A new virus in town.

What started as a normal day on Wednesday April 29 turned into a very official, beautiful and unforgettable day.

On behalf of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands I received a knighthood in the order of Oranje Nassau.

Family and friends came from across the country to witness this event including my 88 year old dad, unfortunately without my mother who is very ill and would have not been able to make the trip from Amsterdam to Oostvoorne, the beautiful little town by the sea in the south of Holland.

After Mayor Peter de Jong had reviewed my life in the form of an obituary, Baron Kraijenhoff, honorary Chairman of MKI informed the audience that the Swein Virus had been overruled by the “Robles Virus”. No one had to be afraid this virus was not at all dangerous. The only problem with this virus is that if and when contracted it would be there forever.

I will leave it to the wonderful pictures to tell the rest of the story about April 29 and the new virus.

Pictures by Wout v.d.Blink

Millennium Development Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

I was very pleased to accept the invitation of Medical Students of the University of Amsterdam to speak on the 6th of April about the 6th goal of the Millennium Development Goals during one of their regular weekly meetings.

Below a report from Saskia Bogers one of the students.
On Wednesday the 6th of April, the sixth lecture of the MDG-8 Focus series took place at the cultural centre of the University of Amsterdam. During this evening the sixth millennium development was discussed.
After a short introduction about the nights’ subject, the first speaker, Dr. Robles started his lecture. Dr. Robles is the co-founder and president of the Medical Knowledge Institute (MKI) and a member of the third chamber, which is very engaged with the millennium development goals (MDG’s). He held a very enthusiastic and informative speech about the MKI and the experiences he’s had during his work for this organization. One of the projects the MKI has set up is YOELL®, in which AIDS-infected women in South-Africa make exclusive jewelry which is sold in the Netherlands. While doing this, the women earn money with which they can take care of their families. Another project of the MKI is the “mother and child first”-training programme. This is a training programme in which midwifes and other health personnel is being educated and trained in order to prevent HIV infections being passed on from mother to child. The lecture Dr. Robles gave was inspiring and was ended with a short message from Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who supports the work of the MKI.
The second speaker of the evening was Dr. Joep Lange, who is working as a professor in internal medicine, especially viral infections, and who is head of the department Poverty-related Communicable diseases at the Academic Medical Centre of Amsterdam. He is very active in the world of AIDS-related medicine. Dr. Lange held a lecture about the discovery and the spread of HIV/AIDS and explained the process of how a therapy for AIDS was created, and why this had happened so fast. He also told the audience why these medicines aren’t really available in developing countries, where they are most needed. Finally, he spoke about the development goal as a whole and if it was going to be reached in 2015. The evening ended with a short discussion and questions of the audience were being answered by both Dr. Robles and Prof. Lange. It was a very informative and interesting night!

Meeting with David de Waal, the new Consul General of the Netherlands in Cape Town

This afternoon, March 11, 2009 I visited David de Waal, the new Consul General of the Netherlands in Cape Town.

What a delightful meeting that was.
In the short time that he has been Consul General he has already visited our Health Information Centre at Baphumelele in Khayelitsha together with the Dutch Ambassador in South Africa, Rob de Vos.

They were both very impressed which led to today’s meeting at the Consulate Generals office in Cape Town.

One of the issues we discussed is to see if our YOELL ladies will be able to produce a little momentum that the guests will receive when they visit the Consulate on Queens Birthday on April 30th coming up.

David De Waal is defenitely a man after my own heart as he indicated that he supports small grassroots organizations that are there to empower local people.

An important new friendship has began today in Cape Town.
Many thanks David for your time this afternoon.


Picture: Together with Paul de Waal in front of a official picture of Queen Beatrix.

