Many Cape Verdean Dutch people support their family in Cape Verde by sending money. "We wanted to make a contribution in some other way," says to Oscar Lima. Together with Isaura Frances Rocha he visited the island of Santo Antão in December 2009 to give training courses there for two weeks about communication, fundraising and setting up projects. Isaura: ‘We worked with people who would normally speaking never qualify for such a training. That made it extra special."
Within the framework of the "Dias de Cabo
Verde" IOM project Oscar and Isaura trained people who want to
set up projects on the island themselves. So far only employees of
the municipality could participate in such trainings. Oscar:
"We trained volunteers, teachers, people working for sports
clubs – actually anyone who wants to mean something to
society." Isaura: "We taught them everything involved in
a project, from beginning to end. Writing a project plan,
formulating the objective, making an estimate…"
During the training some dormant plans were elaborated in the
classroom, such as a project to order copiers for schools. The
participants were enthusiastic and involved. Oscar: "In
general Cape Verdeans are a bit wary. They are not accustomed to
taking initiatives themselves, while there is a lot of potential.
We wanted to show them how much they can achieve."
Although Isaura and Oscar were both born in the Netherlands,
they visit Cape Verde regularly and speak the language. Isaura:
"That is really a great advantage of this project."
Oscar: "Many other trainers only speak Portuguese. That is the
official language, but most people speak Cape Verdean in daily
life. It was very pleasant, they said, that we took the trouble to
come to Cape Verde and give them a training course in their own
language."
