Our activities
Activities 2024
In 2024, we made 21 different donations, continuing our tradition of supporting various organizations. Some organizations like the Anne-Bo Foundation, Cloud Theatre, Incluusion, Leo Smit Foundation, Forward Inc., Impact, Na de Oorlog, and Stolpersteine have also been supported in previous years.
More information about these organizations can be found in our past activity reports. In 2024,
we extended our support to a dozen new organizations and we would like to share some examples:
I ‘lam - Arab Center for Media Freedom, Development and Research
I’lam was founded in 2000 by Palestinian intellectuals and journalists active in civil society, media, and research. Its objective is to empower Arab Palestinian society in Israel by protecting freedoms, human development, and research.
With our donation, we support the project WVoice. This initiative unites young Jewish and Arab women journalists to promote feminist values in media. By fostering collaboration and inclusivity, the project challenges traditional narratives, amplifies marginalized voices, and emphasizes the human impact of conflict and inequality. The project consists of:
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Training Programs: 60 young Jewish and Arab women journalists have participated in comprehensive training sessions on investigative journalism, podcast production, and feminist reporting.
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Policy Advocacy: Participants are developing policy papers addressing restricted freedom of expression and its impact on women, to be presented to the Knesset.
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Media Contributions: Over 50 articles and reports, written in Arabic and Hebrew, have highlighted gendered challenges and celebrated women’s resilience.
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Community Building: The project has cultivated a network of feminist journalists, bridging cultural and political divides to create impactful storytelling.
The Jaffa Institute
The Institute for the Advancement of Education in Jaffa (“the Jaffa Institute”) in Israel is a private non-profit organization that assists severely disadvantaged children and their families living in impoverished neighborhoods in Israel.
With our donation, we support the Parent-Child Centers, which serve some 800 disadvantaged families annually from diverse faiths and backgrounds including Jews, Muslims, and Christians; the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, as well as asylum seekers and foreign workers.
The Parent-Child Centers focus on effective parenting techniques and research has found these are essential for instilling good values, fostering emotional development and teaching essential life skills. Evidence-based parent-child programs can also help interrupt the cycle of intergenerational poverty by addressing adverse social environments. Providing education to families, improving the quality of family relationships, and teaching key family management skills facilitates breaking the poverty cycle and helps to ensure that children have the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Oorlog als erfenis – War as legacy
The War as Legacy Foundation helps young people become aware of transgenerational family trauma at an earlier stage, allowing them to develop more freely into adulthood and seek help sooner if needed. We support the educational module "Sporen" ("Traces"), which takes young people on a creative journey of discovery into the traces of their family history.
This program was developed based on the personal experience of artist Morad Bouchakour, who realized that transgenerational trauma can only be addressed once one becomes aware of it.
People often know (at least part of) the stories about what their family has been through but may not realize the hidden traumas beneath these stories or how profoundly they shape their lives.
In this educational module, young people work process-oriented.
They engage with what they bring to the lessons themselves. Art allows them to express what lies more profound in their subconscious more effectively than direct, rational approaches. This method is currently in a pilot phase in several schools across the Netherlands.
Deel de Duif - Share the Dove
This foundation was established shortly after October 7, 2023, by Islamic and Jewish youth in the Netherlands. They joined forces to stand together against polarization, antisemitism, and anti-Muslim hate, both online and offline. They have successfully engaged in conversations about this difficult topic, which has brought them many positive experiences. Through this dialogue, they found support and understanding for one another. They wanted to share this with other young people at a time when it is both necessary and valuable.
Currently, the foundation is actively involved in public debate, calling for dialogue, connection, and solidarity through media appearances and discussions with politicians and policymakers. They also provide guest lectures in schools, participate in panel discussions at universities, organize dialogue evenings for young people (whether Islamic, Jewish, or engaged with the Middle Eastern situation), and visit companies to share their experiences and offer guidance for handling workplace challenges.
We have financially supported the foundation at its inception.
