Stepping Stones for Africa

The origins of the Stepping Stones for Africa foundation lie behind a piece of apple pie and a large cup of cappuccino on a rainy sunday afternoon in a café in The Hague. The situation could have not have been be less Ghanaian.

Focus on Aids in Ghana

It is summer 2003 and Cindy Noordermeer is ready to fly to Ghana to start working in the IHCC clinic, a clinic in Accra dedicated to treating people with HIV/AIDS. Her cousin, Remco Kalf poses the idea of setting up a website where Cindy can share her stories with family and friends in the Netherlands. The goal of the website is to bring the reality of the AIDS epidemic closer to the readers.

Remco develops the portal Aandacht voor Aids (’Focus on AIDS’) and Cindy writes stories and portraits about people in sometimes devastating circumstances. The website triggers lots of reactions. The appeal for donations was not the main goal, ‘Aandacht voor AIDS’ was not a formal foundation, but the network that formed and the incoming donations made a big difference for the situation in the clinic.

The doctor and owner of the IHCC, Naa Ashiley Vanderpuye, wrote the following in a letter in 2011: “I will not dispute the fact that Aandacht voor AIDS assisted tremendously in advertising and networking for the clinic. Through a website almost completely dedicated to the clinic, sponsors, donors and other partners were sought for. This let the organization getting lots of contacts and help in various ways, some targeted directly People Living with HIV, and others for the clinic itself.”

All projects and events in those two and a half years were documented on the Aandacht voor Aids website, and were shared among our readers in monthly newsletters and mailings.

For both Cindy as Remco, this period was very exciting, productive and inspiring, professionaly as wel as personally.

A period of reflection in the Netherlands

In june 2005, Cindy finished and delegated ongoing projects and came back to the Netherlands. Half a year was taken to reflect upon the expanding web of results, projects and contacts that had grown for 2 years, out of a small and spontaneous initiative.

Cindy decided to get a Masters degree in International Public Health at the VU University in Amsterdam. After all gained practical experience she felt she needed more theoretical background and expertise for a professional future in Africa. The trip Remco and Cindy made to Ghana in january 2006 was a great conclusion of this period of reflection, and the time had come to take the next step.

Cindy and Remco agreed that there should be a successor to ‘Aandacht voor AIDS’. But it would have to be an approach not limited to AIDS or any other specific field or problem. Because over the years, they learned that it is the local people who are working on improving the situation, who are making the biggest difference.
There is lots of funding available, but without a dedicated person in the field, like in this case Naa Ashiley Vanderpuye, getting real results is difficult, if not impossible. This way of thinking led to the founding of Stepping Stones for Africa.

A new foundation

The first step was establishing a foundation, a formal body to give the projects more sustainability and a better financial organisation. A charitable non-profit foundation also generates more possibilities to attract more expertise, sponsors, financial means and funding.

The foundation needed a broad vision, based on what it all had started with: inspiration. But with very clearly defined projects and concrete and practical results. Inspiration was going to be the glue that holds it all together, just as with Aandacht voor Aids. To inspire and to be inspired are like a snowball-effect which makes the seemingly impossible possible.

Besides inspiration, expertise is very important. Motivation and perseverance are step one to get an initiative going. But expertise is essential to get good and sustainable results. Development aid is an expert field, in which knowlegde and expertise is needed to start, implement and evaluate programs.

In 2006, Lubke van’t Hul, Rene Bouwman and Bianca Winnubst joined the board and the first generous donation of € 20.000,- for IHCC was made by the gay and lesbian disco De Trut in Amsterdam.