NICOLE VAN ELTEREN

Greetings, I'm Nicole! I was born & raised in the Netherlands, I have a bachelor's degree in International Fashion Management, and I worked as a merchandise planner for an international clothing brand at their headquarters for nearly 4 years.

 

In 2012, I served on a 3-month mission trip to Malawi during which I worked at a rural hospital assisting in administrative work. After returning to the Netherlands, I could not settle back into life's daily routine. I kept thinking about the desperate circumstances of the people I saw in Malawi. I felt God telling me I had to return — so I did.

 

What started as a small project turned into my life’s mission. That same year, I began buying formula milk for babies whose mothers had passed. In rural Africa, mothers still die during childbirth and with formula milk being very expensive, grandmothers can't raise their orphaned grandkids simply because they cannot afford the formula milk. However, it turned out that there was a major need for some of the orphans to be temporarily kept in a childcare institution for different reasons. Some kids have no family members who can care for them while others are not welcome in the village because it's believed that the orphans are bewitched. I opened my house to these children and began caring for them over short (and sometimes longer) periods.

 

Since then, I've been living in Malawi for over a decade and I continue to house children in need. I’m also a single mother to 3 adopted children. Diana and Maria were both born in 2012 and Teleza was born in 2019. All 3 girls were very sick when I started caring for them. Teleza was born with severe congenital heart disease and therefore will need lifelong, intensive health care. Diana and Maria are both healthy, strong girls.

 

In March 2023, we moved my orphanage to a house in the capital city of Lilongwe, Malawi. In the city, there are many abandoned kids so there is a big need for childcare institutions like mine. Currently, my orphanage houses an average of 20 children at any given time. Most of the children were abandoned when taken in and are kept until social welfare has found a permanent solution for them. Reaching The Hungry was so gracious to pay for all the children's school fees and commit to covering my orphanage rent for an entire year.

 

I feel very blessed to be partnered with Reaching The Hungry and I’m fully committed to God’s calling to care for the children in Malawi. I pray I'll be able to continue helping many more kids in the years to come.