Despite the UK-Nigeria meeting being less than our usual hour, this didn’t affect the usual flow of quality information between the two countries.
John explained that he needed to leave shortly as Fantsuam Foundation were expecting a delegation from the French Embassy in Abuja. The UK were very pleased to hear this as they had been disappointed to learn previously (in the wake of the sectarian violence in April) the French Embassy had suspended their support for Attachab.
However, recently they called John to say they would like to now reactivate their commitment and so he was meeting with them this morning to decide priorities of the project.
The original agreement was to develop Attachab as a hands-on training permaculture venue.
Following the post-election violence John also hopes to ensure the project addresses helping those who lost properties in the mayhem, and to enable them to rebuild their food stores. Fantsuam have some experience in this area as demonstrated by their rhumbu project.
John has contacted someone who has trained at Songhai - a permaculture centre of excellence who will advise on this aspect of the project.
The Attachab project is of tremendous importance for us all for Fantsuam aims to replicate and what they know with others. For example, we know of community representatives in Kenya and Tanzania who are keen to improve their farming techniques and who are also willing to pass their knowledge and skillls on to help benefit their communities.
John also added : “Conservation Agriculture which Graham (Knight) discussed in the recent BioDesign newsletter was one of the techniques we plan to teach at Attachab.”
John was also able to tell us that he had three teams out on various assignments this morning: namely for the ESSPIN, PATH and HIBV/TB projects. We look forward to their feedback at next week’s meeting.
The photo above shows the ecodome and straw baler. Marcus Simmons demonstrated and supervised the building of this.