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HELP JÖRGEN TO ACHIEVE HIS TREK! Contributions in the shape of materials and aid in transporting materials are very welcome. Financial contributions can be paid to bank account no. 1386.41.404 (IBAN: NL86RABO 0138641404) (SWIFT/BIC: RABONL2U) of Stichting Smiles for Moldova (Smiles for Moldova Foundation), Barkmolenstraat 49, 9723 DB Groningen, The Netherlands.
Kayak trek SMILES FOR MOLDOVA:
Two faces a world of difference!
JÖRGEN VAN DER POL was born with complex congenital defects (the EEC syndrome). Among other things, this implies a cleft lip and palate and abnormalities of hair, skin, eyes and hands. From childhood onwards he has been treated by Dr. Rob van Oort, a pioneer and expert in the field of Maxillofacial Prosthetics. i.e. the esthetic and functional correction of acquired or congenital defects of teeth, jaws and face with the aid of synthetic materials (special defect prostheses for jaws, artifical nose, ear, eye etc.). It was the department of Dental Surgery and Special Dentistry of the Groningen UMC that provided Jörgen, after many operations, with a fine oral prosthesis.
LIKE NO OTHER, Jörgen understands what it means to live with oral and facial defects. When Jörgen heard of Dr. van Oort's plans to set up a department of maxillofacial prosthetics in Moldova, he spontaneously decided to undertake a kayak trek from Holland to Moldova, a tremendous performance intended to draw people's attention to the doctor's work and its importance for inhabitants of Moldova with congenital or acquired oral and facial defects.
WITH HIS PERFORMANCE, Jörgen wants to show that the world is open to him, and this is what he wishes people in Moldova to have as well. His motto is: SMILES FOR MOLDOVA. The kayak trek is 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometres) long and will pass through eleven European countries: Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Rumania and Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova. After the Wadden Sea and the Dollard, the trek will mainly follow rivers: the Ems, the Rhine, the Main, the Danube, from which Jörgen will enter the Black Sea and then paddle up the Djnestr to reach the clinic in Moldova.
JÖRGEN IS DOING THE TREK ALL BY HIMSELF. As a sea paddler (at BCU-4 level) Jörgen is used to efforts of endurance, but due to serious restrictions in daily life he is forced to go at his own speed and to adapt his planning day by day to his physical condition. His eyes are affected, so that sometimes he has only partial eyesight, which then forces him to rest for a shorter or longer period. His eyesight may well be far more limited in future than it is now, and he wants to have taken up this challenge ere it has come to that. Over the past few years he has acquired great experience on both fresh and salt water: seas, lakes and rivers in Holland as well as abroad.
SATURDAY APRIL 5TH 2008 will see Jörgen start from Paterswolde, to reach Chisinau in Moldova from there about five or six months later. Contact with the home front will be maintained with the aid of GPS and mobile means of communication.
A book of photographs will be offered to Dr. van Oort, together with the final report of this kayak trek, for promotional purposes. Interim reports are to be published on this website.
SMILES FOR MOLDOVA is a foundation aiming to safeguard this kayak trek materially as much as possible by means of sponsor acquisition. You can help Jörgen by sponsoring the trek. And of course Jörgen hopes that the sum collected will be sufficient to allow him to complete the journey and hand the doctor an envelope with money for the department of maxillofacial prosthetics in Moldova.
HELP JÖRGEN TO ACHIEVE HIS TREK! |