The Were Di Website designers

Otger van Delft

My name is Otger van Delft and I have been a computer science teacher at Were Di, comprehensive school, in Valkenswaard for four years. I consider it a privilege having been able to help my colleague, Henk Meeuwis, with his passion for The Gambia. I have asked my students professionally to create a website for him about this African country. And, although it was originally intended to be a substitute assignment within the subject I teach, it eventually became a lot more because of Henk’s passion and perfectionism.

My colleague’s input was without limits and so was the students’ perseverance! It is really fantastic what he and my pupils have accomplished, especially since all this was done during their busy examination year and in their own spare time. Both in quantity and quality they have realized very much and very good work! Really a first-rate job!!

Helpthegambia.com has become a beautiful, extremely informative and bilingual website, to be enjoyed by many people, giving them a good insight in all the projects that have been set up by Henk and his wife.

I wish you a lot of pleasure reading and viewing this site!

Otger

———————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Ton Arends

My name is Ton Arends and after some time we managed to set up the website Helpthegambia. All this under strict supervision of our computer science teacher, Mr. van Delft. There is a solid website for Mr. Meeuwis now, which will undoubtedly add to his good cause!

The start of Helpthegambia was a computer science assignment and Mr. van Delft approached Martijn and me at the time, since we were a bit ahead in the field of HTML. Mr. Meeuwis already had plans by then to advertise his good cause via the web. Thus, Martijn and I could help someone and finish our computer assignment in a creative way.

After a lot of talks about the wishes of our ‘client’, Mr. Meeuwis, the website was draughted by Martijn, after which I converted these draughts into HTML. However, after a powerful start, Helpthegambia was progressing less smoothly. Fortunately, Julien was able to join and put things right again. Because of his extensive knowledge, many plans that had been on hold for a long time could be implemented in the website by Julien. It is thanks to him that we have achieved this final result, besides having a photo page, well-organized text and a lot more.

And although the Helpthegambia project is coming to an end for our group, a website will never be complete. There is a task for other students in the future to make a news page, for example. Or perhaps an upgrade of the website to PHP. so that Mr. Meeuwis can easily add and adapt articles. Anyway, with the knowledge we had then, we have tried to focus on a clever combination of HTML and CSS. So, we have created a solid code, which can (hopefully) be picked up by others quickly.

Finally, I wish Mr. Meeuwis a lot of success with his good cause. I have come to know him as a man who is always cheerful and who was very patient with us. During the talks, we have heard a lot of things about a country that is so far away from us. Always impressive stories with some nice moments for laughter. Therefore, if you happen to have something to spare, Mr. Meeuwis is able to apply your help directly. Or just send him a mail; all feedback will help a man who is already positive to continue this magnificent work!

Ton

———————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Martijn Raijmakers

My name is Martijn Raijmakers and I finished my education at Were Di this year. One of the subjects I liked best was computer science, since it is practically-oriented. I particularly liked the moments in which we could do a project with a small group, especially if these projects were assignments for other teachers, like this one for Mr. Meeuwis. Although I was less advanced in the technical side of designing websites than the other students I was working with, my help was wanted for the lay-out and styling of the website.

The first few weeks were the most educational for me, because really a lot had to be designed, draughted and devised in the early stages, before we could start with the actual programming language. Apart from this, it was also educational in a sense that our bond with Mr. Meeuwis was not very businesslike and so he regularly told us about life in The Gambia and what people are like over there. I think that I have gained more insight in life and the problems in The Gambia because of these stories.

The final result is a wonderful website offering much and elaborate information on The Gambia and my teacher’s personal experiences.

I really enjoyed working on this website and I wish you a lot of reading pleasure.

Martijn

———————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Julien Duclos

My name is Julien Duclos and I finished my secondary education at Were Di, and I have enjoyed taking computer science with Mr. van Delft for the past two years.

Last year, I was doing a computer project in which I got acquainted with two designer languages for web pages. Once I had finished the final assignment, I was asked if I wanted to assist in making this website for Mr. Meeuwis, which I willingly accepted, of course. Especially since it was for a good cause and – apparently – my help was greatly desired. I was then able to apply the knowledge I had acquired on both HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to a higher level and even expand it every now and then. So, it has defintely been an educational experience for me!

The website has become versatile, with attention for the book written by Mr. Meeuwis and for stories – illustrated by photos – of personal experiences in The Gambia, which he always enthusiastically shared with us.

In short, it has really been a pleasure working on this site and I am proud of the final result.

Julien

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Contact request form