Remembering the founder of palle moeller foundation.
Written by walusimbi ABDALLAH on January 3, 2022
MR. Palle moeller is the founder Palle Moeller Foundation (PMF) a Charity Organisation focused on promoting Education, Social Welfare, Sports, Medical and working with communities in Uganda to promote excellence and human dignity. It is also the Corporate Social Responsibility department for General machinery Limited (GMACH) Group of Companies. Palle Moeller Foundation started in 1985 and is registered in Uganda as a non-profit charity organization under the NGO Registration Board. PMF is named after its Founder, Mr. Palle Moeller, who decided to put aside profits and assist of disadvantaged people in the Ugandan community.
Palle Moeller is celebrated as a God father to many people me inclusive,
“When I finished my O’level in 2012, I approached Mr Kibuuka John Samuel who introduced me to the Palle Moeller foundation because of his parental heart. The foundation sponsored my Advanced level education and I merged to be among best students in school. Am also celebrated by journalists as the best breakthrough sports TV and Radio presenter in Uganda. I have received a number of nomination that have made me act as inspiration to many young journalists all because of Palle Moeller foundation ”
After all, he helped (and continued to help) many people enjoyed his money – in his generosity which he institutionalised through the Palle Moeller Foundation. Hundreds of students continue to benefit from the Foundation’s sponsorship, which also does a lot of developmental work in different fields, with the overall objective of helping fight poverty especially in rural areas.
In 2019 October, people of different nationalities from all walks of life converged at a quiet homestead at Kiwenda village in Wakiso District to bid farewell to Mr. Palle Moeller. They included cabinet ministers, diplomats, farmers, clergymen, a four-star general and Kampala business moguls. These diverse mourners had one thing in common, they had all come for Palle Moeller’s burial strictly in their personal capacities. For they had personally related with hi whom the wider public hardly knew.
Many who related closely with Palle like to tell the story of his arrival in Uganda in 1959, barely out of his teens and driving a Volkswagen from Denmark with a friend on the way to South Africa to look for opportunities.
The car broke down. The broke lads could not afford to fix the broken car and so looked for jobs around to raise some money. Palle became a road construction worker around Masaka. Exactly 60 years since he first arrived in Uganda, Palle breathed his last and was laid to rest at Kiwenda, the incomplete trip to South Africa long abandoned.
But his wife and partner of 37 years, Dorothy Namagga Moeller, discloses that this is one of the stories Palle was no longer keen on telling, for it evoked memories of his friends who were later brutally killed in the ensuing years of insecurity. Already a Ugandan to all intents and purposes, the Danish native arranged for their decent interment in Uganda, where he too now rests forever. Moeller thus shared the pains, joys and opportunities of being Ugandan.
Palle moeller was a very hardworking and humble. Both descriptions have a degree of contradiction but not surprisingly. The humility and hard work started in the dock yards of a Danish port where the young Moeller quickly decided that he had learnt enough about international trade and headed to Africa to make his fortune. In Uganda where he ended up by accident and broke, he bought the broke company that first employed him as a road worker within four years, and proceeded to expand his business investments, the best known probably being Victoria Motors.
Mr. Palle Moeller also engaged heavily in philanthropic work to give young talented Ugandans a chance to achieve their dreams through scholarships. He has been sponsoring diverse community economic interventions which range from improved fishing practices to perfecting the manufacturing of sanitisers. The latter had sponsored posthumously through his foundation – for the covid-19 pandemic that popularised sanitisers came a couple of months after Palle had gone.
He Married a Muganda wife Ms Dorothy Namagga Moeller also the current director palle Moeller foundation with miss Lilly Hellene Moeller. Ms Dorothy Moeller helped him so much And palle loved her people. The funny bit about language; though Palle did not speak Luganda, in a way he knew the language better than most Baganda. They could hold perfect conversations while some members of the household spoke in Luganda and him in English. On occasions, Namagga gave instructions to workers in Luganda and he would later correct her about some inaccuracy in detail that she had (mis) communicated in her mother tongue.
Palle Moeller liked Ugandan food as long as it had some beans accompanying it. Possibly one of the reasons he loved his mother-in-law so much, for Namagga’s mother had numerous ways of preparing beans. And Palle visited her in Kiwenda every week, even though the road was very bad most of the years.
For Palle Moeller believed and often said, that it is easier to earn a decent income engaging in agriculture in Uganda’s countryside than selling the land and migrating to the urban centre’s. May the soul of Mr. Palle Moeller continue to rest in peace.
The Palle moeller Foundation seeks to alleviate human suffering while promoting life as a gift and heritage of Ugandan communities.
STORY DONE BY ABDALLAH WALUSIMBI MUNAKABANGA.
