Blog

Wednesday saw the second UK-Nigeria Skype meeting of 2011. However there was no gentle easing back into ‘work mode’ in the wake of the holidays! Already the Fantsuam team are quite literally building on their success of the previous 12 months. During the week Zittnet Network Administrator Chollom had Tweeted that the roof was being put on FF’s new AIDS/HIV building. John informed us that construction of the new laboratory has now been finished, complete with electricity supply. The next phase will be creating a borehole for the water supply plus sourcing furniture and equipment. The lab has been built...

2011 and I'm experimenting with writing a blog for dadamac – about once a week. Last week started late at Dadamac because of the New Year holiday. Spring cleaning our admin I'm doing things slightly differently with our administration this year–so a bit of “spring cleaning” is underway. It'll take a few weeks to see how the new approach shapes up - Dadamac is constantly reshaping itself as different things emerge. I'm encouraged that “emergence” seemed to be one of the key words at ICTD 2010. Another keyword was “openness”– and I hope this weekly blog will contribute to Dadamac's...

Wednesday saw the last UK-Nigeria core team meeting of the year and it was a good opportunity to catch up with the latest from Fantsuam Foundation . (However, it was agreed that there would be a Directors meeting on December 22nd, which duly took place) The next UK-Nigeria Team meeting has been arranged for Wednesday, January 5th 2011, followed the next day by the First Thursday meeting of the year on the 6th. Now back to the last full team meeting of the year......... Pam joined us online from the ICTD 2010 conference. It was quite something to think that...

THE thorny issues of smart phones in rural Africa and termites in the sambarkas (traditional mud huts with a straw roof) were among the topics raised in our UK-Nigeria online meeting. However, the majority of this week’s session was used to ensure the team updated Pam on any project developments in readiness for the ICTD 2010 conference, where she will be presenting. Witchcraft update: From the team’s discussion it is sadly not unusual for children in Nigeria to be accused of being witches - they are sometimes called 'spirits', and are often held responsible for illnesses and deaths. There seems...

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,...