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Julliet Makhapila and Diversity in Kenya Communities

Submitted by Pamela on 11 January 2013 - 4:45pm

Today Julliet Makhapila told me about her Diversity in Kenya Communites project in Njoro, Nakuru, Kenya. She told me about the event that she arranged there on 17th November 2012. She showed me the programme which is copied below. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 17-Nov_2012 DIVERSITY IN KENYA COMMUNITIES The event promises to be a weekend packed with presentations, workshops and debates to inspire and inform members of the community about the services we provide and how the community can get involved about its own community. Come along to support our cause and you are welcome to become members using our services at a...

Networks, groups, organisations and emergence - Dadamac and me.

Submitted by Pamela on 6 January 2013 - 2:16pm

1 - Organisational questions that ask about affiliations and roles always cause me problems. I do many things - but I seldom work on them alone, so I prefer to say "we" not "I". However that raises the question "When I say 'we' who is being included?" In organisations with tight heirarchies that is comparatively easy to answer - "we" are the people who are with me in my department, my region, my unit, my college, my regiment, my faculty, my firm, my committee, or whatever it is that is makes up my "group with a clearly defined boundary". My...

First Week In January

Submitted by Pamela on 5 January 2013 - 11:15am

1 - The new year kicked off with "Everything Unplugged" on Wednesday. On Thursday it was the first "First Thursday" of the year - which Nikki kindly hosted as I was at a Christmas family-happening. On Friday there was New Tuttle, followed by some website work with Andy Broomfield, then a useful Tuttle follow-up meeting, and a quick visit to Hub Westminster on my way home - which conveniently happened to overlap Mix at Six. (This blog could be bursting with live links - but if I tried to add them all it would never get published. I'm happy to...

Congratulations on first Fast Tractor repayment

Submitted by Pamela on 2 January 2013 - 3:09pm

Fast Tractor update. I have some wonderful news to start the New Year. The "Fast Tractor" tractor is earning its keep and starting to pay for its initial investment. I've checked the bank balance for Dadamac Foundation (umbrella organisation for Fast Tractor). We have a repayment of £500, which has come from the committee at Fantsuam which is managing the use of the tractor. Originally John Dada simply wanted to borrow money to purchase the tractor, and Steve Podmore wanted to organise some kind of impact investment arrangement to help - but time was short and it was too complicated...

Life-long learning or livelihood - the Dadamac Ltd idea

Submitted by Pamela on 31 December 2012 - 2:41pm

This post continues from Dadamac - taking stock for 2013 which is a personal account, helping me to take some decisions for 2013. Part way through a section on "Financial, organisational and motivational issues" I needed to stop and think in more depth, so I wrote Motivation for my work in Nigeria . That made sense of things up to a few years ago. It's important for me to see how things are changing because I do have some serious decisions to take, and there are implications for other people as well, so I want to get the decisions right...

Motivation for my work in Nigeria

Submitted by Pamela on 30 December 2012 - 4:51pm

1 - For the context of this blog see Dadamac - taking stock for 2013 paragraph on "Financial, organisational and motivational issues" which led to this statement : I remember being challenged about what I was doing by a friend (a techie who helped me in many ways). His challenge related to what little difference I could make. Like me he had studied with the OU. The conversation mentioned above happened some years after 2000, when my UK-Nigeria ICT, Education and Development involvement had become a habit. I'm not sure of the exact date, but I think it was probably...

Dadamac - taking stock for 2013

Submitted by Pamela on 30 December 2012 - 11:56am

This is an open letter to anyone who has an interest in Dadamac, and its past, present or future. Depending on how you measure things Dadamac to date has been an amazing success, or a spectacular failure. It's time to take stock and decide the structure and direction for next year. Before deciding where to go next, it would be a good idea to check where we are now, and how and why we got here. "We" or "I"? To keep things clear and simple it might be a better idea to narrow this account down further. I have some...

One day between Christmas and New Year sets the direction for 2013

Submitted by Pamela on 28 December 2012 - 11:42pm

I thought I knew how today would go - but I was wrong. Plan A Plan A was about new beginnings, and the big picture. Each year I set myself up with a new online office. I use google docs and spreadsheets. I maintain some of the core structures from the previous year in my new "master office". (All the old clutter of the abandonned master office is only a click away, should I need it.) What gets copied to the new one is what I really need and value. It's a fresh start. Today I came back online 'for...

Looking back at 2012 and forward to 2013

Submitted by Pamela on 16 December 2012 - 2:08pm

2012 has been a year of great changes for Dadamac in many interrelated ways: some visible, some invisible, some internal, some external. I won't try to tell those stories now, I won't even refer to them all except to say that I expect to revisit some in detail in 2013. The stories As I revisit the stories and themes in my thoughts, I will do some 'thinking aloud". Some of that thinking aloud will probably emerge as blogs - or stories. If I do write them then they will grow out of what happened in 2012 and further back. I...

Bossan's Story

Submitted by nikki on 1 December 2012 - 9:29pm

CAR ACCIDENT I WITNESS Originally uploaded by Dadamac Community Our weekly UK - Nigeria meetings are never ‘routine’ and I invariably find them a humbling reality check. I also often find it frustrating to hear of John’s inspiring efforts in valiantly trying to support members of his impoverished host community, since I believe there are individuals and organisations who - were they aware of his fine track record of delivery and the dire needs he is addressing - would be only too happy to help. This week was no exception. John told us about Bossan, a 30-year-old old quadriplegic. Bossan...

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