Socially vulnerable families will soon be able to count on the support of a student ‘buddy’ thanks to the Buddy aan de wieg project to be launched in December by the Huis van het Kind in Asse and the Erasmus School of Higher Education in Brussels.

Based in Asse, Sandra Van Goethem and Amy Maertens are running a wholesale business supplying hairdressing products, beauty products and nail care supplies.

Although the chances of him succeeding in the world of football seemed to be very slim indeed, Geert De Vlieger ended up playing in goal for Anderlecht and the national team. ‘When I was a kid I used to play for an unexceptional third provincial league team. Just for the fun of it.'

Ecopower is the focus this month of our Strength of cooperatives series. This cooperative society is set to build four wind turbines in Asse this coming autumn, with the overall capacity to generate environmentally sound electricity to cater for the power requirements of 6.000 households.

An old white house with a tiny yard and a tiny shed can be seen to the right of the church on Mollem village square. This old cafe is now acknowledged as being something of an institution. Unesco should have it listed as a world heritage site.

Bursting with conviction, Rebekka and Epiphany Vanderhaeghen were making their own way in life when they suddenly lost their mother. The fashion designer Kaat Tilley died of a pneumococcal infection without any warning in the summer of 2012.

As part of our nostalgic harking back to the local cinemas halls of yesteryear in the Rand we recently paid a visit to Asse. As a child Lilian Goossens' world seemed to be populated by highly colourful posters and row after row of people shuffling into the cinema.

The fastest marathon runner in the country lives in Asse. A great place for running, according to Lander Van Droogenbroeck (29).