1/10 Filmmaker Martijn with Noud in Tanzania (image: far -fetched/broadcaster Brabant).
What drives a successful entrepreneur from Uden to leave everything behind to help street children in Tanzania with a better life? Noud van Hout ventured the jump twenty years ago. Despite the dangers and extreme circumstances, he lost his heart to the African country.
In Arusha, in northern Tanzania, about five hundred young people live permanently on the street. They have no roof over their heads, no table to sit down in the evening for a warm meal. No sheets, no bed. Most sniff glue, use drugs and are addicted to alcohol, a short escape from their miserable existence. The 75-year-old Noud helps them with His Watoto Foundation To get back on the right path.
The African city is known as dangerous. Extreme poverty and unemployment forces many Tanzanians into the street. There are regularly armed robberies and carjackings. Tourists are warned to be vigilant and not to accept food or drinking strangers, it can be poisoned.
The Helmond filmmaker Martijn (38) visited the Udenaar in his house in USA River, a place near Arusha. “Africa has always drawn,” he says. “As a small child I already collected silver paper and red cigar bands for the mission singers there.”
“I could not simply put into words what I had seen.”
His first visit to the country, when he visited the sisters, is engraved in his heart. “When I came back, they asked me at the office what it was like. I couldn’t put it into words, it was so emotional. I was silent for months, simply because I could not talk about what I had seen and experienced. At that moment it was certain: I go to Tanzania to see how I can contribute to helping the country ahead.”
Fifty-five he was then, and director of the successful chain Hout-Brox, with more than fifty clothing stores throughout the country. Together with his wife Truus, he made plans to retire and emigrate early, to start a project in Africa.
The couple started with four boys they took care of. Hardcore Streetchilderenas Noud mentions, from 13 to 18 years old. “We helped them to kick them off everything that God has forbidden. We also hired a teacher who taught them.”
Since then, the Watoto Foundation has helped 1350 young people. “They learn how to keep themselves tidy, clean up their room, they cook and read passages from the Bible. They don’t have time for nasty memories of the past.” The starting point is to help the children in a paid job, with an entrepreneur, a farmer, carpenter or bricklayer, “says Noud.” This way we want to change this worrying reality. We change them in very good boys with a good job.“
But the project also has a downside. His wife cannot ground well in Tanzania and is increasingly staying with the children and grandchildren in the Netherlands. Ultimately it leads to a divorce. Noud later falls in love with a Tanzanian woman, with whom he founded a family.
Lives change and make dreams come true, Noud is very proud that his boys have achieved this. “And that in a country where it is not easy.”
Martijn, the maker of the series ‘far -fetched’
A camera, his backpack and an enthusiastic dose of travel. The 38-year-old Martijn van der Sanden from Helmond traveled the world, in the wake of inspiring Brabanders who emigrated to the most beautiful places on the globe. They all took the decision to commit themselves to a better world. The series can be seen every Tuesday on TV at Omroep Brabant and on Brabant+.
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