The Hilversum One Foundation is an omnicultural organisation, which has set itself the goal of connecting people through art and culture. The foundation aims to bring together Hilversummers from different cultural backgrounds, ages and sexual preferences in order to create more understanding, knowledge and cooperation for the diversity of cultures within Hilversum. This means that a community is built up by social cohesion and that is what we want to achieve in Hilversum as the Hilversum One Foundation with our projects. Our sub-goal is to contribute to the quality of music in the Netherlands. We have a sub-project called Woke entertainment, where we want to raise funds for the foundation by promoting local and international artists in the Netherlands. We are in contact with other larger cultural venues and festivals and with three projects that make us work directly with such artists.
The Hilversum One Foundation was founded in 2016 and aims to bring people of different ages, origin, gender and sexual orientation together in a positive way. The foundation was founded by Sly Ndlovu from Zimbabwe, who has lived in Hilversum for 8 years. Sly studied financial management in Zimbabwe, then worked at the former Wereldomroep and is now Finance manager at the INHOPE, a foundation that fights against child abuse worldwide . Besides the fact that she can handle figures well, she also has experience in organizing events, as she did in Cape Town before coming to the Netherlands.
The other board members are:
– Lei Ma: who runs a catering company and has a great network that he uses for the benefit of the foundation. He is also project manager for an NGO in Hilversum who focuses on helping youth in China to have a voice in their country. He is gay and has a link with the LGBTcommunity in the Netherlands
– Wopke Postumen-Bijl: he is an IT specialist and is an asset to the foundation through its organizational talent. Wopke coordinates the meetings and maintains contacts with third parties, such as the municipality and other funds that could provide additional income.
Together Sly Ndlovu, Lei Ma and Wopke Postuma-Bij contribute to connection, understanding and knowledge within all cultural diversity in Hilversum.
In addition, there is a Supervisory Board consisting of two Dutch women who have a broad network in Hilversum so that we can easily connect with local organisations, and a Syrian man and a Moroccan woman rooted in the Muslim community that makes up a quarter of the Hilversum population. The Supervisory Board helps the management manage and carry out the activities.