Assistance activities

Material assistance is intended for those who request it because they are temporarily in need. The result of an enquiry, made by the board and the secretariat, is handed to the Chairman of the Board of Directors; the latter decides whether the assistance is granted or not.

It can be an assistance allowance, an interest-free advance, an allowance in case of decease… or scholarships granted to deserving children of members.

The admissibility for scholarships is based on the following criteria: they are reserved to children of members and exclusively intended for academic studies, except for specializations, providing the student succeeds in the first year.

If a student follows two consecutive disciplines, the number of scholarships will be limited to the number of years of the longest cycle, exclusive of the first year.

As to the definition of the amounts, the board of directors will take into account the income of the parents, the composition of the family and the quality of the study results of the previous year.

Since 1994 the Association takes under its protection all orphans (under 18) of whom one parent was the victim during his/her duty and was posthumously decorated with the Order of Leopold. This patronage consists of the deposit of a sum of money on a savings account which is frozen up to each child’s majority. Among the principal beneficiaries we mention:

• the six orphans left by our commandos killed in Kigali,
• the son of Commander B. Borrey, fallen at Mostar,
• the two orphans of first sergeant-major Vomberg of the Air Force, deceased when he tried to save the passengers of the C130 plane which crashed in Eindhoven in 1996,
• the daughter of chief warrant officer Primo Pauletig of the Gendarmerie (now Federal Police), killed during an intervention at the “Fêtes de Wallonie” in 2000,
• the children of flying captain Desirotte, deceased in commanded service during a night interception.

In practice however, the main assistance activity has a moral character, more specifically it consists of organising periodical meetings consisting of lectures and organized trips or travels and of visits to isolated members or members admitted to hospital and of the presence of members at deceased members’ funerals.

Photo: Michel Gronemberger © Royal Palace, Belgium