Sarnelli House loves seeing old friends and welcoming new ones. The last few months have been no exception. Old friends from the UK and the Netherlands have returned for short trips and long stays, first time guests have come from Singapore and Australia, while Fr. Shea has welcomed family and friends.
Leon and Henriette Castermans from the Netherlands have visited twice a year for almost over a decade. They bring friendship and love to the staff and children, and while Leon is busy at the pool or on the farm, Henriette likes to do arts and crafts with the children. Leon is also a great help during the swimming sessions. Their Dutch foundation, Stichting Vrienden van Sarnelli, has been helping Fr. Mike for many years, with capital projects, medical support and education programmes. Currently, they are proving to be a great help with the redesign of the farm project and are also committed to supporting the purchase of a van for the new house for children with disabilities.
Hannah Bennett's family in Sydney, Australia have also long been supporters of Sarnelli House. And when Kate learned that Hannah is a certified and experienced speech therapist, and was keen to come to work with the children with disabilities, she could barely contain her excitement! Hannah spent five weeks working every day with the four small children, mostly on feeding and eating. She brought her expertise to develop techniques for chewing, sucking, swallowing and using a spoon and made a remarkable impact on the children's lives in a short time. Hannah developed good relationships with house mothers and other volunteers and her ideas are being continued after she left us. There is practically no expertise in such matters in this area so having someone as qualified as Hannah was a true blessing.
We had a short but packed and very fun visit from Lei Nore, Alfred, Irene and Tud Chee from the St. Francis Xavier church in Singapore. They brought gifts and energy for the children and made a very generous donation. They also put on a fabulous lunch for all the kids in the hall. Lei Nore arranged everything in advance and the trip went very efficiently! Alfred made a big impact on the children at the nursery and Irene and Tud Chee brought great intelligence and curiosity to all encounters. Thank you all for your visit and we hope to see you again soon!
Debbie Willis has been scrimping and saving for almost 20 years to maintain her amazing record of twice yearly visits to her beloved children at Sarnelli House. And this love is returned to her in spades as the children look forward with great excitement to her arrival. And now Debbie is retiring in the area, so the kids will see much more of her. She is particularly great with the little ones at Jan & Oscar House and St. Patrick's with her famous games of bingo, shopping activities and colouring in. Debbie will bring great colour to the kids' lives.
Angelique and Ben Ummels live right next door to Sarnelli House for most of the year and spend a large part of their time working with the four children with disabilities. Ben is an assistant rehab therapist from the Netherlands and he does sensory and aqua therapy with the four kids. Angelique brings great love and support to the children and the staff and her positive energy is infectious. She is devoted to the four children, who all need the love. They also work with a child on the Outreach programme as well as some elderly folk recovering from strokes. Ben is also Fr. Mike's personal trainer!
Helen Gniot from Germany was a volunteer for ten months at the Jan & Oscar house in 2022/23. She was a very caring a supportive big sister to the girls there and she and her co-volunteer, Laura, were much loved. Helen was travelling through Asia and she and her travel buddy Karina called by, much to the joy of the little girls who remember her so fondly. Sarnelli House is always happy to welcome our long term volunteers back and it is remarkable how many strong friendships have been made over the years through the volunteer programme.
Fr. Mike had a number of guests from home. His nephew Michael John, and his wife Amy, came for a short visit and committed to some structural projects for the long term benefit of Sarnelli House. Jonah, a grand nephew of Fr. Mike's, called in with two friends, Liam and Vilnus, during their trip through Asia. They were all very impressive young men and played with the kids until they dropped! Fr. Mike also had visits from his sister, Brigid, his cousin Michael, and his wife Janet, and a family friend, Susan.
