Key Partnerships

The University of Fondwa in Haiti (UNIF) and uFondwa USA are grateful for the support and collaboration of many partners. Your technical, financial, governance, and logistical support have been instrumental in helping both institutions realize our mission to transform rural Haiti through higher education. Mèsi anpil!

Universidad Estadual de Ponta-Grosa of Brazil works with UNIF in many ways — research, scholarships, curriculum development, and teaching. The new Rector of UNIF (Ludsonde Lafontant) is a graduate of the Masters program at UEPG, and was key in forging this important partnership. Currently, there are two active projects with UEPG.

  • UNIF/UEPG current seek funding for a project they conceived collaboratively, called “A Sustainable School Feeding Project.”
  • UNIF/UEPG are collaborating on a Sweet Potato research project.

virginia-tech

Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) faculty from the Departments of Hospitality and Management and Political Science serve on uFondwa-USA’s Board of Directors. In 2013, uFondwa and Virginia Tech signed a Memorandum of Understanding, creating a framework for research and academic exchanges between faculty and students.

www.vt.edu

bsf-logo

The Brown Sisters Foundation of St. Louis Missouri established a capacity building grant for uFondwa-USA in December 2013. With this grant, uFondwa-USA will extend its capacity to promote awareness and support for UNIF in Haiti.

www.brownsisters.org

partners_in_progress_green_and_orange_3_8xtw_02oa

Western Pennsylvania-based Partners in Progress (PIP), which promotes and supports sustainable community development in rural Haiti, has been one of UNIF’s key partners since inception. PIP’s founding Executive Director, Dr. Richard Gosser, was among the members of the international planning committee that launched UNIF in 2004. PIP has continued to support UNIF’s growth with financial and technical assistance, including assistance in rebuilding UNIF’s temporary campus following the 2010 Earthquake.

PIP has also sponsored a UNIF student each year since 2006 with the “Servant Leader” scholarship, a full scholarship covering all expenses associated with the university.

www.piphaiti.org

AU-logo

American University (AU) in Washington, DC, is one of the founding members of the national Haiti Compact, an organization composed of universities dedicated to rebuilding and maintaining relationships with community partners in Haiti.

Beginning in 2012, faculty and students from American University (AU) visited Fondwa as part of student-led immersion trips (Alternative Spring Break). In 2014, AU students partner with UNIF faculty and students, and members of APF and Fonkoze, to explore the roles of women in Haiti’s redevelopment process.

www.american.edu/altbreak

logo-apf-trans

APF, with a mission to empower peasants in rural Haiti to use their own resources to help themselves, is intimately connected to UNIF. APF founded UNIF, and APF and UNIF engage in ongoing collaborative initiatives, such as Sevis Pou Oganizasyon Lokal yo (SOL) and the Secretariat National Congress of the Haitian Peasants (SEKONAPA). Together, both organizations strive to share successes and lessons learned with the other 564 rural communities of Haiti.

www.apfhaiti.org

logo_236x65

Haiti’s largest microfinance institution shares with UNIF a common founding vision and mission to alleviate poverty in rural Haiti. UNIF sends interns to work at Fonkoze branches.

www.fonkoze.org

One of the unique characteristics of the Raising Haiti undertakings has been the grassroots nature of the impulse and related processes. Far from the often-paternalistic approach taken by well-meaning NGOs, these ventures have blossomed from the ground up: undertakings by and for the very people whose lives are now being transformed. Raising Haiti Foundation, through its 3Legs program, sponsors 19 students through scholarships at to study at UNIF.

RaisingHaiti.org

 

So often in Haiti those who have the opportunity to be educated leave the country and never come back. But when you meet and talk with the students of UNIF, you see that these young people are different. They not only learn the skills of agronomy or veterinary medicine or project management, but they also develop a deep commitment to the sustainable development of their country. They are the leaders of tomorrow who will create a new Haiti.Anne Hastings, Manager, former Director of Fonkoze

UNIF and uFondwa-USA also wish to acknowledge and thank:

  • Benoît Maubrey / DIE AUDIO GRUPPE Germany, for logistical support of UNIF’s energy needs
  • BUST, Lafayette, LA
  • Daniel Bosse of Bayon Creative in Houston, Texas
  • Max Delices
  • Digicel Foundation in Haiti
  • Sister Barbara Ditomasso
  • Energizer Batteries
  • FOKAL
  • Franciscan Sisters, Montreal Canada
  • First United Methodist Church of Germantown, PA
  • Michael Haerting
  • Heart to Heart International, for assistance in rebuilding the uFondwa Campus following the 2010 Earthquake
  • Jimmy Hemphill
  • Uri Herscher, Skirball Communications
  • Jeff Kaufman of Floating World Pictures
  • LACA Foundation
  • Father Medard Laz
  • Community of San Lorenzo, Canada
  • Renate Schneider
  • Serving God Foundation
  • SG Foundation
  • Sisters of Charity, Leavenworth, Kansas, for their ongoing support
  • Staples, Inc., for technology support
  • University of Central Florida
  • University of Massachusetts, Amherst
  • Ministère de l’Éducation Supérieure de Cuba, for academic collaboration
  • Université de Guantanamo, Université de la Havane, for academic collaboration
  • Village Experience
  • Jeffrey Wright and Urban Ministries
  • Leigh Carter and Virtual Bourik
  • Our many wonderful and committed individual donors