A story told by the first director of FORMA, Mr. Toontje Nicolaas.

On April 16, 1992, Henry Toré, John Goeloe (†), Mary Tjin-A-Sjoe, Ursa Thielman, Henny Thielman, and Sixto (Don Henry) Josefa (†) went to the office of notary Alfred Paul Knuf to establish the foundation Fundashon Formashon pa Mañan.

Objectives:

  1. The objective of the foundation is the promotion of education, training, and formation in general;
  2. The foundation seeks to achieve its objective by establishing and promoting courses, training, and everything related thereto in the broadest sense of the word.

One day, Henry Toré approached Toontje Nicolaas, both of them coming from the education sector, with the request to become the director of a training institute, they wanted to establish Fundashon FORMA – Formashon pa Mañan.

Nicolaas had just organized the Bonaire International Regatta and had made himself available for the government. He was on the payroll of the Bonaire government, which agreed that he would work at FORMA as coordinator.

“I still remember well how Toré came to me to say they were going to set up a foundation for education and training. But he said they didn’t have anything yet, and that I was the one who had to get this institute off the ground. We started without a cent in our pockets,” said Toontje in the program Boneiru, Ayera pa Awe.

A space was found in the old hospital building in Playa. “A lot of work had to be done to clean up the building, because it was very dirty. Kilos of dust were removed from the building. Henry Toré himself provided the desks and chairs,” recalled Toontje Nicolaas.

The first course organized was a painting course. Toontje’s brother, Benjamin Nicolaas (of De Maan Schilderwerken), gave the course. Soon, the walls also became part of the building that FORMA was using.

Then came courses for public transport, aimed at taxi drivers and bus drivers. Staff from TCB taught this course. A “Basic Accounting Knowledge” course was also organized.

“I started alone, so I was both coordinator and employee at the same time. I was my own boss. Later, Rita Henar joined, who was a teacher at SGB. We found a creative solution so she could stay on the SGB payroll, but in fact she worked for FORMA. The third employee of FORMA was Frenk Goeloe.”

Toontje Nicolaas was director of FORMA from 1992 until the year 2000.

Short story of former director Mrs. Inge Berben

FORMA caught the attention of our former director, Mrs. Inge Berben. She saw the possibility of combining care with communication, training, and education. According to her vision, this concept – care and education together – could help people rise above the poverty line and truly escape poverty.

She found this idea so attractive that on the day the position became available, she applied.

Mrs. Inge emphasized that for FORMA’s target group, education alone was not enough. It was important that people also received care and guidance, because the distance to the labor market was often quite large.

Inge Berben was director of FORMA from 2007 until the year 2019.