Welcome at the association DATS

 Dany, Eric & Ronald

THE PEOPLE BEHIND DATS 

Dany Peeters

Mother of Annemieke, Maarten and Brecht Hex.

Their address: Begijnhof 49, 3800 Sint-Truiden.

Dany teaches theoretical and vocational training to nursing students.

Dany is  president of DATS and, in consultation with Eric and Ronald, is responsible for the daily operation and governance of DATS.

Eric Peeters 

Married to Isabel Lootens and is father of Evelien, Nathalie and Stefanie.

Their address: Berendries 66, 9660 Brakel-Michelbeke, Belgium.

Eric works at Dow Corning.

He is vice president of DATS. 

Ronald Ballet

Father of Chris and Anne Ballet.

Their address: Spaarstraat 39, 3010 Kessel-Lo, Belgium.

Ronald works at Belgacom International Carrier Services.

At DATS he is secretary. 

In the year 2001 – 2002 the school that employs Dany could not  find another European school for the Leonarde da Vinci students exchange project. She then proposed to the director of het school to do a vocational training project in a developing country.

Dany was both surprised and very pleased when the director accepted the proposal and was given permission to explore  the possibilities.

A friend, Luc Wijnants, had been working with the Belgian ngo Broederlijk Delen. He knew that Broederlijk delen was not involved with exchange projects, but the Flemish ngo Vredeseilanden did. He undertook to discuss this with An Bosmans, a friend of his who was employed with Vredeseilanden.

A week later Dany gave An a call and it was difficult to tell who was the most enthusiastic for the project!  During that same call the lines for a vocational training project in Senegal were drawn up.

At that time Dany was not able to go to Senegal due to personal reasons.  However two years later in February 2004 she was able to fly out.  In Senegal she made acquaintance with the organisation FODDE who were guiding the logistics of this vocational training project.

She was very impressed with their knowledge and competencies, their open minds and their enthusiasm.  And on top of all this: their vision.

In the five weeks that Dany was there she was very eager to help them to help others.  This is what FODDE were very good at.

During the next two years Dany helped them with various things -  always on her own initiative and with no strings attached.  She was invited to visit Kolda in Senegal during the summer of 2005 and was then also given the opportunity to do fieldwork with FODDE.  Dany saw their way of working and returned to Belgium with a lot of enthusiasm.

When Seydou Wane, executive secretary of FODDE, visited Belgium at the end of 2004, he was introduced to friends of the project. He was also introduced to Dany’s brother Eric and their nephew Ronald. It was then that the idea of collaborating in a more formal/legal way grew.  Dany and FODDE also met to expand this concept and the result was the report of the general board meeting of December 17^th, 2005.

 VI INFORMATIONS ET QUESTIONS DIVERSES

3.Information a été donnée de l’existence d’une militante belge de FODDE qui est en train de  travailler à la constitution en Belgique d’une Association Sans But Lucratif antenne de FODDE. L’assemblée a salué cet engagement militant et demande au Conseil Administratif d’étudier les meilleures modalités de mise en œuvre de cette idée.

We feel very confident that DATS will continue to go well.  Since we are an open-minded team, our efforts in combination with the knowledge and competencies of the team on the spot, offers us the opportunity to make a real difference.

The team of DATS would like to thank each and every one who, in any way possible, has contributed to make this project a success. A special thanks to Luc Wijnants, An Bosmans, Tony Stephen, Seydou Wane and the team of FODDE.

Eric, Ronald and Dany.