PARTNERSHIPS

NORWEGAIN BAND FEDERATION (http://www.musikkorps.no)
Our main partnership is with the Norwegian Band Federation (NMF). In Norway there are 4 million people and 1800 bands and 1 in 3 Norwegians play an instrument. It was a natural affiliation as their national government policy affirms the FBF stance that music is a formidable development tool.

The NMF is over 90 years old and is fully supported by the Norwegian Government. They support bands all over Norway and provide national events and services to all the bands. They have extensive knowledge on the activity and our request to them was for skills. They jumped at the opportunity and together we applied to the government organisation FK Norway for support for an exchange programme and since 2000 that has been in place. Annually we have 4 Norwegian teachers stationed with the FBF teaching and training and 4 FBF members study at a music school in Norway for that same period but also teach African music and dance to schools in Norway. To date, 27 FBF members have studied and worked for one year in Norway, and 40 Norwegians have spent a year teaching in the FBF.

VLAMO (http://www.vlamo.be) is the Flemish Government organisation responsible for all amateur music in Flanders, Belgium. This relationship is only in its second year and also looks to skills development – they will cover the disciplines the Norwegian programme does not e.g. dance design, choreography and marching percussion.

USA PIONEER DRUM CORPS (http://www.pioneer-corps.org) has hosted 4 of our members annually during the northern summer where they join the band and work with them for that period. This has been a hugely successful collaboration and our members come back with a life experience behind them and their skills vastly enhanced. The Oppenheimer family provide the free air miles for the travel for this programme.

COLOR GUARD NEDERLAND (http://www.cgn.nl) supports and manages a Dutch Website for the FBF (http://www.fieldband.nl) and also collects equipment donations for the FBF.

KPMG has been the pro-bono auditors of the FBF for 11 years.

GROWTHPOINT: (http://www.growthpoint.co.za) provides the FBF with 216 square meters of office space at no cost.
 
OGILVY (Durban) (http://www.ogilvy.co.za) has been supporting the FBF pro-bono for three years and has made a huge impact by providing us with an Annual Report and all printing required, thus slowly building the FBF brand. Something we would never otherwise have been able to do. They are presently reviewing all material and we are busy designing a marketing plan and finding ways to implement a realistic programme to the benefit of our supporters.

PG GROUP (http://www.pggroup.co.za)  supplies all the computer licenses and stationary at no cost to the Foundation.

TURNAROUND GROUP (http://www.turnaround.co.za) provides a consultancy service at cost, in regards to the FBF in matters such as restructuring, impact and research and development.

STEFANUTI STOCKS (http://www.stefanutti.co.za ) provides their board room at no cost for our board meetings and most importantly their Financial Director also acts as the Financial Director of the FBF, pro-bono. This has really assisted the FBF in making sure that we have all the required controls in place.

ABBOT LABORATORIES (http://www.abbot.com) provides all our HIV blood test kits for free.