EMPTY STREETS, EMPTY WINDOWS, EMPTY BANK ACOUNTS

The second day of Easter she contacted me with the question if we could help her. She was out of
money and was not able to buy food for herself and her two children. She felt guilty and ashamed that she had to bother me. Luckily, I was able to give her two digital vouchers with which she could do her grocery shopping for 50,-.
In her hometown, she has been given the run-around concerning her income supplement and she was distraught without any money at home or in the bank. This is also because it had been hard tomake money the period prior to the shutdown.

And now, after the shutdown of the Red light, the women have not had any income for four weeks.This situation is not exceptional to just this woman, for this past Eastern weekend I gave away 20 digital vouchers to women in distress. Most of these women have hardly any money in the bank.
Yesterday, a woman showed me she only had €0,56 left to spend. Her bookkeeper had settled her
income supplement, but the application kept coming back because it was not complete. She had
been waiting for this supplement for four weeks now and she was extremely grateful for the
voucher. Together with her, we were able to complete the application and she will receive this
money probably today or tomorrow.
The women are really happy with this supplement, but it still remains difficult for many to get by. When your apartment rent is €1600,- or higher, you are happy with the supplement but the troubles and worries remain. On top of this, many women also have to take care of a family in their homecountry.
It gives a lot of stress and uncertainty for the future. Their question is often: when will the Red light open again. Even though we both know that, once this will be the case, it will likely not be crowded. There will not be many foreigners and most people will not dare to come due to the possible risk of contamination. As for the entire world, the Red light will never be the same after corona.

The positive thing about this is that we get to talk to the women about what they wished to do with their life in the future. There is a lot of interest for other options and we as Bright Fame are very happy that we can stay in our office and meet the women personally. The stories about their lives are coming up and we can encourage them and pray for them.
In the past few weeks we have been blessed to give away many Bibles in several languages. Also the books of Francine Rivers ‘Redeeming Love’ in several languages have been eagerly received .

Dear people,
Your help is still strongly needed. This afternoon I have to buy new vouchers (€25,-) to keep helping the women.

The GIVT App is easy to download. Would you like to sponsor one or more vouchers?
When you use the GIVT App, you can do so easily via the QR code above.
Bright Fame is an ANBI acknowledge foundation.

Empty streets, empty windows, empty bank accounts.
Your support for the emergency fund is strongly needed.
Visit; https://brightfame.nl/doe-mee/doneer/ and donate under the heading ‘Noodfonds’

Best wishes,
Frits Rouvoet
Director St. Bright Fame