Things didn’t always go smoothly in the beginning, explains Hermelink. “The organizations each have their own work methods. And they’re also occasionally competitors, for example when it comes to fundraising or municipal grants. Money is always a tense issue, but fortunately the organizations also see the results they can achieve thanks to the partnership.”

And those results are impressive. In 2016, before the organizations joined forces, they helped children more than 250,000 times. But in 2020, they provided assistance 390,000 times; an increase of 55%. “That isn’t 390,000 unique children; some children receive support from more than one of our partners. But we still have a long way to go. So we want to expand the partnership in the future.”