The origins of the Liliane Foundation

Liliane Brekelmans-Gronert (1929-2009) wanted to help one girl with a disability towards independence. She had met her in Sumatra. Agnes and she had much in common: their place of birth, difficulty in walking, a walking stick, but differences between them had determined the courses of their lives. Liliane’s spontaneous action was the start of an organisation that now supports tens of thousands of children with disabilities in developing countries every year: the Liliane Foundation.

Lily Gronert was two years old when she got polio. The disease passed, but the paralysis to her legs did not. The garden of her parental house in Sumatra, at first a world full of opportunities, became inaccessible. And Lily herself was ’the girl with a disability’. A girl different from the others. A girl that no longer fully belonged to their world.

Lily was opinionated and rebellious. She refused to come to terms with the restrictions that were enforced on her in her surroundings. She fought for every bit of independence.

In 1939, Lily and her family visited The Netherlands. The war changed her circumstances and she stayed in The Netherlands permanently. After 40 years she went back to her birth place together with her husband Ignaas. She met Agnes, a young Indonesian girl who also suffered from polio. She lived in foster care without any prospects in her life. Struck by the similarities and the differences that she had with Agnes, Lieke, as Lily was then called, decided to help her. She wanted to establish practical, small-scale aid adapted to the possibilities of Agnes. Back in the Netherlands, at that time, there were no organisations that provided individual assistance.

Lieke decided, together with her husband, to save up money themselves, with the help of family and friends. Once they had saved 100 guilders (around 45 euro), they sent it to Agnes’ caretakers to buy a sewing machine. Agnes and some other disabled girls at the centre where she lived learned how to use it. Lieke continued to follow their progress. In the meantime more requests for assistance came in. Saving up money has never stopped. On 14 March 1980 the Liliane Foundation was established.

Since that day almost 800,000 requests for aid have been approved, implemented and justified. Agnes is now living an independent life. She still earns her own living as a seamstress.