nikki's Blog

The talk was of tractors at this Wednesday’s weekly online meeting between the UK-Nigeria team. The tractor for Attachab has been much anticipated.Dadamac in the UK first heard about its possible arrival a month or so ago and we were wondering what the delay was. However, we were shocked and disappointed to learn that Fantsuam had in fact been waiting patiently for two years. It appears that Government procedures are delaying the delivery of the tractor. The scheme is meant to provide a new subsidised tractor. Fantsuam needing to pay 40% and the Government to pay 60% of the cost...

During today's weekly online UK-Nigeria meeting we learned that Comfort was absent as she was being interviewed for the TV! John went on to explain that the local TV station of the Nigerian Television Authority wanted to interview her as she is a role model for entrepreneurship. It was agreed by the team that Frances would also 'interview' Comfort on her return and send us some details. Below is Frances' report. "Comfort returned today exhilarated from her TV interview about the challenges of being responsible for a family as well as following a career. The interview was supposed to take...

The UK-Nigeria meeting enabled an hour of information exchange with the arrangement that more updates were to follow during the week. Attachab: John informed us that he is still waiting for the government to enable the delivery of the tractor. Furthermore, the arrival of the ‘Bamboo builders’ was delayed because of the need to find a convenient house for them near to Attachab. We were told that a house had been found and following some renovations should be available at end of the week. Reubens, the supervisor will arrive on Saturday, and the bamboo should arrive by Monday. The worrying...

The following report by Demas Shinggu Project Officer was sent to me by Kelechi Micheals. Kelechi is the Programme Operations Manager at Fantsuam Foundation and is a core member of the UK-Nigeria Team who hold weekly online meetings. " Years of neglect have left Nigeria with poor quality public education. Many schools fail to provide even basic opportunities for learning. School buildings and facilities are inadequate. Teaching standards are low. Teachers receive inadequate training and have little motivation to improve. Management of education is weak and often ineffective, inefficient and top heavy. There is a desire for reform, but policies...

This Wednesday's meeting took the form of a series of updates. The hourly Skype meeting was made more challenging by the fact that the team experienced the typed messages being delayed. Despite this it was 'business as usual' and John Dada and the team members from Fantsuam Foundation - namely John I and Chollom - were able to give the UK members plenty of news from the previous week. This week Chllom successfully sent #dadamac another photo via twitter. The photo shows the new repeater about to be put up on the College of Nursing roof. This should enhance and...