People often describe me as an independent spirit, authentic and self-reliant. My social, positive, and compassionate attitude comes from a deeply rooted spirituality in which being at home in yourself is central. My Roman Catholic Christian upbringing in West Africa, where I was born and raised, took place within African spirituality and culture. Through this upbringing, I became familiar with interfaith and multireligious living and working.

In the 1990s, I received a university education and formation in the Netherlands as a Roman Catholic pastoral worker. In that position, I have served the Catholic Church in the Netherlands in various places, including in a regular parish, Urban pastoral work in the cities of Amsterdam, Haarlem, and Rotterdam, migrant pastoral work, street, and drug pastoral care.

I have lived with (native) Dutch people in the monasteries, seminaries, and in my family life: as a father of three children from a mixed marriage (Netherlands and Africa), I know life in diversity like no other. All these experiences have given me a good understanding of Dutch culture and spirituality.

For several years now, I have been working as a spiritual caregiver in the multicultural provinces of North Holland, South Holland, and Flevoland. Besides my regular work as a spiritual caregiver, I specialize in culturally sensitive care for African descent people in the Netherlands. I also regularly counsel culturally mixed couples with relationship challenges. Providing training to professionals in the field of culturally sensitive care, Diversity and intercultural work in organizations, institutions, and companies is an interesting part of my work.

Inspired and motivated by my work discoveries, I write to inform the public on issues that are not well known to those who are supposed to know. Therefore, I take the pain in writing books and articles but also in making audiovisual materials for training and informing others. In short, it is part of my education service to the public.

Much of the assistance in the Netherlands, especially for problems in which spiritual and mental issues play a role, does not sufficiently connect to the world of Dutch people with African roots. Faith and spirituality play an important role in this target group and often remain underexposed in regular assistance. Another dilemma is that people with a migration background in the Netherlands sometimes lack the financial possibilities to get appropriate and necessary guidance. My motivation is to close this gap. I wish all people in the Netherlands access to health and well-being.