Wednesday's weekly UK-Nigeria online meeting proved markedly different from many of our recent conferences - as we were finally able to follow our stated agenda!
For all the right reasons, the majority of our latest sessions have been diverted off course as our friends at Fantsuam Foundation announced a string of new initiatives and successes. Please See recent blogs
All of that has been extremely welcome, of course, and we look forward to many more developments. But on this occasion we were able to complete our affairs in a timely and efficient manner with a return to what might be seen as "business as usual".
Kelechi, head of Fantsuam Academy, acted as our Chair until John, who had a number of deadlines to meet, was able to join us. During the process, the team brought each other up to speed about the various special interest groups. Namely:
- Appropriate Power: There was a reminder that a meeting was due the following day to the continue our discussion on the "sawdust" (or bio-mass) stove. (see First Thursday Posterous)
- Open Source: Dadamac Foundation announced that it is pleased to help sponsor a specialist from Uganda to visit Fantsuam Foundation to work with Zittnett.
- Social Media: - Continues to focus on Twitter
- Sickle Cell Disease: -The UK thanked Fantsuam for the great Photos of the April Sickle Cell Support group now on Flickr
- Blind/Visually impaired: No further mention about the JAWS story, but John launched a search to check if there is funding available for organisations who want to adapt their present surroundings to become more user-friendly for people with disabilities.
A proportion of the hourly online meeting was taken up by the UK team explaining how Dadamac.net is to undergo what in layman's terms amounts to an "upgrade" (CCK). In fact the site has just has celebrated its first anniversary . . . I can feel a future blog forming!
John informed the UK that VSO has identified a possible permaculture adviser for Attachab. This is really exciting news for the team. As John summed up, it is our hope that Attachab becomes
"a model of locally sustainable community, where people can come and learn how it works in practice".