German organization Misereor decided not to continue support for the Center for Intercultural Dialogue and Translation (CIDT) after 1 July 2019 for reasons of policy change. CIDT has been supporting the Center for Arab-West Understanding in turn.

Misereor has been good for around 35% of their budget since 2005, in some years more. This is thus a big loss for both organizations and, if no alternative sources of income would be found, could result in serious cuts in staff costs which in turn would affect production.

Cornelis Hulsman is, therefore, making lots of efforts to find financial support elsewhere for both the Center for Intercultural Dialogue and Translation and the Center for Arab-West understanding. The deaconry of the Christian Reformed Church in The Hague, the Netherlands, recently decided to support their work with 3000 Euro per year for a period of three years.  They are primarily interested in what Hulsman and student interns do in social services. That was the reason for us to write a text for Samen, the community newsletter of the Christian Reformed Church in The Hague, The Netherlands, published in May 2018. We focused on the importance of Diakonia for the church since this was the audience we were addressing. This was followed by examples of diaconal work of the Center for Arab-West Understanding. The examples were selected for a Christian audience but it is clear that the Center for Arab-West Understanding does not distinguish between Christians in need and Muslims in need. The text also shows how the work of CAWU has been intimately linked with Kees Hulsman’s personal evolution. We are grateful for the translation made by Maya Williamson. We have done slight editing to clarify the text for a non-Dutch audience.

Board Arab-West Foundation,

Koen Vliegenhart, Board Chairman

Dick van der Steen, Board Secretary

Céleste Voogel, Board Treasurer

The Netherlands