Shirati
Shirati is a village situated in Mara region of Tanzania, found in the northwest of the country
alongside Lake Victoria. Shirati KMT Hospital is the largest hospital in Rorya district and is
supported by the government and the church. American Mennonites founded the KMT
Hospital in 1934. The hospital has a capacity of 150 beds and provides care in a catchment of
more than 300,000 people. In this rural area, 89% of the inhabitants depend on local
subsistence agriculture, fishing, or livestock for their livelihoods and nutrition.
The Shirati Foundation is supporting the hospital in several ways. We donated to the project ‘Nourishing Futures,’ a research project on the feasibility of interventions to introduce soybeans and home gardening using bags in families with malnourished children to improve their diet.
Activities 2023
In 2023 we made 16 different donations.
Several organizations, like Anne-Bo Foundation, Cloud Theatre, Incluusion, and Leo Smit Foundation, were supported in the years before.
You will find more information about them in our activity report for 2021.
In 2023 we also supported a dozen new organizations and will give you an impression of their diversity.
Forward.Inc.
Forward·Inc is an NL-based, internationally operating organization devoted to helping newcomers
pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.
It empowers them to launch, grow, fund, and sustain their businesses.
Forward believes in the incredible talent of people with a refugee background, their value to society, and their potential to build bridges across communities. End 2022, 112 newcomers
have built a business with Forward·Inc's support.
With our donation, we supported the mentoring program in the Forward Incubator program.
The participants with a refugee background participate in workshops and training courses. They also receive individual coaching from an experienced entrepreneur (volunteer) and support from 2
student volunteers. The purpose of this program is the actual launch of the company.
Eligible companies are directly linked to an investor who will provide them with advice and can make a concrete investment.
Saarisnietgek
Saarisnietgek makes discussion about mental health accessible among children aged 10-12.
It is a preventive activity because psychological problems emerge around the age of fourteen.
The foundation is an initiative of Sara Kuyster who died of suicide at the age of 17.
Sara started a mental health project during her lifetime because she thought it was important that primary school children gain more knowledge about their emotions and understand that it is good to talk and share. Sara herself started speaking about her feelings too late and wanted to leave a legacy to prevent (the worsening of) mental problems for children.
After her death, her mother, a psychologist, continued her initiative with two friends and an aunt. And with success.
Several schools now use the magazine they developed which helps children to better understand their emotions and to talk about them with each other.
Our donation contributed to the website and PR of this foundation to promote their useful and effective work.
IMPACT: Centre against human trafficking and sexual violence in conflict
Impact is an independent expertise centre that makes a positive contribution to preventing and addressing the trafficking of human beings and conflict-related sexual violence.
It looks at the related crimes of human trafficking, enslavement, and conflict-related sexual violence independently as well as together.
Its main activities are research & advice, training & capacity building, and empowerment & advocacy.
Our donation contributed to the development of an education platform for bachelor's and master's students who want to become a psychologist, a lawyer, or a social worker.
In their work, they can be confronted with the crimes of human trafficking and sexual violence. At the moment they are not prepared for this but the education platform of IMPACT will address this lack of knowledge. In 2023 the first group of international students followed a pilot course which was evaluated positively. More courses will be developed in 2024.
The Parents Circle
The Parents Circle- Families Forum (PCFF) is a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization of over 600 families, all of whom have lost an immediate family member to the ongoing conflict. Moreover, the PCFF has concluded that the process of reconciliation between nations is a prerequisite for attaining sustainable peace.
The organization utilizes all resources available in education, public meetings, and the media to spread these ideas.
The main activity of PCFF is dialogue meetings, led by two PCFF members, an Israeli and a Palestinian. They both tell their personal stories of bereavement and explain their choice to engage in dialogue instead of revenge.
Our donation contributed to the crisis action program of PCFF.
Desert Stars: installing bomb shelters in the Negev
The war has devastated the Bedouin community in Southern Israel.
