After the tragic stabbing of an 11-year-old girl in Nieuwegein in the province of Utrecht last week, parents at the victim’s school took action.
They organised a fundraising campaign to help her parents with repatriation and funeral costs. The campaign has already reached its first goal of €32,500.
Out of nowhere
Last Saturday, February 1, 11-year-old Sohani was stabbed to death while playing in the street in Nieuwegein. The crime took place in broad daylight and seemingly came out of nowhere.
A 29-year-old man has been arrested, but his motive and whether he had any relation to the victim is still unknown.
The funeral
Sohani’s family is originally from Eritrea, so they wish to organise her funeral there. That, of course, costs money.
The close-knit Eritrean community has offered to initially advance the costs of the funeral, but the parents would have to pay it back eventually.
The parents at Sohani’s school, Tweeklank, launched the fundraiser to help her family with these costs.
“That is an amount that they cannot pay alone, and that is why we are helping,” Sander Kaldenhoven, one of the initiators of the campaign, tells RTL Nieuws.
Exceeding the goal
The goal was set at €32,500 and has already been exceeded — currently, the amount raised stands at €34,000.
“We initially made the target amount flexible according to the advice of GoFundMe to keep it feasible,” explain the Tweeklank parents on the fundraising platform, “but the generosity has exceeded our expectations.”
Because of this, they’ve also now set a maximum amount.
If you would like to donate to the campaign, the fundraiser is still open.