This is an archive of the Dadamac.net website, as it was in 2015, it is no longer being updated.

Blog posts about sicklecell

This week's news in brief

The topics covered in this week’s UK-Nigeria meeting ranged from solar power to maize with a bit of microfinance and minority languages thrown in for good measure! Following on from last week’s update about the visit from the Minnesota team (MRES) John Dada was able to give us the exciting news that some of the participants attending the solar workshop decided they would start a Kafanchan Solar Club, KSC. John will be helping the temporary officials of the KSC (Naomi ,Gabriel ) together with Kasang to send Dadamac UK a few sentences about and photos of the newly formed club...

Future Planning at Fantsuam

This week’s UK-Nigeria meeting was a chance for Emmanuel Waje (Emma), to give us an update about the clinic at Fantsuam . Emma explained that he would be leaving the following day to go to the American Embassy in Abuja in order to collect the first 50% of the grant which will allow a clinic extension to be built. He explained that there was an urgent need for a new delivery room. It is believed by the Fantsuam staff that the old hut discourages pregnant mothers from patronizing the clinic. The Clinic currently has four staff who work shifts on...

Congratulations Fantsuam!

Over the last few months, and during our weekly UK-Nigeria meeting, John Dada has been informing the UK about his on-going dealings with the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society (MRES). We were therefore delighted to hear that following on from their recent visit to Fantsuam Foundation a sloar project for Kafanchan Hospital has been agreed between the two organisations. The full story can be seen on the MRES website .

Inspirational meeting

This week’s online meeting between the UK and Fantsuam in rural Nigeria was as dynamic and wide ranging as ever. We discussed practical ways of helping Fola , a trusted individual in the Dadamac network who hopes to get his community at Ago-Are online. Last week we told how within a week we had devised a way to help him achieve his vision - not only had he received his money but he had brought his laptop and had already sent us photos. It was agreed during the meeting that John Dada would arranged to advance Fola additional funds, via...

Weekly news update from Kafanchan

This week’s online meeting between UK-Nigeria was in three parts: 1. The first part took the format of a series of emails from John Dada which contained staff member updates and the latest information about the Kafanchan Peace Market - together with photos. The photo show the market which was razed to the ground in April during the post-election violence and the emergence of the new market. The team were sad to learn that a senior trainer had decided to relocate to Abuja but wish him every success in his new job and studies. It was felt by the team...

Kafanchan Peace Market Traders launched

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...

Going for Gold! -Tackling Sickle Cell Disease

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,...

News from Rural Nigeria

Halfway through this week’s UK-Nigeria online meeting, John Dada was abruptly called away to attend to the tragic and sudden death of a member of his local community. As many of you will realise, John is often referred to as Baba (father) and it is to him that many of this rural community turn at times of crisis. This week’s particularly tragic event left a newborn baby without a father. At a more appropriate time I hope to update you further about this additional role that John finds himself in, but for now I will detail the online session –...

Diagnostic lab for rural Nigeria.

Diagnostic laboratory - Sickle Cell Originally uploaded by Dadamac Community Following their successful screening of over 5,000 children for Sickle Cell disease, Fantsuam Foundation has now decided to construct its own rural diagnostic laboratory. Building started last week. Located at Ungwan Masara, in Kaduna state, Nigeria, this facility, when fully equipped, will serve a rural population of over 600,000 within a 55km radius. This significant initiative will be a befitting milestone to mark the celebrations of the 5th Dadamac Day which is to be held this Thursday, 4th November.

Technical Talk

This week’s online meeting began with a testing technical question. As regular participants will know, we “meet” virtually every week using the Skype networking programme. However, since most cyber cafes lack this facility, the query was raised as to whether we might exclude people by adopting the same format for our monthly First Thursday meetings. It was therefore suggested that using Yahoo Messenger might be a better option. However the vote from the Fantsuam Foundation was that Skype remained the preferable format for them as well as being easier to log into, it was the most effective alternative for sending...

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