Driven by Passion

The Missing Link

Over the years I had a sense that something I literally wept with this mother and tried my best to comfort her, but initially I did not know what to do. After coming back home from that journey, I could not forget her extremely sad story. Then I began to realize that her story was not an isolated case, and millions of people are literally living in similar conditions today, because of war, famine, civil war, and natural disasters like floods, draught, earthquakes, etc. I could no longer shake off the burden. I had to do something, even if it was a little. So, I began to help these widows in Kosovo. I bought them wood to heat their houses and cook their food to survive the severe Balkan winters. Over the years we also built several houses for poor and homeless widows with their children in Kosovo and Albania.

 

8.000 people die of AIDS every day!

I was so gripped by these needs that I felt prompted to do a research about other global needs, not realizing another shocking fact that hit me hard in the face. On a daily base, about 8.000 people die of AIDS. Imagine..., that is over 240.000 human beings a month. That is as much as the number of people who died in the tsunami of December 2004; this is happening every month over and over again. More shocking is the number of orphans they leave behind. Roughly 6,000 children are left parentless every 24 hours. Imagine, that is 180,000 orphans every month. Who is taking care for them’? lsn’t it our responsibility?

 

148 million orphans worldwide

I discovered there are over 148 million orphans worldwide. What is the value of my faith in God, if I can‘t turn that faith into action and bring hope to these numerous hopeless ones? After all, true religion is looking after widows and orphans! So these facts impacted me and changed my mission into an active involvement to do at least something for these hopeless little ones. As a matter of fact, Jesus said: “What you have done for the least, you have done for Me!” So, my religion began to take a new form, looking for the least, and seeking to bring hope and relief unto them, regardless of age, gender, religion, education, class, tribe or ethnicity. We would help all the needy children regardless of their background. What a challenge and what a mission!

 

60 million children in child trallicking in India

Then I went to India and discovered another shocking fact. in India alone, roughly 60 million children are merchandised in child trafficking. In fact lndia is the worst nation in the world in child trafficking. And to my shock the worst state in India, guilty of child trafficking, is the state of Flajasthan. After our first children’s home that we built for a hundred children in Andhra Pradesh, we now have launched the building of a place called: “Abba Village” in the heartland of child trafficking: Rajasthan! Our vision is to build a village for 1000 children, most of whom are rescued out of slavery. We want to provide them with a good home, proper food, healthcare, a peaceful environment, and education. Since we believe that every child deserves the love and care of a father and mother, we have called this project: “Abba Village”. Abba is the Hebrew word for Father.

 

Abba Child Care International

 In spite of all the urgent needs, we felt it was better to limit ourselves to the needs of orphan children and victims of child trafficking, than to divide our strength to the multiple global needs. So we developed the vision and established Abba Child Care international, a charity trust with the purpose of giving these children the love and care a father and mother would provide for their own children. in addition, we start a sponsor program to attract sponsor parents to help sponsor a child for the little amount of €25 a month. As for now we are able to care for over 300 orphans. Nevertheless, our main project at this moment is ‘Abba Village’ in Fiajasthan, where we hope to give a thousand of these kinds a new future. Our vision, however, goes beyond this. We would like to build at least ten villages, and provide a new future for over 10,000 of these children. Nevertheless, we go step by step, building whenever the provisions come to our hands. For this reason we want to inspire others to join us in this great vision by giving us a hand in helping these helpless ones. You are most welcome to join us as well.

 

Doing nothing is not an option

Because of the overwhelming confrontations with these global needs, my mission and vision is changed. l have redefined wealth in the light of the above mentioned vision. To me, wealth is no longer about how much you can get, but about how much you can give, in order to bring hope to others. True prosperity is the ability to help lift others to a better life. This is a great challenge, even beyond every single man to accomplish. But that is not a reason to do nothing, for doing nothing is not an option. However, when we join hands and heads and hearts, I believe, together we can make a big difference in our world today. l truly believe it is possible to change the world around us, provided we are committed to the core to make that difference. i’ve found no greater joy than to invest my life in this way. I warmly welcome you to do the same. When you are interested and wish to lend us a helping hand, you are most welcome to do so by visiting our websites for more information at www.abbachildcare.org and  www.abbavillage.org where you will find information about the latest developments of Abba Village.

Sincerely yours,

for the sake of the least,

Jaap Dieleman