Ekisande Belgium vzw

 

Ekisande is a non-profit organization that supports the local community in Bwera, Uganda near the Congolese border.

Through education, vocational training and health care we want to have a lasting effect on the Bwera community.

The vision of Ekisande Belgium vzw:
-Enhance involvement of everybody by close and personal contacts
-Traceable, verifiable and result-driven expenditure of donated funding
-Results by well-considered and well-founded projects
-Fun in fundraising

Sustainable development goals:

Ekisande Belgium vzw on the following SDGs:

• zero hunger
• good health and well-being
• quality eduction
• gender equality
• clean water and sanitation
• affordable and clean energy
• decent work and economic growth

Ekisande Belgium vzw is a humanist association. This means that we exist to improve the lives of people with fewer opportunities through improved education and health care. We believe that this, together with personal contacts all over the world, offers more opportunities for a better life and more mutual understanding. We also believe in the freedom of thought and action of our partners, according to their own moral standards, and we are well aware that these standards can be far from what we consider morally right or ethically acceptable.
However, we also believe that our moral values, those that we generally subscribe to in Belgium and Europe, should be respected in order to achieve greater mutual understanding.
That is why we want to state unequivocally and clearly: any association that approves or promotes that fellow people are sought out, labelled, chased, tortured or killed, based on specific personal characteristics, cannot count on the support of Ekisande Belgium vzw. There are few things as unshakable for European people and institutions (cities & municipalities, national and international governments, judges and civil servants) as this principle.

Together with the local Bishop, Father Tom, we have made excellent progress, but our work is not done.

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I am a down-to-earth person. I live in the reality of life. I give my best to serve another person.

Father tom

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A bit of history:

In 2018, 4 friends started a non-profit organization, Ekisande, to support a school in Uganda. While the non-profit organization is new, we have been involved in the project since 2014.

It all started when Dirk, one of the Ekisande founders, was in Uganda to build a university radio station at Mountains of the Moon University, partly funded by Thomas More University of Applied Sciences. He met Bishop Thomas Kiiza PhD, one of the local coordinators of the inter-university project with several Belgian universities.

Father Tom, as the bishop is often called, also helps the people of Bwera, a small village in Uganda. It started with schooling for orphans and deprived children in his church, later Father Tom added a football club, a health care centre and a vocational training centre for young people. .

We decided to gather funding and other support to help Father Tom grow his program.

What we’ve done so far

Since 2014 we gathered over €40,000 in funding and used that to buy land and improve the infrastructure:

• two-classroom building for a primary school
• toilets for boys and girls
• a new campus called Virgo Maria for the kindergarten and primary schools.
• three-classroom building at Virgo Maria
• a 3-classroom building and a 4-classroom building are constructed, one of which is sponsored by Canadians.
• healthcare centre, called Mama Sabina
• Water supply for both locations
• Expansion of the plot around Mama Sabina
  

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Three buildings are being built on the Virgo Maria Campus, for a total of 10 class rooms (August 2019). We also provide food for 400 students and teachers.

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These beautiful videos were made by Katya Suykens of Medialab of AP University of Applied Sciences and Arts:

Most of the work & material is sourced locally to improve ownership and increase the positive effect Ekisande has on the Bwera community.

You can find our sites on Google Maps:
• Virgo Maria: 0.019957, 29.729825
• Mama Sabina: 0.014917, 29.730444

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Monthly donations

Under the motto: every little bit helps, we are always looking for regular monthly sponsors. €5 or €10 per month is enough to make a difference and to write this on your tax return.
Even with a small contribution of €5 per month, you can already pay 2.5 days’ wage from a teacher

€30 / per month two cooks	€30 / per month one grounds keeper	€40 / per month one nurse
€60 / per month one teachers	€80 / per month one head teacher	€150 / per month lunch for 300 pupils

Top products

We regularly sell good products for a good price. You probably feel like a delicious wine for the summer or champagne for the Christmas Holidays, you are a big fan of hot sauce, you want to surprise your employees with an apero box full of goodies or you want an authentic bag, made in Uganda.
Pass your name and we will keep you informed of these promotions.

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Single donations

Donations for infrastructure: an average 3-unit school building costs €15,000

• Material
We try to limit this as much as possible and source our material locally.
2 exceptions:
    – Technical infrastructure
    – Football jerseys

• Support on site: we are open for any collaboration on site, this will be explored & discussed on a case by case basis.

So what are you waiting for?
Give in to your inner philanthropist or compensate for your other shady activities by supporting a nurse in Uganda for 40€/month.
It will set you back an acceptable 20€/month after you tax deduction. 
Besides the sense of enormous well-being, you will get a conversation starter to get you through boring receptions.

Gifts are also possible throug the online donation page of the King Baudouin Foundation:
https://donate.kbs-frb.be/actions/PA-EkiEkisande-Belgium

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Schools, companies, organisations and private sponsors can pay directly to our account: BE33 0689 1089 0146

Our sponsors:

Our wall of fame is impressive. But there is always room for more support.

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With recognition and support from:

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• Jan Calliauw
  Jan is into de-risking development projects, cooking hot sauce and gathering funding. He is a Robin Hood from Aldi.

• Greet Dufraing
  Greet coordinates the Running for Uganda actions. She takes care of all official documents, legal matters and governmental support.

• Ijou El Kaimoche
  Ijou is specialist public relations. Our eyes on the world.

• Dirk Van Merode
  As Dirk, one of Ekisande’s founding members, manages a EU-funded project in Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia the next 3 years, he will be on site every now and then at no cost for the Ekisande organization.

• Father Tom
  Father Tom is the right person to manage this project on site. As a bishop he is respected by parents, local government and other organizations.
  We at Ekisande like him because he is an open thinker who believes in gender equality and a pragmatic approach to safe sex and aids.
  In the years we have been doing our combined efforts, Father Tom proved to be a hard-working, honest and intelligent leader. He has clear goals on how to improve all the different initiatives, and has the right people at the right place to get the work done.
  
  

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