forhaiti.com - Photobook Children of Haiti

Our friends and co-writers of the book, Gaby and Gosse Best from Rijswijk and their two adopted Haitian children Wilaire (4) and Erline (7) died during the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Hotel Villa Therese in Port-Au-Prince where they arrived on Saturday 9 January has been completely destroyed.

Gaby and Gosse had gone to Haiti to pick up their adopted children. They had just collected Wilaire and Erline when disaster struck. Gaby and Gosse had waited almost two years for their adopted children and after all that waiting they were only able to spend just a little over a day together.

Gaby and Gosse have made an enormous contribution to the realization of the book ‘Children of Haiti’ which we published in 2009. Without their enthusiasm, Gosse’s connections and their suggestions the book would have never turned out as beautiful as it has now. How tragic that their lives had to end in the same place as where their new dream had only just started.

We are all still completely in shock but we already know that we are going to do something big to honor and remember them in both The Netherlands and in Haiti. In the same way that we were able to publish a beautiful book together we will also do something amazing for these wonderful people.

The ANWB (the Dutch AAA/ AA), where Gosse worked, has decided to publish a second edition of the book. This edition will be sold at the ANWB stores and the ANWB online shop. A fantastic initiative and tribute to this wonderful couple. As with the first edition all the proceedings from this second edition will also go entirely to Haiti via us. The Haagse Hogeschool, the college where Gaby worked, will also sell the books.

The same tragic fate struck Richard and Rowena Pet-Frensch from Winkel and their recently adopted son Arnoud.

We extend our deepest sympathies to all the family and friends,

Henk, Aranea and Moise Boorsma