Ter Haak Group supports Emma Children’s Hospital

Richard ter Haak, director and owner of the Ter Haak Group, recently presented a cheque to Professor Hugo Heymans, head of the Paediatrics ward and Chairman of the Emma Children’s Hospital at the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) in Amsterdam. This is our contribution to the Metamorphosis renovation project. 

The Ter Haak Group is originally an Amsterdam organisation, as is the Emma Children’s’ Hospital of the AMC. In 1911 Richard ter Haak’s grandfather established the company in a small warehouse in Buiten Visserstraat, in the centre of Amsterdam near Central Station. Now five subsidiaries are housed in a modern and functional building on Ruijgoordweg in the America Harbour and Ter Haak is an internationally operating concern. 

The opening ceremony for the new Ter Haak head office took place in September 2008. A request for contributions to realise the best children’s hospital in the world was included with the invitation to this event. The reactions were enthusiastic: The gifts of Ter Haak’s clients and relations amounted to just over € 9,000, which the Ter Haak Group rounded up to 10,000. This money was handed over to the Emma Children’s Hospital AMC Foundation for the Metamorphosis project, a thorough renovation that started in November 2008. “We hope that the hospital will be as proud of its new premises as we are of ours and that it will serve as an example to others," commented Richard ter Haak.

Emma Children’s Hospital AMC is the driving force behind the support of chronically ill children and their families. It also aims to speed up the development and translation of knowledge by financing scientific research, based upon a belief that knowledge on how to live with a (chronic) illness should benefit as many people as possible as quickly as possible. In this capacity, the hospital stimulates third parties to change their priorities.

A sick child touches the heart. Everyone has a hard time coping with physical limitations, but how do we help children understand and accept their predicament? In addition to dealing with the illness itself Emma Children’s Hospital AMC focuses on the emotional and social development of children. As well as professional care, one of the hospital’s focal points is the need to involve parents in the recovery process. Families have to learn to deal with the symptoms, possibilities and impossibilities of the treatment and need comfortable surroundings to provide sick children with (long-term) support. A hospital stay is not voluntary so it is important that hospitals make patients, their parents and any siblings as comfortable as possible. Facilities and activities contribute to the (best possible) recovery in both a literal and figurative sense, as sick children must remain part of a social network and continue to feel ‘ordinary’.

The Ter Haak Group is a family business and has been fortunate that the succession has not been hampered by illness over the generations. “It is not something you often think about as a father of two healthy (and now adult) children," explains Richard ter Haak. “Almost everyone knows someone in their surroundings with a sick child or an adult who grew up struggling with a chronic illness and yet it is rarely a topic of discussion. I believe that it is important to enhance the awareness in schools and corporate environments of the problems faced by (adolescent) patients. And the buck starts here." 

In the same way that the Port of Amsterdam stimulates attendees at the port guild dinner to support the Support Emma Children’s Hospital AMC Foundation, the Ter Haak Group hopes to encourage others to donate. “Giving enriches your own life. And the Emma Children’s Hospital is a concrete, visible and transparent cause to which to donate." 


Another spectacular act started with the beating of an Odaiko, a two-metre diameter Japanese drum. Accompanied by the sounds of an captivating drum show, a crane carrying two 20-feet containers moved over the offices. As the music continued to build, four abseilers exited the containers and defied the heavy winds and rain to unveil the company name on the building façade. The festivities were completed with fire canons, dry ice and confetti.  

After a word of gratitude by Richard ter Haak and a champagne toast, the guests entered the building for a tour and a variety of delicious culinary specialties. All in all it was a very memorable day. Milli Lagerweij