The Hubi & Vinciane Foundation and Wereld Missie Hulp, a unique partnership

We regularly report on the containers we send to Benin in this newsletter. In 2021, there were 6 in total. This year, 4 of them have already left for the port of Cotonou, then by road to Parakou, where the Foundation’s offices are located.

With these containers, we send things that we buy ourselves for our projects, but mainly materials that our many donors give us. Of course, we always check first with our team and our partners in Benin what they need and how we can meet their needs.

Thanks to Partenamut, the Red Cross, ZNA Middelheim, AZ Jan Portaels, several physiotherapists, Liantis, Goed! and Odisee, we were able to send Benin almost 100 baby scales, a dozen treatment and examination tables, one surgical microscope, three ultrasound machines, a biofeedback system and all sorts of other surgical and gynaecological equipment. The solar panel system for the Boko hospital, donated by Energy Assistance, also left by container recently. In February, almost 45,000 school books donated by Plantyn left.

Sending all this valuable material would not be possible without Wereld Missie Hulp, one of our most important partners. For many years we have counted on their financial and logistical support. Thanks to their project operation, we always recover a considerable part of the shipping costs.

The support we receive through their humanitarian shipping service is crucial for us. We deliver the material to their headquarters in Boechout. From then on, Wereld Missie Hulp takes care of everything: booking the containers on the ships, transporting the containers from the port of Antwerp to their headquarters in Boechout and back, packing the material if necessary, loading the containers, complex customs formalities and sending all the required documents to the forwarder in Benin.

In the process, there are sometimes setbacks: goods delivered at the last minute that absolutely must go, missing documents, etc. Even in these circumstances, the staff at Wereld Missie Hulp keep a cool head and keep looking until they find a solution. We want to take this opportunity to thank the entire Wereld Missie Hulp team for their pleasant and professional cooperation.

Finally, we would also like to mention the logistics of “GOED Thuiszorgwinkel” explicitly. Despite their busy schedule, they always manage to collect and deliver the donated material to Wereld Missie Hulp within a briefe period, all over Flanders. They are therefore an indispensable link in our logistics chain to Benin.