Organisation of Elly's Kids Foundation

Who is Elly?
Elly Cosijn (1971) is the founder of the school fund. She is the face and the project leader of Elly's Kids Foundation.

For five years (till April 2000) Elly had lived in Australia before she went to Guatemala to learn Spanish. Her plan was to travel through Middle and South America. When she arrived in Guatemala she stayed there for one year, in Quetzaltenango (southwest Guatemala, near the Mexican border).

She started working as a volunteer: At a primary school she worked as a homework coach. After this, she worked as a volunteer in Nuevos Horizontes, a centre where women and their children can go to if they have been mistreated by the husband/father. Soon Elly noticed that it was not possible for these children to go to school, due to a lack of money. To do something about this situation, Elly decided to start a school fund, which makes it possible for children to go to school.

In November 2003 Elly permanently settled in Guatemala. She works as a teacher of English at a secondary school. In this way, she supports herself. Elly is also coordinator of the volunteers in Nuevos Horizontes. This is voluntary work.
Elly takes care of all operational and organizational tasks in Guatemala. Elly is the person who enrols all the Elly's Kids in school and who buys the books, the materials and the uniforms for the children. She will guide the children during the school year and she will take care of extra help when needed. Once a month there is a meeting for the mothers of the children. The progress of the children is discussed and the mothers are involved in the project. Elly also stays in touch with the schools and other authorities. Quarterly, Elly organises a combined birthday party for the children. On this day the birthdays that fall in that quarter will be celebrated.

Elly is assisted in her occupations in Guatemala by Seno Lily Wug. She is the director of Nuevos Horizontes. She assists as a volunteer.

Team behind Elly's Kids Foundation in the Netherlands

Elly's Kids Foundation would not exist without this team! The team consists of an official committee and a committee of volunteers. They all do this job for free. They are occupied with tasks like fundraising, administration and the organisation behind the school fund. We will introduce them to you:

The official committee

Eloy Cosijn (1962), chairman
Eloy is Elly's brother. He has studied economy at the University of Amsterdam. Then he started working at an international bank, where he had different functions. He still works there, at the moment as Senior Vice President within Risk Management. Together with his wife Rianne he had lived and worked abroad for six years. In January 2002 Eloy and Rianne visited Elly in Xela. They have seen the necessity of the school fund is.

Robert Jellema (1970), treasurer
Robert supports the treasurer with drawing up the annual reports. He became a volunteer at Elly's Kids Foundation because he wanted to do something for children in need. Via the internet he came across the site of Elly's Kids Foundation. The most important thing, according to Robert, is that the foundation is small-scale. The help will be right where it has to be: by the children. In daily life Robert is controller at a big national insurance company.

Committee of volunteers

Cindy Frishert (1980)
Next to her teacher training course (English) and her part-time job, she is a volunteer at Elly's Kids Foundation. After reading the website, she became enthusiastic and wanted to help the foundation. Cindy wants to help achieving the goals of Elly's Kids Foundation. Her first task was a marketing plan, which was a project that was related to her former study. She studied Communications, and ended this study successfully in 2003. In addition she contributes with ideas, helps writing press releases, articles and so on.

Marjolein Halkes (1981)
In daily life, Marjolein is a teacher at a primary school in the city centre of Rotterdam. In 2002 she went to Guatemala for half a year as a volunteer and this is how she met Elly. During this period, she got involved and helped the children. Back in the Netherlands, she still wants to help these children!

Esther van Dijk (1976)
Esther supports the foundation in a lot of ways. Her main occupation is the administration of Elly's Kids Foundation. She works as a supervisor at a Customer Contact Centre, where she gained a lot of experience concerning administration. Esther met Elly during a holiday with her husband in Spain. They were Elly's guests during her work as a hostess. Positively infected by Elly's enthusiasm, Esther decided to devote herself to Elly's Kids Foundation.

Ellen Smit (1967)
"When I was searching for a meaningful voluntary project, next to my hectic life in the media world, I soon found Elly's Kids Foundation. I am very positive about the foundation, because I think that small transparent organisations can often achieve more than big non-profit organisations. With Elly's Kids Foundation you can really make a difference. There is personal contact and children get a real chance to a thorough education. Unfortunately, not everyone gets the same chances. That's why I do this. Your whole life is a learning process, isn't it?" Ellen works as a management assistant at the public broadcasting channel BNN. At Elly's Kids Foundation she assists the secretary.

Rianne Cosijn-Vroom (1964)
She is married to Eloy and she also studied economy at the University of Amsterdam. Then she started working in the business community. Together with Eloy she had lived abroad for six years. In 2002 Rianne and Eloy went to Xela. Besides her creative hobbies, she likes to travel and to practice sports.

Rita Cramer (1972)
Next to her profession as art director at an advertising agency, Rita is our webmaster. After the art academy she was a web designer. Right now, the website of Elly's Kids Foundation is the only website she takes care of, but she does it with a lot of fun and professionalism!