst travelling with her fiancé Cris through Central America, she was deeply struck by the poverty of the underprivileged children there and set forth a commitment to ensuring their access to good education.
The SFF aims to follow and support Suzanne’s passion and spirit by supporting and promoting language projects such as TEFL, as well as supporting educational projects aimed at children in Latin and Central America.
Since its foundation in 2006, the foundation has provided annual scholarships to the winners of it’s annual competition. This year the SFF will again offer students the opportunity to win the ‘Suzanne Furstner Scholarship’ and follow a TEFL course. In order to do this, the SFF co-operates with prominent languages schools.
For it’s educational projects the SFF co-operates with the Foundation ‘Cada Vida Cuenta’ (‘Each Life Counts’).
In order to function the Foundation possesses a small starting capital and is furthermore dependent on sponsorship and donations.
ANNUAL REPORT 2023
On behalf of the Foundation we wish you all the very best for 2024! Last year all of your donations have reached their destinations. We are steadily going strong now for the last four years in a row, which makes us very proud. And above all, we are very thankful that we can mean something for other people with Suzanne in our thoughts in a manner close to Su’s heart.
‘The children of Medellin’ have (again) received a donation from SFF. We stay in touch with them through e-mail and read their newsletters with lots of interest. We also participated in their action ‘Giving Tuesday’, where the donations of the donors were doubled by the participating partners. In this way our gift to them was also multiplied by two. We, Marie-Therese and myself, spoke with them about this during a meeting, organized on behalf of the ‘Children of Medellin’, in the Indonesian district in Amsterdam at December 10th last year.
At that meeting we were also welcomed to a large photo exhibition of the ‘Children of Medellin’-organization stretching from their initial start up until now. The organization is super active and still going strong. Teaching English remains a steady part of their program and playing football is still a favorite among the young ones over there. The youngest children among them have successfully completed a ‘read and write-program’ in Spanish and after that were able to enroll for the projects Journalism and English.
These results are very important for our Foundation! We are filled with joy witnessing these achievements, and to see some boys and girls achieving great results during their tailormade study programs including special attention for English lessons as well as their development of technical skills.
We were also told that several sporty and enthusiastic girls of the ‘Children of Medellin’ are now participating in women’s football. The final of the Construyendo Caminos, the football tournament organised by the organization, has been won by their own football girls.
Furthermore we learned during the meeting in Amsterdam that the development of a new education center/annex hotel is in the planning phase. Maybe Mark and/or Bram can have a look there at some time when the plans are in more advanced stage. Our communication lines are still short and effective and to experience that our donation help to make all this possible makes us happy and thankful.
Beatriz Carbonell is our contact in Lima, Peru. She pointed us at the existence of EQUIPO VISO GLOBAL, which is an NGO, led by Mrs. Carmen Pomerada, who is doing a good job to support disadvantaged children and helps them with their health and education. She and her companions organize English teaching, take care of preparing lunches during the lessons as well as organizing sport activities; a good aid to try to further the personal development of these children. This NGO in Peru also received a donation from the Foundation because we believe in their objectives and organisational skills.
Your contributions remain as welcome as ever. The advantage is that as the foundation is an ANBI member, your donations consequently are eligible for tax deduction.
Donations to be transferred to Stg. Suzanne Furstner, bank account nr NL63TRIO 0338560041.
We are grateful to you and thank you for the continuing support of the Foundation.
News/Updates
Like in 2019 our Foundation has donated to Rincon de Malala (Malala’s Corner) in Lima, for their children’s library. This year the contribution has been partially used for food packages to battle the effects of the Corona virus for Peruvian families. Our recent gift to the Foundation Straatkinderen Medellin is now largely spent on chairs with attached writing surfaces. The chairs were manufactured by a local carpenter and just during the English lessons, so the children could help to unpack them. Sabine Bouwmeester who is teaching English is now going to buy new English textbooks for them. On November 2 Antoinette went to Berlin to accept LEAD 5050’s prize for BEST CHARITABLE ENDEAVOUR 2019. Many, many thanks to LEAD 5050 and to everyone who is donating to SFF. We hope to be able to continue our work and keep supporting many educational projects in Central and Middle America.Congratulations Petra Emmel on winning the SFF-Scholarship 2019! Read her essay en more on CONTEST 2019.
In december 2018 the SFF has donated learning materials to children at Patzalam Choacaman IV, a school in Guatemala, in collaboration with School the World. Read more at Projects.
The winner of the Suzanne Furstner Scholarship 2018, Melanie Deering, has finished her TEFL cursus in Malaga successfully. Read her blog at TEFL in Spain.
Congratulations on behalf of the SFF en your personal message to us was heart warming!
Melanie’s winning essay can be read here.
At the end of 2017, the SFF made a donation to the ‘Niños de Guatemala’ (NDG), an organisation founded in 2006. Read more about it at Projects.