‘Helping one person can create a ripple of change’
They didn’t study at Leiden University, but Patrice Gerlach and Ellen Reuter have still chosen to leave a legacy to the LUF. A journey through Cambodia made them realise just how much of an impact education can have on the well-being of an entire family.
Born and bred in The Hague, Patrice Gerlach and Ellen Reuter have lived in Australia for over 20 years, but have always maintained strong ties with Leiden. It’s the city where Reuter built her career and where the couple exchanged their vows. ‘I’ve always loved Leiden’, says Reuter, ‘and I still do.’
Despite this, both felt the urge to emigrate. ‘Ever since my first visit to Australia in the 1980s, I knew I wanted to live there’, says Reuter. Gerlach adds, ‘I had originally set my sights on New Zealand, but after travelling to Australia with Ellen, I too fell in love with that beautiful country. The emigration process was quite a bureaucratic ordeal, but we got through it in the end!’
A journey through Cambodia 12 years ago made them more aware of their privilege. While visiting Angkor Wat, a 12th-century temple complex slowly being reclaimed by the jungle, they got talking to Xai*.
‘He didn’t speak much English, but with the help of a translation app, we managed to understand each other’, says Gerlach. ‘He told us about his life there, about the poverty. We asked what his biggest dream was. “To go to university”, he said. That same evening, we decided to cancel the other trips we’d planned and invest that money in his education instead. Since then, he has completed his studies, his children speak better English than he does and his family has a proper home, enough food and access to medicine. Even the children of his siblings are now attending school. Helping just one person can create a ripple of positive change.’
The experience in Cambodia inspired Gerlach and Reuter to include the LUF in their will. ‘When people hear this, they often ask, “But what about your family?”’ says Reuter. ‘But we don’t have children, and our relatives are perfectly capable of supporting themselves.’
‘And that’s largely thanks to education’, Gerlach adds. ‘I traced my family tree and discovered that for generations, my family had access to education, allowing them to move up in the world. You shouldn’t underestimate the impact of education.’
With their legacy, the couple hopes to fund academic research by researchers from the Faculties of Archaeology, Humanities (History), and Governance and Global Affairs (Sociology). Living in Australia was not an obstacle. ‘The adviser from the LUF supported us really well’, says Reuter, ‘and we also made sure to get legal advice here too. So it doesn’t matter where you live – you can still leave a legacy to the university!’
*To protect his privacy, the name of Xai has been changed.
The LUF can help you explore how you might support education or research, and can provide more information about the possibility of leaving a legacy to science. If you would you like to learn more or discuss the options, please contact Liesbeth van Biezen at e.van.biezen@luf.leidenuniv.nl or 071 527 6094.
This article previously appeared in the LUF magazine.