This is an archive of the Dadamac.net website, as it was in 2015, it is no longer being updated.

Blog posts about nigeria

Introducing Ostradef

Today I am with my friend Chief Gbade Adejumo from Okeho, in Oke-Ogun, Oyo State, Nigeria. He is visiting the UK and we are taking the opportunity to catch up and to see how we can collaborate in the future. Ostradef Gbade has been telling me about Okeho Strategic Development Foundation (Ostradef). It was founded in 2010, by a group of Okeho indigens who are concerned about the low level of development of the town and want to do something about it. Looking forward Gbade and I are looking at how Dadamac and Ostradef can work together in future. This...

ICT4D - Nigeria, a ginger crop and the Internet

I've been reading "Development and ICT4D - Too many pilot projects and not enough regular service" Amongst the stories of failures and success were references to helping farmers. This reminded me of Veronica (who is a teacher and a farmer in rural Nigeria). I thought I would share the story of her experience of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). Veronica's story - the very short version The short version of Veronica's story is this. She was growing ginger for the first time and wanted advice on harvesting and marketing it, so she went to the Internet. The outcome she was...

World Health Day at Fantsuam, Nigeria

The following report is written by their Founder/Director John Dada . The elderly care program of Fantsuam Foundation , known as KAKAS (grandmothers) was initiated about 6 years ago to support grandmothers who were taking care of their orphaned grandchildren. The service now supports 126 grandmothers with a monthly stipend, free medical treatment, nutritional care and home-based care. On April 07th 2013, 48 Kakas met at Fantsuam Foundation farm to mark the World Health Day. The theme of Hypertension was particularly relevant for the group: the host community for this service records and average of a new stroke every three...

More on Cisco and Rural Training Centre

Thanks to spreading the word via Tuttle last week Cisco people are now interested in finding out more about the threatened Cisco acadamy in rural Nigeria (see Help needed to save Rural Training Centre - do you know anyone in Cisco? John Dada has been asked for additional information by Cisco in Nigeria, and the situation has been clarified. We still don't know what the outcome will be, but we remain hopeful. Cisco and underserved communities - good news and bad news Cisco has a policy of assisting underserved communities. It was this policy that helped John Dada to establish...

Witchcraft, Microfinance, Sulabh Toilets, Kafanchan Bandwidth Consortium

These were the topics John updated us on in the last week of January in emails and at our UK-Nigeria Dadamac meeting Emails from John - social protection/witch-craft and other updates Microfinance Sulabh Toilets Kafanchan Bandwidth Consortium Goats and running water 1 - Emails from John We lost that case of Social protection. The accused was mysteriously found dead in his room. (This relates to last week's witch-craft accusation - UK-Nigeria meeting: witchcraft, sick child, plastic recycling, solar projects. ) We may be making some headway with the Kaf Bandwidth Consortium which FF (Fantsuam Foundation) is leading. We are yet...

Kazanka & women entrepreneurs

It is fitting that last week here in Croydon was Enterprise week and this week is Global enterprise week as during the last UK-Nigeria meeting we were all reminded how Fantsuam Foundation grew in response to the needs of the local women traders. Frances who has been a UK based supporter of Fantsuam has just returned from vsiting John Dada and the team and shared with us her abbreviated history which tells how microfinance arrived at Fantsuam. Fantsuam Foundation: An Abbreviated History by Frances The very early beginnings: John Dada first came to Kafanchan in 1972 to work in a...

Solar at Fantsuam!

John Dada was unable to attend this week’s UK-Nigeria meeting in person ...but he had an excellent excuse! John was busy hosting a much anticipated visit from the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society (MRES) team who are collaborating with Fantsuam Foundation for their first on the ground “Light Up Africa Project”. Our sister organisation, Fantsuam Foundation is an excellent choice of in-country partner for this project as they can draw upon John’s expertise and enthusiasm for solar power as he has been actively trying to implement local solar projects for many years. In fact Fantsuam’s power has been provided by a...

Networking and Collaboration in action

This week brought the usual UK-Nigeria meeting at which a number of issues were discussed. But at this juncture I would like to take a moment to highlight another part of the two groups’ work together - namely how our network can be utilised for good. On January 9th, Dadamac in the UK received a message from Peoples-uni (Australia), an organisation which is building public health capacity using internet based e-learning. In this message, staff there informed us that they had received a message from one of their Nigerian students, who was clearly distressed. This student had informed them that...

Starting the New Year

Following a short Christmas break, Wednesday the 4th of January saw the restart of the weekly UK-Nigeria team Meetings. These meetings are a weekly link between the UK and John Dada a local innovator who delivers integrated development programmes in rural Nigeria and who is the CEO of Fantsuam Foundation . As we approach the fourth year of these weekly meetings (which have proved to be a valuable insight to what is really happening ‘on the ground’ see Nikki’s Blogs ) I was reminded again how so much respect and affection John receives from his host community. Instead of our...

How do you get Aid to reach those in most need ?

The last UK-Nigeria weekly meeting of 2011 unearthed a sad situation which is unfortunately faced all too often by those attempting to provide aid in developing countries. Once again it involves an instance where such aid fails to reach those in dire need. The major frustration is that Fantsuam Foundation possesses the necessary skills and expertise to deliver this help, yet - despite its 10-year history of bringing innovative integrated programmes to its impoverished rural host community - “top down” funding remains hard to come by. John Dada of Fantsuam explained the situation to Pam and myself. He said: “We...

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