The initiative for the Wildcard Foundation goes back to 2007 during a special occasion where one of our board members raised money to make an educational dream of a young Namibian come true. She developed a personal relation with him during the years that she worked and lived in Namibia, where the apartheid history left its marks, especially in the field of education.

A dream

The young Namibian dreamt of a career as a lawyer and wanted to commence his studies at university. Unfortunately, his school grades were just below the required level. This was not unusual for graduates of secondary schools who came from remote areas in Namibia. With the funds collected, she could give him a helping hand to first go to an institute specialised in bridging his educational backlog. A year later he could enter university. Eventually, he chose for another study which he completed in 2013 with a diploma in ‘Records and Archives Management’. It proved to be a stepping stone to the next phase in his professional career, giving him the opportunity to make a position for himself in society.

We want to help to realise a dream

In 2010, professional work brought the same board member to a trauma healing centre for children in Sri Lanka, where she met a young schoolgirl with an educational dream. The country was recovering from years of civil war that left many young people traumatised. The girl participated in the healing programme which offered a variety of creative activities such as theatre plays, storytelling, and traditional dancing. She felt that she was a dancer at heart, and told us how much she wanted to become a professional dancer in order to work with traumatised children in her neighbourhood, but unfortunately, there were no family funds. We would have liked to support her as well, but sadly there were no means yet to make her dream come true.

With a wildcard… We realise a dream

However, in 2011, the dreams of these youngsters encouraged our board member to set up the Wildcard Foundation (in Dutch – Stichting de Kanskaart) a fund meant to give other youngsters a chance for further development in the form of a ‘Wildcard’, which is a financial grant for educational purposes. There are thousands of young school graduates in this world who have wonderful ambitions and are highly motivated to make something out of their lives. However, only few have access or means to realise such dreams.