An independent bridge, built carefully
Tharan Foundation — Stichting Tharan — is a Dutch–Yemeni civic foundation based in Rotterdam, currently in oprichting. We work at the point where institutions and the Yemeni community meet, and we take both sides seriously.
It began with a gap nobody was filling
Since 2020, Yemen has been among the five largest asylum nationalities in the Netherlands every single year. The people who arrived hold residence permits, an inburgeringsplicht and a future here. They are in the caseloads of municipalities, refugee-support organisations and schools right now.
And yet: there is no national Yemeni self-organisation. No KIS study. No SCP report. No Pharos community dossier. What knowledge exists is fragmented, and much of it is drawn from broader regional assumptions rather than from this community. Careful, well-meant work is being built on a base nobody ever laid — and the results are predictable.
Tharan was formed to close that gap from both directions at once: to give institutions knowledge they can actually use, and to give the community formats where participation becomes concrete rather than theoretical. We started with what we could do honestly and locally, and we intend to earn everything after that.
The people, not just the method
Dutch institutions contract people rather than methodologies, and they are right to want to know who is on the other side of the table.
Tharan was founded by Wael Bokhaiti. Born in Yemen, he came to the Netherlands after a decade living in Malaysia, applied for protection, and was granted status after the asylum procedure — an experience that shaped a first-hand understanding of displacement, of rebuilding a life across countries, and of what stability actually requires. He is closely involved with the Yemeni community in the Netherlands, and built Tharan to help Yemeni people here reach stability and realise their potential — not as recipients of help, but as people with skills, histories and contributions the country has yet to fully see.
He works alongside an operational partner with a Yemeni background and full professional Dutch, whose own experience spans refugee-support work — including projects with VluchtelingenWerk — and Dutch local government. That combination lets Tharan work credibly on both sides of the table: with the institutions that serve this community, and within the community itself.
That colleague is described here by role rather than by name, because nobody is named on this site without their own written consent. The same rule applies to our board and our advisory network. Prior roles are that person's own professional history — they are not a partnership, endorsement or affiliation between Tharan and any organisation named.
Mission
To strengthen civic participation, constructive dialogue and institutional understanding by connecting community expertise, professional mentorship and evidence-informed advisory support.
Vision
A Netherlands where Yemeni and Arabic-speaking newcomers and residents participate confidently in civic, social and professional life — and where institutions engage them with knowledge instead of guesswork.
Six values, and what each one costs us
Values are only real when they rule something out. Here is what ours mean in practice.
Independence
No party, faction, donor, state or business controls us. We keep equal distance to all Yemeni political actors, including diplomatic missions.
Practical usefulness
We measure ourselves by whether institutions and residents find the work useful enough to repeat. Not by activity counts.
Evidence first
We listen, document and publish before we claim. Our flagship products are evidence products, sourced and dated.
Constructive expression
Free speech with responsibility. Disagreement, yes — dehumanisation and imported conflict, no.
Transparency
Clear governance, published finances, and every donation above €2,500 disclosed — amount and country of origin.
Dignity
Newcomers are people with rights, duties, talents and potential — not problems to be managed.
What we are not
We are not a charity handing out aid. We are not a political movement. We are not a representative body — nobody elected us to speak for anyone. We are not an aid distributor, and we are not a replacement for VluchtelingenWerk, for municipalities, or for the organisations already doing this work.
We are a knowledge and dialogue partner. That is a narrower claim, and we prefer it that way — a narrow claim we can keep is worth more than a broad one we cannot.
Wij duiden, wij vertegenwoordigen niet.
We interpret — we do not claim to representIn formation, and moving
The honest answer to "is this organisation actually going anywhere?" — status only, so that nothing here can later turn out to have been optimistic.
The foundation is in formation — in oprichting. Its governance framework is adopted, and published in full rather than summarised. Its evidence platform — the Feitenkaart and the European data — is already public, sourced and free to read. Those two things exist now; they are not plans.
The formal steps are in sequence, in this order:
Notarial deed
The stichting is established by deed before a Dutch notary. Until that is signed Tharan has no legal personality, and its founder carries its commitments personally — which is why we say so on every page where it matters.
Not yet takenRegistration with the KVK
Entry in the Handelsregister, with a KVK number and UBO filing. The number is published on the governance page the day it exists, not the week after.
Follows the deedApplication for ANBI status
Filed immediately after incorporation. ANBI status is granted by the Belastingdienst — it is not something an organisation can award itself, and we do not describe ourselves as having it until it is granted.
Follows registrationAn independent three-person board — chair, secretary and treasurer — is being recruited, with all three seats open and none yet filled, and Tharan is seeking its first municipal pilot partners. Both are open invitations rather than announcements: if you are the right person for either, the conversation starts the same way everything here does — by writing to us.
We publish status, not target dates. Milestones appear here once they are real. The full detail behind every line above is on the governance page.
Step by earned step
Tharan starts local and practical. Our long-term direction is public and unchanged: to grow, step by earned step, into a trusted Dutch–Yemeni knowledge and dialogue institution — the place institutions turn to when they need to understand the Yemeni community in the Netherlands and, in time, the civil-society dimension of Dutch–Yemeni cooperation. We claim each role only after we have earned it.
Serve
Paid briefings, dialogue and mentorship that institutions and residents value enough to repeat.
Document
Evidence anyone can check — starting with the Feitenkaart, then an annual report.
Convene
A trusted, neutral table where difficult conversations can actually hold.
Endure
A lasting knowledge institution — a role granted by others, never self-declared.
We claim each role only after we have earned it.
Two answers, published in advance
These questions will come, and they should. So we answer them here first, in writing, rather than improvising later.
Do you have political ambitions?
We build knowledge and trust locally first. If, in ten years, the Netherlands needs a serious interlocutor on Yemen and the Yemeni community, we intend to have earned that role.
We take no political positions, host no political platforms, and publish no political commentary — including in our Knowledge Hub. Our analysis is about community and participation, nothing else.
Who do you represent?
We interpret; we do not claim to represent. Our advisory network deliberately spans different professional and regional backgrounds within the community.
One community does not have one voice, and anyone who tells you otherwise is worth a follow-up question. What we offer is informed interpretation, openly sourced and open to correction.
Want the full picture?
Our governance, funding rules and board structure are published in full — including the things most organisations leave out.