To be blunt: your favourite correspondent needs funds!

It’s going well with the visitor numbers of this website. Since it was launched in 2007 the numbers have grown from 15 (my parents and a handful of friends and colleagues) to 30,000 a month now, and 50,000 if I include the Dutch version. I am reaching an ever-growing public in not only my home country, the Netherlands, but also in Turkey, the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and several other countries.

I am ultra happy that my plan to come to Turkey as a freelance correspondent turned out so well. I have managed to write for a wide range of media about a wide range of subjects, mainly focusing on politics, human rights and women’s lives. By publishing them all here and by adding blog posts, I drew people to this little corner of the Internet, and made them visit again and again.

I am far from done with reporting about Turkey. I will keep doing what I have been doing for the last five years (yes, there’s an anniversary situation here!), but I also plan to dig deeper. Into the Kurdish question, to be precise. I’m not going to reveal all my plans here, partly because they are so huge they make me nervous, but this coming year I will focus on researching in many different ways. In the end, a book will come out, that I will write in Dutch and plan to have immediately translated to English. But it’s going to be multimedia, so there’s more to it than a book!

And, to be blunt: I need funds. Funds to create time to focus. Funds to hire translators and other professionals to assist me. Funds for travelling. Funds to buy books. I will apply for funds for journalists, but I’m pretty sure that is not going to cover all the stuff I need to do and pay for. As well, regular funds can’t compensate for the normal (read: direct money earning) working hours I will miss because of working on this project.

That, my dear reader, is where you come in. You can financially support me! Any contribution is very much appreciated, and will be – promise – spent wisely and with care. Of course I will write about my work in progress here. For the rest, I can’t give anything in return right away. But in the end, it will lead to a thorough and fair, both political and personal journalistic work. Just like you are used to getting from your favourite correspondent.

Curious about what this will lead to? There is only one way to find out! Help me make this possible! You can make your donation via Paypal (and no, you don’t need your own Paypal account for that) and start the easy procedure by clicking the button underneath. Or, if you live in the Netherlands, by transferring any amount to ING Bank account 3700084, in the name of FH Geerdink in Hengelo (my home town, where my parents still live). Want to transfer from abroad? IBAN: NL27INGB0003700084, BIC: INGBNL2A.

I thank you in advance.

p