At the time of Wednesday’s weekly UK-Nigeria online meeting, John Dada was busy attending a partners’ meeting of the Network for Water and Sanitation in Kaduna, Nigeria. But he didn’t let a small matter like that stop him contributing to the meeting via email!
As usual, a wide and varied list of topics was discussed, ranging from the treatment of Sickle Cell patients to the wonders of the night sky in Kaduna.
Let me begin with an update on the subject of Sickle Cell and the efforts being made to combat this terrible disease.
John emailed to explain that the Stem cell transplantation which is to be offered to a few Nigerian children by an Italian hospital will, understandably, be a long process. Fantsuam Foundation have so far compiled a list of children who have suitable sibling donors, and this has been forwarded to the Sickle Cell Foundation of Nigeria in Lagos, where the final decisions will be taken as to which fortunate few children will receive treatment. During the meeting we heard that John had been inundated with calls from desperate parents who had somehow obtained his number in the hope that their children might be selected.
Continuing with the subject of Sickle Cell, there was exciting news about the new diagnostic laboratory. John informed us that Fantsuam Foundation has started recruiting for scientists, assistants, nurses and health assistants to staff this facility. The proposed start date is May 1st.
The conversation then moved to the subject of solar chargers. FF gave feedback that the charging systems with which they were experimenting could sadly not be used with the 6V motor cycle batteries which had been recommended. Kelechi was suggesting a modification that will reduce the battery voltage, but John commented that this will make things less user-friendly for their target market. He made it clear that a ‘Plug and Play’ solar charger represents the best hope of selling in these markets. FF are keen to promote a solar alternative instead of the millions of diesel generators currently imported to Nigeria from China. But as John said: “We must have an alternative that is user-friendly even as it helps the environment.”
Knowledge Resource Centre: Ladi is looking at options for KRC. The problem she finds is that her fellow Nigerians are not so keen to read books - at FF they are more used to using the internet! Certainly from my recent observations it seems that smartphones seem to be increasingly the preferred method with which to access information - if, of course, you are able to afford them.
Frances, who has just returned to the UK from a visit to FF told us that she is due to have a skype conversation with John Iruga, a senior trainer at the Academy, as they were both too busy to catch up whilst she was physically at FF! ( While in Nigeria, Frances sent Dadamac UK various project updates which were blogged )
Frances, a regular visitor to FF, said that she was surprised to see the pace at which FF had increased since her previous visit. The UK, like Frances, were surprised by this as we know from our weekly contact and Pam’s previous visits how busy FF already is. Frances also reminded us that at FF you can so more stars because of less light pollution. This fact was noted also by Pam who has previously blogged about this.
In addition to the above:
- The issue of the lack of women trainers was briefly raised during the meeting.
- Dadamac UK thanked Chollom and Kelechi for their Tweets this week - #dadamac
- FF are in discussion with ICAP, who fund the HIV services as both parties are looking to revive the childrens’ club and integrate the children affected by HIV with other children.
- Attachab - Rubens has been away for a 2nd week because he was doing some concerts in Abuja. He plans to return to Attachab this week
- Peoples Uni - FF have a growing number of young graduates working as staff or volunteers and a few of them have registered with the Peoples-Uni.