About us

About Dodore Foundation

Dodore Foundation is a Dutch Foundation and was launched in June 2011 in Nairobi, Kibera (one of Kenya’s biggest slums) with the aims of uplifting mother-headed-families with small unconditional gifts of around 10 euros (1,000 Kenyan Shilling) every month. This program has currently ended.

Since 2017, Dodore Foundation has extended our program to support 280 school children for a daily nutritious breakfast meal at schools. This is the Breakfast Club project in Nairobi : the 3 schools are FreMo, Dossabi Blessed Center and Precious Hope school.

Due to covid19, all schools in Kenya were closed in 2020. In order to support the families of our school kids, Dodore Foundation enabled direct cash transfers via mobile technology of around 10 euros (1,000 Kenyan Shilling) every month to each of the family since April 2020. We hope to be able to continue to do so till the end of 2020 and resume our breakfast meals when schools reopen in 2021.

The Breakfast Club project is to provide a breakfast meal to school kids in underprivileged and areas of poverty. We believe in giving them the opportunity to have an education, at the same time providing nutrition to build their bodies and minds.

Recently, with the war in Ukraine since February 2022 , the Breakfast Club has extended our support to a parish (All Saints Parish Roman Catholic Church) run by Pastor Jakub Debicki in the Province of Lviv (west of Ukraine), whereby about 2,000 refugees, including children, are trying to escape the war in the east of the country. The Breakfast Club is providing funding to provide the kids with a daily meal.

OUR INSPIRATION

Money transfers on mobile phones are an innovative way to empower needy people. The book Just Give Money to the Poor covers this topic thoroughly and serves as one of the pillars of our Just Give! Program. Other pillars include

INTEGRITY

ACCOUNTABILITY

INNOVATION

The academic authors Joseph Hanlon, Armando Barrientos and David Hulme have a long track record on development. Their conclusion is a motivating, readable compendium of country experiences, research findings and arguments.

From their hypothesis on micro-donation cash transfers flow conclusions:

Recipients use the money well and do not waste it,
Cash grants are an efficient way to directly reduce poverty,
They have the potential to prevent future poverty by facilitating economic growth and promoting human development.

“Just Give Money to the Poor makes a convincing case for a simple but powerful idea: that guaranteeing families an assured base income will create a platform upon which they can build their futures” Jonathan Morduch, Professor of Public Policy and Economics, New York University

About us

Semira van Hees

A flexible, structured, pragmatic, independent and social young professional, who has just graduated from the university; Semira has a great passion and heart for the underprivileged especially children. She has been involved in the Breakfast Club while she was still studying and she continues to be passionate about enabling and empowering these young hearts and minds.

Renée Aarts

A flexible and organized young professional, working in the recruitment and talent management sector, Renee has great passion and motivation for helping underprivileged children especially in education and nutrition. She has been involved in the Breakfast Club while she was still studying and continues to be supporting the cause.

LeeWee Chew

LeeWee is the founder of the Breakfast Club and is instrumental in the setting up of the program to feed the school children in the Nairobi slums 5 years ago. She continues to volunteer and support the cause of the Breakfast Club and encourages others to join and help the cause.

Francis Ikava

Francis is Dodore’s volunteer in Kenya, whereby he’s been busy helping the activities of the Breakfast Club for the last 5 years, calling on parents and visiting the schools to check on their progress; also ensuring that the breakfast meals are fed to the school kids for the Breakfast Club school feeding program. He continues to be passionate about the program and believes in “giving back” to his community.

Hugo van Rijswijk

Hugo is our newest digital marketing and strategy volunteer. He is a flexible and motivated young professional who works as a business development executive in a digital marketing agency. Hugo has a passion for helping others and through his prior education and current work he became involved in the Breakfast Club.

His contribution to Dodore aims to help to enhance the donations to the breakfast club.

Belinda Chew

Belinda is our financial volunteer with a lot of experience in the financial sector. She helps us with all the financial aspects that come with the running of a foundation and organization to make sure 100% of the donations go to the children.

Belinda has a great passion for this cause and to help empower these young minds.

Thom Rietberg

Thom is our Digital Volunteer and manages the Dodore and Breakfast Club website. His field of work is mainly in developing communication tools for education; to further enhance involvement of parents in the school career of their children.

MEANING OF DODORE

People have been asking us about the meaning of Dodore. We called the foundation: DODIRE (Donate Directly). Hold on: what’s up with DODORE then? Good point.

When officially registering our organization, the notary made a spelling mistake. We didn’t notice until we got back home!

We decided to keep the name: it has a beautiful African ring to it and, now, this story to tell. And luckily it didn’t mean anything bad in the Swahili language!

DODORE’S BENEFICIARIES

Breakfast Club

For €5 a month you’ll feed a child every school day. Feed them today so that they can have a tomorrow.

Donate now

Direct Donations

Through Dodore, you can donate to poor single mothers who earn no more than €1 per day. We give unconditionally the beneficiaries themselves know best what they currently need.

Donate now