Rhena Schweitzer Miller, an old personal friend for so many years has passed away

Rhena Schweitzer Miller, the only child of the Nobel laureate Dr. Albert Schweitzer and the director, in the late 1960s, of the hospital that her father and mother opened 96 years ago in a jungle of west central Africa, died Sunday February 22 at the home of one of her daughters in Pacific Palisades, Calif. She was 90.
Rhena Schweitzer was born on Jan. 14, 1919, in Alsace-Lorraine, which was returned to France later that year; for more than 45 years before World War I it was part of Germany. Two years earlier, during the war, her parents had been arrested by the authorities in French Equatorial Africa because they were German and sent to a prison camp in France; their hospital was closed. Dr. Schweitzer returned to Africa in 1924, leaving his family in Europe. His wife and daughter were at the hospital intermittently over the next 20 years.
I met Rhena for the first time in 1969 and we became very good friends. Rhena was very instrumental when I founded the Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities in the United States in 1979. We organized many events together and she and her late husband Dr. David Miller were very much involved when I, together with a group of volunteers organized the largest NGO gathering ever at the United Nations in New York in August 1990; “The Relevance of Albert Schweitzer at the Dawn of the 21st Century”. The long life and spiritual legacy of Albert Schweitzer was the inspiration for the creation of the International Albert Schweitzer Colloquium at the United Nations. It was by no means just a fond tribute to a man of the past, great as he was as a humanitarian, physician, philosopher, theologian, musician and author. Rather, it was a future-oriented study of his ideas and ideals, and of their application to the world of today and tomorrow.
Rhena’s foreword in one of my books about her father exemplified the friendship which we enjoyed for so many years. This is what she wrote: “So often I meet medical doctors, ministers, musicians, and students who tell me that what they are doing is done under the influence of my father. Harold Robles is one of those who, while still a child, was deeply impressed by Schweitzer. His mother once told me rather sadly, “When he was eight years old I lost my son to your father.”
Rhena is survived by four children from her first marriage: a son, Philippe; three daughters, Monique Egli, Christiane Engel and Catherine Eckert; eight grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Rhena will be buried next to her parents’ graves in Lambaréné.

PICTURE: Together with Rhena Schweitzer in 1974 in Deventer/Holland

What a difference six beautiful girls can make

The beginning of last year, 2008, six female students initiated a school project called “Key2SuxSex”.
Key2sucsex S.C is a Student Company created by 6 female students at the Hotel – and Event management department of the Business School TIO in Rotterdam. In their third and last year of education they have been working on this student project which at the end became the most successful student company school project this year.

Let me introduce them to you:
Shirley Clark, 19, Director
Bo Klein, 19, Sales Manager
Sabine Kromkamp, 20, Marketing Manager
Samantha Janssen, 19, PR Manager
Megan Wols, 19, Purchase Manager
Deborah Tijsman, 19, Financial Manager

Key2SucSex, the name says it all! Your key, which will lead to success and a safe future. A safe future, because Key2SucSex is equipped with a condom. With this key chain you will prevent inconvenient surprises and you will support the Medical Knowledge Institute: that was the aim of these fine young ladies.
The beautiful key chains, made of recycled beads, are being made by our YOELL teams in South Africa.
The goal of these students was to sell the condom key rings and to donate the money to the Mother and Child First program of MKI and that is exactly what these wonderful ladies did. On February 10th they presented me with a check of EUR 725.
I have worked with these six wonderful ladies for one year and I can easily say that I have a learned a lot from them. I am so proud to have become “their” friend.
What was very special is that my friend and colleague and co-founder of MKI, Peter Bittel was at hand to witness the presentation of the check.
Many thanks dear Shirley, Bo, Sabine, Samantha, Megan and Deborah. You six have made a difference.

A presentation in support of Close the Gap, a strategic partner of MKI

On January 29th, I gave a presentation to a group of well respected CIO’s of some of Holland’s most prestigious companies on MKI’s mission and vision.

The event was hosted by Prince Bernhard jr. of the Netherlands and Mr. Jan Baan in honor of Close the Gap. This is an international not for profit organization that helps bridging the digital divide by offering cost-efficient high-quality used IT equipment to projects in the South. Socio-educational programmes such as schools, hospitals and other projects focusing on improvement of educational and information facilities can ask for support of Close the Gap.

MKI is honored to be one of Close the Gap’s project partners.
I would very much like to use this opportunity to say to both Olivier Vanden Eynde and David Leyssens of Close the Gap how proud I am to be associated with them.

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.