The founders of the Friends Association
Klaus Gresser (*1956), – 1st Chairman
I am married and father of three grown-up children. I have lived with my family in Engen/Hegau since 1997. I have been a pensioner since Sept. 2019. Before that, I was a teacher at primary and secondary schools for 35 years. Of these, I spent six years as and then 14 years as head-master at a primary school in Singen/Htwl./Germany
Ricarda Simon (*1958), – 2nd Chairperson lives in Ulm/Germany. She is a retired secondary school teacher and is now involved as an elected chairperson in her home parish “Zum Guten Hirten” in Ulm-Böfingen. In addition to her work in the parish and in the SHAK Junior School supporters’ association, she is also involved in Father Bloching’s Zambia school project in Zambia.
Back story – How did a friends association come to be founded and how does it work?
I was looking for a meaningful job during my retirement and registered with the SES at the beginning of 2019
(Senior Expert Service) in Bonn. This organization, by the federal government and business associations
supports, looks for retirees who then acquired their professional life to be able to pass on knowledge and experience to institutions and people all over the world.
In September 2019, I received an inquiry from the SES if I would be willing to join a school in Uganda, the SHAK Junior School for support. I traveled in early February 2020 as an SES expert to Bulabakulu, Uganda, – a gathering from cottages in the very rural Zirobwe district, a two hour drive north of the capital Kampala. It was my job on the one hand to familiarise the teachers with modern teaching methods and on the other hand to show the school, the teaching team and the school management how they can develop the school under the given circumstances.
After the first two weeks, it quickly became clear to me that the task would not be completed with a one-off, comparatively short stay of four weeks. The school, the entire team on site, needs longer-term, if not permanent, support and accompaniment. During the last days in Uganda, I thought about how I could support the school community of SHAK Junior School in the long term. For the first time, the idea of founding a support association came up. In many discussions, mostly in the evenings, I further developed the basic idea of our friends association together with the school director Saad Luyinda.
The friends association should combine the greatest possible support for the school with the greatest transparency and cost efficiency under one roof.
In concrete terms: The donor decides from a “we need list” of the school what he wants to donate for – e.g. for a teacher’s desk. The donor transfers the amount on the list to the Friends of the School account. The friends send the money to Uganda to the school’s account. In our example, the school director buys the desk and uploads a picture of the desk as proof for the donor, which is then published on the homepage of the friends association.
Back in Germany, together with Mrs. Ricarda Simon from Ulm-Böfingen, the freinds association was founded as a registered association and is recognised as a non-profit organisation by the Singen/Germany tax office in a letter dated 25 November 2020.
The association does not incur any administrative costs. All costs incurred, such as web hosting, printing of flyers, transfer fees from the financial service providers to Uganda, etc., are borne by the two chairpersons.
