In the second half of the 20st century the way of living and the lifestyle of people, specifically in the western world, has changed considerably. Unfortunately, the gap between the poor and the rich, not only in the western world but also and even more in developing countries is increasing year by year.  Due to the remarkable progress in medical sciences and the availability of more and more medical and health facilities as well as the increase of wealth in general, life expectation has gone up in a steady manner. In 1950 the average age of a man in Belgium was roughly 70 and of a women 73 years; at present these figures are 79 resp. 84 years. After retirement, people are living much longer and  are often considerable better off than generations before. People also feel much younger than their parents or grandparents at the same age. Feeling much younger is opening the way to be active after retiring from professional activities: One still feels fit and able to be of any use for society. In other words, this creates ample opportunities for good citizenship leading to taking on more personal social responsibility.

I certainly feel I belong to the group of people who are privileged and I also feel morally obliged to give something back to the community after having been able to make a good living during my professionally active years.

As a result  of my frequent professional and private travelling to different  parts of the world I also became interested in supporting projects in developing countries. After my retirement in 1999, I started to use my various European-wide biking tours to raise funds for projects in Africa, primarily but not only in Tanzania.