Our Team

Shane Rufer Committee member	Rachel Taylor Committee  member	Catherine Sims Committee member

Bonjour à tous!

The Alliance Française, Palmerston North, is a local registered charity that relies primarily on grants, donations, the membership, and of course fees that you, the locals, contribute. We are a Palmerston North based charitable organisation, reaching out to the wider Manawatu/Wanganui.  Understanding from this perspective, our function is not the top-down dissemination of French language from the Parisian metropolis to the far corners of the globe, but rather a bottom-up, grass roots process of community engagement. We are local people adding value, diversity and cohesion to our own community. French classes are offered 6 days a week, by French teachers, for both children and adults alike to suit everyone’s category.

Once a member of Alliance Française, you will find there is a huge number of events, etc, that you may join to suit you.

I will provide a little bit of my personal history to demonstrate more precisely what we are about. I personally became interested in the French culture when our youngest son (while at High School) won a trip to New Caledonia through the Alliance Française. He was billeted out, and we had a reciprocal billet staying with us for two weeks. I have since, with my husband, been to both France and New Caledonia twice.  I have come to love the French culture, language and food, and what a beautiful country France is.

It is a real privilege to be part of the ‘working team’, i.e. President, and hopefully helping to encourage more people to become aware of the different cultures in our area, helping to organise events within the city and surrounding boundaries, and also become aware of France and the French culture. By becoming a member, one is also able to make new friends/acquaintances within our area.   

Our organisation is made up of locals drawn from an immense variety of backgrounds and locations, cultures and traditions growing exponentially and being a large part of our local community.

Join us at AF! Rejoignez-nous à l'AF!