Text Steven Seedo
Image collection Gail Eijk
PARAMARIBO — “There have been moments when I couldn’t continue. That I was crying in the car, because I couldn’t imagine that people have to live in such a situation, especially with children. That is my weakness: children and seniors.” Reporter and writer Gail Eijk disagrees with this the True Tijd about the harrowing circumstances she faces during her annual Mother’s Day project Because We Care.
But at the same time, she also sees situations in which people could get their lives back on track with a little help. “Sometimes you see the number of children and the conditions in which they live, and then you really wonder: why?” According to Eijk, when handing out packages, attention is often not only paid to the mothers, but also to the children, who in many cases need just as much support.
Twenty years
An experience that has always stayed with her illustrates the seriousness of some situations. “We once found a senior woman who lived alone. She was sick and couldn’t move. When we got there, she was lying in her own feces. The house was in a terrible state. Next to her was a food bowl that had been there for days, with a large frog in it. She ate from it, even though the food was clearly spoiled.”
This year the Mother’s Day project has existed for exactly twenty years. “It is the twentieth time that we have carried out this without interruption. We succeeded even during the Covid period.” The initiative started in 2006 at Apintie Television. “It was my idea. I no longer had a mother myself, and this was a way for me to do something for mothers. In the beginning it was not yet a social project.”
What started as a television program grew into a widely supported social initiative. “During the first edition we asked the then first lady for addresses. Later we brought in neighborhood managers and then the idea arose to involve the community — a concept we still use today.”
Need remains great
Through this project, many mothers not only received help, but were also seen, sometimes even with government support. “Yet the need remains great. We receive hundreds of registrations every year and unfortunately have to disappoint many people. We help thirty mothers every year.” 628 have registered for this year’s edition.
Eijk is determined to continue. “There will always be people who need support. I hope my team will continue this work even if one day I will no longer be there.”
Separate from this annual project, she raised money in 2017 to make surgery possible for two babies in Colombia. Following that initiative, she founded the Amor Vitae (Love for Life) foundation.
