I’ve been struck by the high quality of collaboration demonstrated in the regular UK-Nigeria meetings, so thought I’d say a few words about this in this week’s blog.
I’m talking not just about the obvious collaboration of these weekly online meetings between the UK and Nigerian teams - but also the more subtle and equally important collaboration between Pam and her network.
Dadamac's relationship with Marcus Simmons of Ecoshelter illustrates this point perfectly. In brief, Pam introduced Marcus to John Dada, which in turn saw Marcus visit Fantsuam last year. Once there, among other achievements, he successfully built an ecodome.
Marcus has just returned from another such visit and has already begun briefing Pam and myself about the latest news and developments. Equally importantly, he has relayed to us what John and his team see as their priorities. Pam, Marcus and myself now plan to build on this with a weekly Tuesday phone call. Here we will be able to discuss how to move forward the various projects we are supporting at Fantsuam and in Nigeria. John's input via emails will be fed into these discussions. The outcome of these Tuesday calls will be reported in the regular Wednesday team meetings, where additional facts can be shared and points clarified.
We are also delighted to be collaborating further with Cicely, a VSO Development officer for micro, small and medium enterprises at Fantsuam Foundation. Cicely not only takes great photos but is a talented and passionate blogger and we are very pleased that we can support her work by offering her the structures - through our page on bmycharity - to encourage donations and highlight further the desperate need for a vehicle for Fantsuam.
Pam and I are hoping to meet Cicely face to face for the first time during her brief return to the UK. The Fantsuam team have also agreed to ensure that photos are put on a CD in readiness for Cicely to bring to the UK.
In fact ,seeing the level of collaboration I witness each week I realised that this blog only scratches the surface of the subject. It is clear to me that collaboration is at the heart of all the work that Dadamac, Fantsuam and our partners do.