The Seven Fountains Experience
THE SEVEN FOUNTAINS is the Spirituality Center of the Society of Jesus in Thailand. It offers personally directed retreats, preached group retreats, seminars on different topics of spiritual life, and spiritual direction both in Thai and in English.
The Challenge
Before 2006, the center already has a website which sits on a Thai community portal, at http://www.carefor.org. The information structure was simple: “Facilities”, “Activities”, “Location”, “Booking”, and “Offerings” were all on the same “Seven Fountains” page. Navigation to each section was via HTML anchor links. Only “Program 2005″ was on a separate page.
However, the information on the site was static, often outdated and difficult to update. The photos on the site also did not reflect the character of the place.
The Solution
A free blog was created on WordPress.com, the Regulus theme activated and the Bloom header image (with images of trees and a butterfly) selected. A new Navigation Structure was also deployed:
- Home tab (in English and Thai) - which contains news and retreat programs for each year
- About tab (in English and Thai) - which contains information formerly in Facilities, Activities, Booking and Offerings
- Contact tab (in English and Thai) - which contains location instructions and staff contact information.
Almost all the content and graphics from the old website were uploaded into the new site. All these tasks only took half a day to complete. 
The Photo Gallery was a later addition. Many photos were taken at The Seven Fountains over the next two days. A Photos tab was subsequently added to link to a photo gallery on Flickr to show the many faces of the retreat centre, in particular to re-capture The Seven Fountains experience — the serenity of the place, the beautiful bamboo groves, the many charming nooks and cranies in the gardens, the reflective and “listening” mood, and so on.
The Results
A beautiful blog that conveys online the Seven Fountains experience. It can also be updated easily by anyone with little computer know-how. The number of email and online queries has also increased.