Nearly 100.000 Bedouins live in ‘unrecognized villages’ throughout the Negev that lack infrastructure, such as electricity, roads, and bomb shelters.
Dozens of such villages lack any form of safe spaces for shelter during rocket attacks.
Desert Stars is installing bomb shelters throughout this region.
They use reinforced metal containers in which residents can hide during sirens.
Deserts Stars normally trains young Bedouin leaders to take responsibility, advance the community, and integrate into wider Israeli society. With alumni and other partners, it is now installing the containers to protect the most vulnerable population of the Negev.
Our donation contributed to this activity.
Activities 2022
In 2022 we were active for a full year and made 16 different donations. Five organizations were supported in 2021 and 2022 and their names are: After- the -War, Anne-Bo Foundation, Cloud Theater, Incluusion and Mukomeze. You will find more information about them in our activity report for 2021. In 2022 we also supported a dozen new organizations and will give you an impression of their diversity:
Stolpersteine Amsterdam
Stolpersteine are made since 1992 by the artist Gunter Demnig. They are brass stones with which the victims of National Socialism around and during the Second World War are commemorated.
The brass Stolpersteine ​​is therefore placed in the pavement for the victims’ last (freely chosen) home.
On each brass stone is the name of one victim. This includes the year of birth, place and date of arrest by or on behalf of the regime (if applicable). And finally, the place and date where the victim was killed or died.
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Anyone can request a Stolperstein. For anyone who was murdered by the Nazi regime, but also for victims who committed suicide because of the occupiers, had to go into hiding or otherwise suffered. The demand for Stolpersteine increased and they are now not only produced in Germany but also in Amsterdam in the garden of the Goethe Institute.
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Augeo Foundation: Help for parents in a violent family
Experiencing domestic violence is a profound and often traumatic experience for children. Every year, approximately 25,000 children in the Netherlands experience forms of violence in their families in which the police intervene at home.
Many parents think that violence does not affect children or that partner violence is not as harmful to children as physical child abuse.
Augeo Foundation develops early psycho-education for parents struggling with violence in their families. The underlying thoughts are that all parents want the best for their children and that knowledge about the consequences of violence on a child is a motivation to change.
Various tools clearly indicate what parents can immediately do to improve the situation of their children. Augeo Foundation started to develop the tools in 2022 which will be tested in 2023.
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Verwey-Jonker Instituut: a workbook for refugee children
In the families of refugees who come to the Netherlands from war zones, little is talked about what they have been through.
The Verwey-Jonker Institute is developing together with other experts, a workbook for their children with the objective to give them the space to reflect on all parts of their life story: their memories of the country of origin (the negative and positive), their journey and arrival in The Netherlands and the way they have been welcomed and integrated here. With the help of the workbook, the children then have a permanent document.
At the same time it can help them talk about their native country and life there, express emotions, organize their experiences, and place events. It is therefore primarily for themselves, but can also be used in conversation with professionals or, for example, a teacher. The design of the workbook started in 2022 and it will be tested and distributed in 2023.
Mukomeze: start-up of 18 tailors in Rwanda
In 2022 we supported 18 young women in Rwanda to become a tailor and on the 1st of December, they graduated! Now it is time for them to start their own business.
We, therefore, continue our support so they can hire a workplace and have the necessary tools like a sewing machine and sewing materials.
They can now practice their profession and make a good start as a businesswoman
Book and Exposition about Etty Hillesum
The biography of Etty Hillesum was published in 2022 and the author is Judith Koelemeijer.
During Koelemeijer's research, she found hitherto unknown material about the friendship between Etty and Leonie Snatager-Penney.
Leonie was an aunt of Emanuel Snatager.
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During the Second World War, both young women were in therapy by psychologist and palm reader Julius Spier and kept a diary on his advice. Etty writes in her diaries about Leonie and their sometimes difficult friendship. Leonie in turn writes about Etty who also has a love affair with Spier. Leonie's diaries gave new material for the biography of Etty. The Jewish Historical Museum made an exposition about their friendship.
