Who Are we?
Our Mission
Our goal is simply to improve the health of rural people in the DR Congo.
Working in harmony with the people of the DR Congo and our valued partners, our mission is to transfer technologies that create sustainable access to clean drinking water, proper sanitation, and durable housing while minimizing the impact on the environment.
Vision:
We envision a future in which all people of the DR Congo have the ability to take charge of their own resources and live in a healthy and productive environment.
Who we serve:
We serve the remote poor rural communities most directly affected by the lack of resources in the DR Congo. The most important aspect of our work lays in engaging the respectful participation of a community. Schools and health clinics are respected, permanent community institutions. They have become our partners in engaging and fostering effective relationships with the local population.
What we do:
We are builders focusing on water, sanitation and hygiene needs. We bring technical expertise, skills and tools to the field and stay as long as needed to ensure that a project is effective, cost-efficient and sustainable.
Why us?
HTSCongo offers its uniquely exceptional on site project management capability. In addition to speaking the language, we are fully versed in local hiring, materials
procurement, security, banking, and other construction practices. We have the proven ability
to provide the training and technical expertise necessary to design, complete and manage construction
of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities.
Our Values and Guiding Principles:
Respect: The people we serve are our teachers and guides, as much as we are theirs. It is crucial that community members and elders are engaged in our work, as they enable us to acknowledge the cultural differences, even between villages within the country. We do this by listening to and developing respectful relationships with villagers.
Empowerment: We employ and train villagers
during the building of water and sanitation facilities, empowering them to become teams of trained
technicians capable of building and caring for their own systems in the future.
Integrity: HTSCongo conducts business in a way that is honest, transparent and ethical. HTSCongo strives to be a good steward of the resources bequeathed to it.
Collaboration: HTSCongo seeks to build strategic partnerships with the Local Governments, NGOs
(non-governmental organizations), SHGs (self-help groups), CBOs (community based organizations)
and other like minded national and international organizations by planning and implementing
appropriate interventions.
Meet Our Team
Except for our construction team in the DR Congo, HTSCongo is a volunteer organization dedicated to improve the health of the rural people of the DR Congo.
Leon Fontier
Founder and Executive Director
Mr. Fontier has an associate degree in tropical husbandry, and is retiring from a long career as the owner of Fontier Designs, inc, a metal working business. Mr. Fontier has extensive knowledge of business management, machine and technical operations, metal work, and light construction. He is studying the field of appropriate technologies and using his long career in machine operations to develop the HTSC program. His duties include supervising the day-to-day business and affairs of the organization. He works with the board to develop projects and funding for the organization.
Kevin Geoghan
President
Mr. Geoghan, M.B.A., Binghamton Univeristy, is a retired school business administrator responsible for the business operations and capital projects of a public school distirct. He also has 22 years of executive experinece in the not for profit sector, serving 15 years as an executive director of a successful not-profit, and 7 years as an organizational development and strategic planning consultant. His not-profit board experience spans 3 decades and includes trusteeship of a local community foundation. Paid advisory positions include grants review and analysis for the states of New York and New Jersey, and the United States Federal Government.
Lou Vogel
Vice President
Mr. Vogel has a BSME from Purdue University in 1980. He has worked as a solar energy designer and has designed numerous plumbing systems, including water sterilization and greywater systems, in addition to HVAC systems. He is accredited as a LEED designer for green buildings. He is the President of Taitem Engineering (Technology As If The Earth Matters), which provides energy consulting services to state and federal institutions. Mr. Vogel is also a musician, massage therapist and bicyclist. His technological expertise will assure that HTSC implements the most evironmentally stable technologies available.
Peter Voorheis
Treasurer
Mr. Voorheis has an M.A. in Folklore and Mythology from UCLA and a Ph.D. in Folklore and Russian Studies from Indiana University. After working in communications for a Defense Department contractor he became a folklorist with a regional arts council, organizing school programs, museum exhibits, and musical events featuring the traditional folk cultures of the Corning-Elmira New York region, while also taking on the bookkeeping for the organization. Since 2008 he has been Financial Services Coordinator for AspireHopeNY, which provides mental health services to individuals and families in an eleven-county region of Western New York.
Jacob Crusade
Social Media Director
Mr. Crusade is a Finger Lakes, NY, native who recently moved to New York City to pursue a career in the Tech Industry. After volunteering for HTSCongo since late 2019, Jacob recently accepted the board’s nomination to join as a official member. With a BA in Sociology with a Concentration in Human Services from SUNY New Paltz (class of 2015), Jacob has long been interested in both local and international humanitarian related initiatives. Jacob enjoys running, chess, cooking, traveling, and history.
Lee Haefele
Director
Mr. HaefeleLee is is the founder and CEO of Haefele Connect, a Telecommunications and Internet Service Provider.
Lee is a loyal supporter of all our activities
Rachel Warden
Communication Director
Ms. Warden contributes her talent as a communication specialist to HTSCongo.
Ruphin Bokaa
Democratic Republic of Congo Chief of Operation
Mr. Ruphin Bokaa graduated from the College of Ispeche in DR Congo with a degree in water, forest and environement.
Mr. Ruphin Bokaa is in charge of all our projects in the DR Congo.
Archana Prakash
Volunteer: Legal Counsel
Ms. Prakash has a Juris Doctorate from Columbia University, and a BA from Cornell University. She has worked in not-for-profit corporations as a staff attorney and currently is a Supervising Attorney at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. Ms. Prakash is a first generation immigrant of Indian decent. She has travelled extensively in developing nations, including her home country of India. She is now focused on using her legal education to assist in the developing world.
In 2010, HTSCongo founder Leon Fontier took his family on a trip to the DR Congo to show his children his country of birth. Leon was struck by the sight of the people’s extreme poverty. The country has great natural resources available and yet services are grossly inadequate and there is no opportunities for its people. He felt that with minimal financial commitment great change could be effected.
On his return to the USA, Leon dreamt of a grassroots effort that could transfer technologies and improve the health and well-being of the people of the DR Congo.
Leon began educating friends and family about the crisis he had witnessed. Within a year, six people gathered in Penn Yan, NY, determined to form a non-governmental organization that could bridge the ocean and give a hand-up.
In July, 2012, Habitat Technologies Solutions for the Congo became incorporated as a 501(c)(3) international non-profit humanitarian organization and Leon’s dream became a reality .