Like Peter Aalders of Van Ede & Partners, Ruud Bakhuizen was a member of the Kiwanis (similar to the Rotary Club). At Van Ede & Partners the consultants were used to donate part of their profits to charities. One of these charities was YMWS ,Young Men’s Welfare Society, an education project set up by Shourabh Mukerji, an Indian who regularly came to Europe to raise funds. In 1994 Peter Aalders introduced Shourabh Mukerji to Ruud Bakhuizen and together they started their first collaboration project in India. In 2000 FEMI and Shourabh concluded a collaboration agreement in which FEMI agreed to provide funds to these educational projects for several years. Several working visits followed. FEMI participated in a conference on sustainable education and attended the festive opening of two schools. Since 2010 Leo Verzijl has been FEMI’s advisor for this project.

Shourabh Mukerji is the driving force behind this project. He is a member of a higher caste and has had a university education. In 1967 he volunteered to start teaching in one of the schools set up by Mother Theresa. Shourabh is a teacher to the core and deeply respects Mother Theresa. The respect was mutual: when he married she presented him with a car, of which he is still very proud and which he holds dear until this day. Shourabh has his own ideas about education. In order to realise his ideals he asked his father for an advance on his inheritance and with it he built his first school for 700 children who are able to pay school fees. This enabled him to make a profit, which he used to offer free education to the same number of poor children. By now he has set up several primary schools and one secondary school, the Young Horizons School (YHS). The latter provides state-certified education to 550 pupils. A second secondary school has recently been added. For more information:  www.youngmenswelfaresociety.org