Impact: Education platform Human Trafficking and Sexual Violence
Impact is a Center against Human Trafficking and Sexual Violence in Conflict areas.
It develops an education platform for bachelor and master students about the prevention and stopping of sexual violence and human trafficking during conflicts like for example in Ukraine.
The courses are integrated into existing curricula of law, psychology, criminology, victimology, and gender studies. At the end of 2022, Impact started the design of the platform. The education will be in English and a pilot will be done in 2023 in the Netherlands with the University of Tilburg.
Afterward, partnerships with universities in other countries will be realized.
Foundation Scherp: A man’s world
With the project 'A Man's World', the SCHERP Foundation will tackle mental health and the possibility of discussing it among young men. They do this by making a documentary and organizing an event in 2023.
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The event examines the mental well-being of men and their behavior in a fun, informative, and creative way. Men have to deal with certain expectations when 'being a man'. But what if you can't (or don't want to) meet those expectations?
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In 'A Man's World' the visitor is taken into the world of ‘The man'. Together with 'real men', experts, a real Ferrari, football club PSV and three curious documentary makers for whom no question is too controversial, visitors will receive answers to all your questions about masculinity and how to deal with mental well-being.
Activities 2021
After-The-War/ Nadeoorlog
After-The-War provides in postwar guest speakers with family stories about World War II and mediates them to schools and public meetings in the Netherlands. Due to the fact that eyewitnesses are gradually becoming too old to give guest lectures, Deborah Lens founded After-The-War five years ago to train their relatives in telling the family story.
By 2021, 22 guest speakers have given over 600 guest lessons. After-The-War aims to have around 100 guest speakers and to give 2000 guest lessons by 2030.
The Emanuel Snatager Foundation funded the training of three Jewish guest speakers in 2021/2022. After-The-War donated 10% of the amount to the liberal Jewish congregation in The Hague and Amsterdam that allow to use their classrooms to practice with the guest speakers.
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The Anne-Bo Foundation/ Stichting Anne-Bo
Anne-Bo was a young student that died suddenly in 2019 due to an unexpected heart problem. To remember her, her mother Annemieke van de Wouw, created the Anne-Bo Foundation. This Foundation strives for equal opportunity for girls who have dreams but do not always know the way, or have no network, to realize these dreams and achieve their goals.
By means of study grants and personal guidance, the Anne-Bo Foundation helps young girls to go to university or a university of applied sciences.
In the academic year 2021 it started with 21 students and 22 coaches. Most girls have a complex family situation due to poverty, addiction, violence or other causes.
The Emanuel Snatager Foundation supports 4 girls and the Anne-Bo Foundation donated 10% to Team Para Atletiek, a team that coaches athletes with a handicap.
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Cloud theater/ WOLKENTHEATER
WOLKENTHEATER was founded on Valentine’s Day 1993 by a number of artists who came to the Netherlands from various parts of (the then war-torn) former Yugoslavia. Adrijan Siniša Rakić is the initiator and director. Since then, year after year,
the company organizes theatre events for children in refugee centers.
The WOLKENTHEATER believes in the healing power of play, art and theatre.
With its activities WOLKENTHEATER allows children with a traumatic past to express themselves creatively, have fun and to be just a carefree child. The Emanuel Snatager Foundation supported in the end of 2021 twenty shows about Sinterklaas, a Dutch version of Santa Claus. Children in refugee centers could get acquainted with a typical Dutch tradition, enjoy the show, eat something delicious and receive presents.
One tenth of the donation received by Emanuel Snatager Foundation went to FONDACIJA BUKOVICA, a foundation which aims to protect, develop and promote the cultural and natural heritage of Bukovica, a small region with ethnically mixed population in the Republic of Croatia, that suffered a lot during the last Balkan war.
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Incluusion
Incluusion introduces refugee students as quickly as possible to Dutch academic education. In just over 5 years, more than 1,000 refugee students have enjoyed bachelor courses at Utrecht University through Incluusion.
