September | 2014 | Fontes FoundationFontes Foundation

10 Years Anniversary of Our First Project

by Michael Pletscher on 30/09/2014 No comments

Fontes Foundation is proud to announce that its first safe water system, installed in 2004 in Katunguru-Rubirizi, is still running, which is not self-evident in Africa. It has now supplied safe water for the community for over 10 years. This deserves a proper celebration!

We cordially invite you to join us on an unforgettable trip through Uganda, which will carry us from the pulsating capital city of Kampala to the breathtaking landscape of the Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda, combining visiting of Fontes projects and tourism activities.

We are inviting friends, colleagues, Lions and Rotary club members, donors and whoever might be interested. This trip will be a unique opportunity to learn about Africa, to learn to know Africa, to understand Africa and at the same time spot some of Africa’s precious wildlife.

Please follow this link to find the invitation and the program for our 10 years celebration trip.

A Personal Branding Session at the Potentiam Youth Centre

by Michael Pletscher on 26/09/2014 No comments

Last Friday the Potentiam Youth Development Centre was proud to have Mr. Larry Holm from the People Performance Group, a human resource consultancy, to speak at our “Personal Branding” session during the Personality Development class at the Potentiam Youth Development Centre.

Centre Manager Surea Namanda thanks Larry Holm for his inspiring lecture.

Talking about personal branding, Mr. Holm`s inspirational message to our students was that each of them should dare to set goals, and pursue them!

Single Mothers Programme is Increasingly Successful

by Michael Pletscher on 22/09/2014 No comments

The Single Mothers Programme is Fontes Foundation Uganda’s newest addition to the Potentiam Youth Development Centre. The Programme was started in June to address the challenges that single mothers in the Muyenga – Bukasa area face because of their parenting circumstances.

The Programme allows the women to learn at least one skill per month without leaving their child home.Thanks to the recently set-up children’s corner at the Youth Center premises, the women are able to bring their children with them as they take part in the learning activities.

The workshops are aimed at giving the young women a marketable skill from which they can learn to support their families. In addition, the program has the purpose of informing the young mothers of the various services and opportunities at Potentiam Youth Development Center to develop and be empowered.

The Fontes Team Heads to the Field to Follow Up on Some Projects

by Michael Pletscher on 16/09/2014 No comments

The Fontes Foundation field trip team has just come back from a trip following up the organisation’s water and education projects in Queen Elizabeth National Park. The main purpose of the trip was to conduct technical training for the water committees in our project villages with the help of our Field Assistant Pascal and our Technical Consultant Ibrahim. In addition, both our scholarship students as well as their parents got career guidance sessions from our Youth Programme Coordinator Apiyo about what the students can do with their secondary school education after graduation.

The Fontes Foundation team also visited Kashaka, south-west Uganda. The local water committee of the Fontes safe water scheme in Kashaka was proud to inform the team that the intake rack and the solar panels that were installed in May in collaboration with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) are working flawlessly and have led to a considerable reduction of the running costs of the scheme. The committee also managed to install an additional fence above the intake to protect it against unauthorized access as well as to reduce the danger for children playing next to the steep shore.

During the community meeting, it turned out that the community is very happy with the performance of the water committee and that communication between the two is good and based on mutual trust.

Fontes Foundation would like to use this opportunity to thank EWB again for the good collaboration regarding this project implementation and is looking forward towards future common undertakings

Fontes Foundation featured in the Norwegian Magazine Bistandsaktuelt

by fontes on 01/09/2014 No comments

Back in March Fontes Uganda hosted Tor Aksel (journalist) and Espen (photographer) from the well-known Norwegian magazine Bistandsaktuelt, which writes about development assistance and aid. Tor Aksel and Espen were working on a story about youth and unemployment in Uganda. After an introduction to our team at the head office on Nakasero Hill, Kampala, they joined us to visit our Potentiam Youth Centre in Bukasa.

The students were having their monthly Capacity Building Session with Annette Achieng from Ann Textiles (Kampala) about production and profiting from ecological, hand made arts & crafts made from Ugandan textile. Ann’s products are really impressive with beautiful patterns and they feel great as they are made from pure Ugandan cotton. It was fascinating and truly inspiring to hear about how she started her successful business.

The article was published in only few days ago. In the paper version, there is even a picture of Lucrezia Biteete (Fontes Foundation Advisor), as well as Jesca, a former student from the Potentiam Youth Centre. You can access the online version at this link (only in Norwegian).