About Us

Words from the AFPF's first mission statement remind us of our

Co-Founders

Silvana Veltkamp's intent.

It said,

"Our mission is to serve the expression of partnership which bonds all peoples of the world."

Founded in 1981, we are a community serving the creative and philanthropic spirit via our partnership with URDT. All our work– in the U.S. and Uganda – is based on learning and teaching about the creative, life-building process.

Since 1987, URDT has been teaching people in rural Uganda how to hold the structural tension between vision and current reality, which Fritz explains is essential to the life-building process.

The dramatically visible development in rural communities that systematically use structural tension provides great proof of concept for Fritz’s work.

Thank you, Robert - and Silvana Veltkamp, URDT Co-founders, who introduced your work to the other URDT Co-founders, Mwalimu Musheshe and Ephrem Rutaboba over three decades ago.

For years we have used internet calling to stay in touch with our colleagues in Uganda. Now, Robert Fritz, Patty Seybold, and Martha Dolben are delighted by how effective video platforms have become in supporting AFPF's work in the USA and abroad. The AFPF Board can stay in close touch with folks in Kagadi, Uganda and that has brought AFPF closer together both in spirit and in practice.

Robert (www.robertfritz.com) meets regularly with URDT department heads. He works with the team on their strategic and organizational planning process and the implementation of their plans.

Patty (in our lead photo with Mwalimu Musheshe) is a Council Member of African Rural University. She helped compile and edit the URDT Girls School Book, It Takes a Child to Raise a Village. She has visited URDT 12 times and her husband Tom Hagan 3 times. Each time, she is more impressed by the major initiatives that have been completed in the surrounding rural communities thanks to URDT and ARU. Here is a link to some articles she has written about this.

To see a glimpse of life at URDT, please watch this trailer for "The Uganda Project" - a film by Reint Bakema and Robert Fritz: https://vimeo.com/287501821

AFPF is comprised of our:

BOARD – a small committed, volunteer board that meets bi-yearly with the URDT Board’s Executive Committee. At least one AFPF Board member visits URDT annually when possible.
STAFF – Executive Director and consulting professionals, volunteer or paid as needed.
VOLUNTEERS – from our North American community, occasionally hosting visitors from URDT.
COMMUNICATIONS, PROGRAMS & GATHERINGS with FRIENDS AND DONORS – We are an intimate community (under 250 families and individuals) sustaining our commitment to long-term systems change. Many donors have given consecutively for more than seven years, and some have supported AFPF since its start in 1981. Also, many of us have visited URDT, with gratitude for their hospitality and all we have learned there.

Ways to Give