Blog posts about fantsuamfoundation

Nearly four months after Kafanchan’s post-election violence, we were sad to learn from John Dada that staffing at Fantsuam is still suffering the effects. Chollom, the network administrator who was displaced during the troubles, has now understandably relocated to Jos. Likewise Yakubu, a recent arrival, has also returned to Jos at the insistence of his worried family. Before the troubles Kafanchan was widely perceived to be safer than Jos, so the UK team were disturbed to learn from John that this is no longer true. He said: “I think this is the often unseen and untold price that organisations and...

The weekly online UK-Nigeria meetings have been established in their present format for more than three years. However, following Nigeria’s terrible post-election violence, John this week identified a new and unexpected benefit of our regular sessions - explaining that the Dadamac meetings are “evolving into a balm, a tonic, a forum where Fantsuam Foundation can unburden ... a psycho-social element of our weekly meeting”. The rural community has been badly shaken by the attacks and, although the news reporters appear to have moved on, the real story is still unfolding. For example, how people from both sides of the religious...

An Executive Summary by John Dada There was a sudden outbreak of politically motivated ethnic-religious violence in Kafanchan, on Tuesday 19th April, 2011. The magnitude of the violence was unprecendented and it caught most people unawares, with resulting loss of lives, property and means of livelihoods. Fantsuam Foundation's immediate concern has been to provide as much basic shelter, food clothes and security for over 200 people who escaped and took refuge in the Fantsuam compound. Three weeks later, the magnitude of the loss suffered by our microfinance clients and the entire Kafanchan community is becoming clearer. As a caring community-based...

This update, about some of the children that Fantsuam Foundation recently rescued in rural Nigeria, was kindly sent by Frances. "You may remember that in December 2009 the HD (HIV Department) 'rescued three children - two brothers and a sister . Both their parents had died (the mother from AIDS) and their uncle had left them in the care of his wife in the village while he remained at work in the city of Kaduna. Unfortunately financial pressures on the family meant that these children were not welcomed and they were blamed for any misfortune in the family and finally...

This information was received from John Dada today: "Fantsuam Foundation is a member of a consortium that has been working on a UNDP-sponsored project aimed at improving survival and quality of life for children with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) by instituting early infant diagnosis and establishing standardised care that is sustainable through capacity building of service provision in a comprehensive manner from laboratory diagnosis, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. Other members of the consortium on this project are: The London Focus Sickle Cell Africa (LFSCA) Michigan State University Fantsuam Foundation Zankli Medical Centre The consortium visited the Governor of Kaduna State,...