Pontypridd Holds Uganda Partnership Conference
January 21, 2009
‘PONT’, an organisation which links Pontypridd with Mbale, a town in Uganda held its conference at the University of Glamorgan this week, 21st January.
The Partnership Overseas Networking Trust (PONT) was set up in 2000 and aspires to link as many professionals and organisations in Pontypridd with their counterparts in Mbale.
Assembly Ministers Jane Hutt and Jane Davidson attended the event and took the opportunity to emphasise the importance of PONT’s work.
The purpose of PONT is to build direct personal relationships between interested individuals and organisations with intention of increasing the capacity and governance of individuals and organisations in Mbale.
The event at the University also saw the launch of a scheme which will allow University employees the opportunity to donate money to PONT through their salaries.
The Mbale region has 760,000 inhabitants and covers 2466 square kilometres; it is roughly the same size as the Rhondda Cynon Taf area.
Dr Jim Richardson, Head of Division of Family Care at the University of Glamorgan is one of the conference organisers. He said, “The PONT team believe the Ugandans have much to teach us about family and community values along with a rich cultural heritage, so the partnership is very much a two way link. This conference was a significant milestone with the introduction of pay roll giving for University staff.”
To date over 50 visits have been made by teams from Pontypridd in 6 groups, and 23 people have visited Pontypridd from Mbale.
The PONT team set out to identify a town in a third world country where English was widely spoken, it was relatively safe to travel, and where we would be welcomed by both government and non-governmental sectors. In 2002 the first visit was made to Mbale, where we felt we had found exactly what we were looking for. Mbale town is of a similar size to Pontypridd, but serves a region of 760.000 people, most of who live in poor rural villages.
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