About Us

JWF stands for Johan Wesemann Fonds and is an official non profit foundation based in The Netherlands. Its aim is to support social projects that contribute to emancipation and equality of people with a disability. At the moment, the foundation is focussed on projects in East-Africa, but it is our ambition to expand our reach to other parts of the world in the future.

The establishment of the foundation follows a decades long struggle for emancipation and equality of people with a disability that mr Johan Wesemann went through his entire life. Born as a deaf person into a deaf family, Johan faced a lot of discrimination and marginalization while growing up. He dedicated his active career fighting this, and through management positions at several national and international institutions he helped to get more self-determination for people with a disability in general, and deaf and hard of hearing people in particular.

The foundation supports projects by providing financial means and to connect relevant networks to each other. Organizations and individuals can propose a project to the JWF Foundation, and if the board thinks the project matches the goals of the foundation, and if there are sufficient financial means available, a cooperation can be established. The JWF Foundation can allocate financial means and provide skilled and experienced professionals who van help develop the project. In our experience, money alone is not enough. They key to success is often the deployment of experts and cooperation between people based on trust and good communication. It is exactly this way how Johan managed to achieve great accomplishments in his life, and this expertise is used to support meaningful projects and increase their social impact.

The JWF Foundation raises funds with private donors, NGOs, and governments. The board of the foundation manages the funds and makes sure they are used properly and according to agreements with the donors.

The foundation has its own board that operates completely independent from all operational partners. The board acts according to articles of association that are registered at the chamber of commerce in The Netherlands. These articles are:

• To support accessibility and inclusivity of people with a disability in the tourism sector
• To support participation in the tourism sector of people with multiple disabilities and the less able-bodied deaf people
• To support projects in developing countries that contribute to improvement of the lives of people with disability.

The priority of the foundation at the moment lies with the third objective. It is our ambion to widen our focus to the other aims in the future.