nikki's Blog

Gayl Kennedy Originally uploaded by Dadamac Community Congratulations from the Dadamac team to Gayl Kennedy who has been honoured as Mifos’ August’s star contributor (Mifos is a Grameen Foundation initiative). Her expertise in helping Fantsuam Foundation to implement an MIS system, which includes Mifos, is crucial to the continued success of this Nigerian NGO’s acclaimed microfinance program. Gayl’s six- month assignment at Fantsuam Foundation, as a VSO volunteer, is due to end in December.

Another Wednesday UK-Nigeria online meeting - and once again it delivered real gems of information. During the week John Dada sent an email about the Zitt localization Project which raises the importance of local languages. Please see blog for additional information. Following on from this the team heard that Beekeeping manuals had been received at Fantsuam Foundation and that these were currently being translated into Hausa by FF staff. The plan is then to send a translated copy back to the UK, where photos will be inserted and the manuals made into hard copies which will be sent back to...

John Dada and his team are always mindful of the need to provide information for the commnunity which they serve in the local language(s). For example, recently sickle cell information was translated from English into Hausa and this process is to be repeated for other educational data. It was therefore very interesting to read John's recent email (shared below), which explains this issue of language in more detail. "Fantsuam Foundation, has been reaching out to underserved rural populations since 2001. Its services addresses information poverty, providing services that unlocks computer and internet opportunities for threatened minority languages, people with low...

New Mast 2009 Originally uploaded by Dadamac Community This week’s UK-Nigeria online skype meeting did not have the usual mix of team members. John sent his apologies in advance as he had a visit from Save the Children to attend to. He also passed on apologies from other members busy with various Fantsuam Foundation duties. However, despite his absence, John emailed his input for the appropriate agenda items. Our diminished numbers provided the opportunity for Zittnet manager Bala and Chollom, the network Administrator to give a detailed update about Zittnet . For a quick background to Zittnet (the first rural...

Tables for the KRC Originally uploaded by Dadamac Community At this week's UK-Nigeria online meeting it was fitting that learning at the Knowledge Resource Centre using Zittnet's enabled internet connection was the main focus. It was decided by the team that the First Thursday " open" meeting would in future be a focus for the Knowledge Resource Centre (KRC) users at Fantsuam Foundation. However, in readiness for this additional computers will need to be sourced. It was suggested that 4 - 5 computers are required and will then need to be "skyped"