Incluusion is also working on a training course to prepare the students,
They learn how the Dutch education system works, they improve their intercultural skills and they get informed about teachers' expectations. In addition, Incluusion organizes traineeships for status holders. Through the traineeship they get experience with working in the Netherlands, they learn to speak the language and they develop a professional network. At the beginning of 2022, a new group of approximately 10 trainees will start.
Thanks to the Emanuel Snatager Foundation Incluusion can appoint an employee for one year to strengthen its administration. One tenth of the donation went to Wurth-while, a project for refugee students at Wageningen University & Research. Wurth-while is inspired by the Incluusion project at Utrecht University.
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Mukomeze
Mukomeze was created by Anne-Marie de Brouwer and Freek Dekkers. Together they visited Rwanda and met Jean Gakwandi, survivor of the genocide against the Tutsi and director of Solace Ministries. This local organization supports genocide survivors - especially widows, orphans and women, infected with HIV/AIDS.
A close partnership soon developed between the two organizations as Anne-Marie obtained her PhD on sexual violence in conflict situations. Both organizations focus on the empowerment of the survivors. Mukomeze literally means 'Empower her/him'.
The Emanuel Snatager Foundation funds the training of 18 young girls to become a tailor by acquiring advanced sewing skills. They also learn to operate and maintain different sewing machines and obtain skills to become their own boss.
One tenth of the donation is used for an online 3-D animation about the stories of men and women who experienced sexual violence in Bosnia, Rwanda and other countries. The aim is to give people around the world a better understanding of this type of violence.
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Snatager Family Story
'This is how we all go' is a book with letters from the brothers Eduard and Herman Snatager. The brothers went into hiding in Wapenveld in 1941, but Herman soon returned to his hometown of Zutphen. He writes letters to his brother in hiding and explains how the Nazis further restrict the lives of the Jews. Unfortunately, Herman and his family are caught and die in Sobibor. All these years Eduard remained in hiding in Wapenveld and emigrated to Israel after the liberation. His son Emanuel published the letters in 1986 in a booklet made by Jan Willem Regenhardt. Emanuel fulfilled his father's wish to pass on the family story in the hope that this will never happen again.
In 2020 the booklet got a lot of attention due to the celebration of 75 years of liberation. Jan Nitrauw initiated an open air theater play about it and Peter van Dijk wrote it.
The play was sold out soon and got serious media coverage.
The Emanuel Snatager Foundation funded the movie recording of the play and obtained the rights of the book to pass on the family story, still with the same aim: this should never happen again.
Next Generation of Holocaust and Heroism Legacy - Israel
The Next Generation of Holocaust and Heroism Legacy - Israel was founded in 2005 as a non-profit organization. The main aim is "To Remember and Not to Forget" the Holocaust, to preserve the personal and family stories of the victims and the survivors and to impart this legacy to future generations.
The Emanuel Snatager Foundation supports the "Holocaust Monuments Project" of this organization. High school students traditionally learned about the Holocaust by guided school trips to the concentration camps in Europe while there are more than 1000 monuments in Israel itself.
The "Holocaust Monuments Project" includes guided visits of monuments and statues throughout Israel, prepared by lectures in the classroom. Special guides who have led school trips in the past to Poland, are trained in this regard. A second activity supported by the Emanuel Snatager Foundation are Therapeutic workshops designed for the "second generation".
Participants learn to tell the story of what happened to their families during the Holocaust. These workshops are conducted by psychotherapists who are specially trained for this purpose.
Leo Smit Foundation
In the Second World War, many composers were silenced because of their Jewish descent or their resistance. Their music was forbidden. The Leo Smit Foundation carries out research, tells composers' stories, makes sheet music available and performs forgotten music. Together with musicians, programmers, researchers and listeners the Foundation gives composers their rightful place in music history, back. Part of the legacy of Emanuel Snatager went to this important and inspiring Foundation.
