Happy New Year 2009

May this year be good for you and yours and may all your dreams come true.
Make it a point in becoming this year a window person not a mirror person; look out, not in.

What a great year it was.
We as MKI have been able to accomplish so many wonderful things and I am deeply thankful for the tremendous support that we have received from so many friends and or wonderful volunteers.

It would make a very long chapter in the MKI book of success if I would have to report all the 2008 accomplishments in this New Year. message.

Please allow me to highlight just a few very interesting and remarkable events of this past year.

• Glennis Grace, Holland’s upcoming singing star joined us as Goodwill Ambassador for MKI’s YOELL project. Glennis believes in the empowerment of women.
• I was asked to serve on Holland’s third chamber, the shadow parliament for development cooperation. What a great honor. I have been in and out Africa since 1969 and with my knowledge and experiences I hope to be able to ask a lot of attention for education and information in the field of healthcare.
• Our YOELL project has become very popular in the past three years. What makes me happy is that it gives so many disadvantaged women an opportunity to gain back their place in society and their dignity. By living a normal life of learning while working.
• In July we opened our first Health Information Centre in Khayelitsha, a township near Cape Town and soon the next centers followed. Plans are to create more Health Information Centres in the different townships in collaboration with local partners. Many thanks to the financial supporters, private, corporations and foundations in helping us to make this all possible. I have always believed that education is the gate to the future.
• In November Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu published an article about the activities of MKI in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, entitled: “The role of partnership in health equity”. I had the honor to represent MKI and Desmond Tutu at the publication of this journal in San Diego, California. While in California I was the guest of Dr. Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral.
• The most unforgettable event however was my visit to South Africa with Baron and Baroness Kraijenhoff. In November and December I reported in a few messages on my blog about this visit. As special supporters the Baron and Baroness were finally able to visit some of MKI’s projects. They participated in workshops, spend time with our YOELL ladies, met for breakfast with Desmond Tutu after joining him for an early morning church service and were the honorary guests at the Worlds AIDS gala organized by the African Centre for HIV/AIDS management at Stellenbosch University.
• Thanks to Goodwill Ambassador Wilma Veen and her husband Andre, MKI enjoyed again the exposure at the very popular Millionair Fair in Amsterdam.
• Goodwill Ambassador Jimmie Earl Perry has been singing the stars from the sky during the 6 Hour of Power Christmas Concerts in the Netherlands. Jimmie’s involvement in this years Christmas concerts is the results of a very special relationship which started in the summer of last year when I met with the Director of Hour of Power Netherlands, Louis Pool. Together with his wife Erna he founded the organization “Heart for Children”, of which I have become proudly the Goodwill Ambassador.
• During all these events our volunteers are always ready to assist in helping not only to sell the beautiful YOELL projects but to also share the mission of MKI with those interested in our work. I could write another chapter on these wonderful volunteers; however this time I would like to highlight two of them; Jakob and Hanneke Brons. Jakob is the owner of INFLUX a press agency in Apeldoorn/Holland who has been supporting MKI for the last three years with all our PR activities. During one of the Christmas concert both Jakob and Hanneke stood in the MKI stand selling YOELL products and preaching the MKI gospel. Many thanks to all the wonderful volunteers who are making me look good.
• A unique event last year was my involvement in the making of a movie of my great example, Dr. Albert Schweitzer. I was invited to advice the movie company and the well-known Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbe. What a great experience it was to spend one week on the set in South Africa. It was like being a time machine 40 years ago.
• Ten years ago Peter Bittel and I created MKI. After some wonderful childhood years we are now entering our teens and are truly ready to professionalize this wonderful organization. As a real diplomat and great friend of MKI our honorary chairman Baron Kraijenhoff molded a new model for MKI. As off January this year the organization has re-written his bylaws and created a Supervisory Council and a Board of Directors. Baron Kraijenhoff personally invited three of his best friends to the Supervisory Council, Adriaan Nuhn, Rob Abrahamsen and Buford Alexander. I will remain the Co-Founder and President and Chairman of the Board of Directors. More detailed information of this new structure you will soon find on our website http://www.infomki.org/ . A warm welcome to the new board members and a very special “thank you” to my dear friend Guup Baron Kraijenhoff.
• Finally, what a great beginning on the New Year, MKI being nominated for the Gates Award for Global Health 2009. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu: “It is well deserved recognition for The Medical Knowledge Institute, a grass roots organization that I am proudly associated with. The Founders of MKI Drs. Robles and Bittel and their international team have helped rethink how we serve people with great disadvantages. MKI is truly making a difference."
  

Pictures: Baron Kraijenhoff and Desmond Tutu are having a great time together – Together with Dr. Robert Schuller – Jakob and Hanneke Brons promoting MKI – Together with Jeroen Krabbe, the Dutch actor playing Albert Schweitzer.