Chinese community supports boy (8) who lost parents in explosion in The Hague

A separate crowdfunding campaign has been set up for the eight-year-old boy who lost his parents in the explosion at the Tarwekamp in The Hague. It is mainly aimed at the Chinese community, of which he is a part. “Everyone knows each other.”

The action Support for the Hu and Li family after tragic explosion is not part of the large crowdfunding campaign for all victims, in which more than 600,000 euros have now been collected.

“We know about this larger fundraising campaign, but we have chosen this route because we know that this will allow us to reach more people within the Chinese community,” says Geoffrey Ho. He is chairman of Asian Heritage The Netherlands, an organization that is committed to the position of Chinese Dutch people.

Ho: “We realized that an Asian family was involved. Then we immediately took action. Within the Chinese community in The Hague, everyone knows each other, everyone is close.”

The campaign reaches older generations of Chinese Dutch people who would not easily end up with the regular campaign because they do not speak Dutch well enough, he says. “You have a language barrier, we try to make that translation and also find an entrance with those people.”

The fact that the crowdfunding page is in Dutch is not an obstacle, Ho thinks. “The younger generation that speaks Dutch reads about this campaign via Facebook and passes it on to the elderly. The young people then donate on their behalf.”

The eight-year-old boy only has an aunt left who lives in the Netherlands. For privacy reasons, Ho does not want to say much about his condition. Organization On behalf of the Family, which supports victims, said yesterday that he “emerged from the building almost unscathed”.

The money can be used to pay for, among other things, the funeral of the parents. The counter for the campaign stands at more than 20,000 euros. A large number of the people who donated are Dutch people with an Asian background, as can be seen from the list of donors.

There has been no contact yet between the organizers of both crowdfunding campaigns. Ho says that will probably happen. Spokesperson for the major campaign Naomi Barki-van Vliet is in any case happy with the smaller initiative. “It is very good that there is also a campaign for the Chinese family. It is nice that they support each other in this way and that this foundation extends a hand and that the foundation is there for the relatives and the little boy.”

The money generated by the major campaign has not yet gone to the victims. “It will remain frozen until we have sat down with experts who can advise on this, such as a lawyer and notary. We want to handle it carefully and look at the correct distribution key,” says Barki-Van Vliet.

Yesterday, more than three hundred care providers came together to talk about what happened: