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Solar training in India - could we connect?

Submitted by Pamela on 12 April 2010 - 3:59pm

Hi Vijay Thanks for the telling me about three women from Africa getting trained in making and installing solar lamps at a training course at the Barefoot College in Rajasthan I am trying to think what you already know about dadamac's current interests in solar power. I'll just mention a few things in case we have not discussed them before. Fantsuam Foundatin uses solar power at the main compound. It is not a very big solar panel, but it is very useful for Zittnet and means that the generator does not need to be turned on every time that the...

Learning About Solar Power at India's Barefoot College

Submitted by vijay on 12 April 2010 - 10:12am

Hi Pam, I decided to put up this post since there is an Africa angle to it. The much-acclaimed Barefoot College in Rajasthan (North India)has been empowering rural men and women by teaching them skills that help them get a livelihood. This news link was interesting since it talks about three women from Africa getting trained in making and installing solar lamps. The news items says: "The three, who have been here for two months, will train another 16 weeks, learning about charge controllers, inverters, core-winding, deciphering of printed circuit boards, testing, wiring, installation, and repair and maintenance of solar...

Support for the visually impaired in rural Nigeria

Submitted by nikki on 12 April 2010 - 9:31am

Here is some additional information about Fantsuam Academy and its initiative to use JAWS for the blind and visually impaired in its community.(As promised in my previous blog ) This email update was sent to Dadamac UK from Cicely, a VSO at Fantsuam Foundation (FF), and has been edited to remove names. For photos click here . "Our JAWS experts, are safely back in Jos. I have thanked them for the time they have given introducing Fantsuam and its instructors to JAWS as part of the programme to make Fantsuam Academy courses available to the sight-impaired with suport from VSO...

Support for the visually impaired in rural Nigeria

Submitted by nikki on 12 April 2010 - 9:31am

At the forefront of Education for Children and the Visually Impaired

Submitted by nikki on 10 April 2010 - 4:40pm

This week's UK-Nigeria meeting on Wednesday proved so informative that I have had to briefly summarise the topics that were covered with the intention of writing additional blogs giving more detail. The Nigerian team was reduced in numbers as two exciting developments were underway. Firstly , there was the anticipated arrival of Reuben Buhari, a journalist with This Day newspaper. Reuben plans to do an update about the work of Fantsuam Foundation (FF) , in particular looking at the overall impact of FF on its host communities. Secondly , there some of the Nigerian team were involved in a JAWS...

At the forefront of Education for Children and the Visually Impaired

Submitted by nikki on 10 April 2010 - 4:40pm

Feelings about faceboook and twitter

Submitted by Pamela on 9 April 2010 - 3:49pm

Hi Vijay I was interested to read your impressions of social media - and glad you enjoyed the twitter session. (All the teaching tips are in the Second Thursday twitter session achive . ) It was the first time we have tried anything quite like that - just a handful of us agreeing to meet onine to learn about something as specific as twitter ( Second Thursday twitter session invitation ). Do you still like Facebook? I joined Facebook because Chris Macrae often sent me information that I wanted to read - but increasingly he sent it through Facebook. For...

Learning Twitter Lessons in a Chat Room

Submitted by vijay on 9 April 2010 - 2:51pm

Hi Pam, I don't hate technology, but I also don't have a craving fascination for it. Social media, of course, is a different arena. I love the idea of connecting to people and exhanging ideas and thoughts--and as you would say, rubbing minds with those who would like to share their wisdom with me on a range of topics of interest to me. But here too, I am not a person who plunges headlong into anything new unless I am truly convinced that I need it for 'building bridges' with the community around the world. I take my time to...

ZittNet – Fantsuam Foundation's Community Wireless Network

Submitted by nikki on 8 April 2010 - 12:38pm

The success of Zittnet, at our sister organisation Fantsuam Foundation, is a major reason that we are able to connect the UK with rural Nigeria so brilliantly at our weekly online meetings. To really get a better picture of Zittnet I urge you to look at this excellent article written by Louise Berthilson in 2007. The information is current, although there have been further lightning strikes. This has resulted in a larger mast. I will also ask Bala, the manager of Zittnet and his team, to comment about any other changes that may have occured.

New Arrivals at Fantsuam!

Submitted by nikki on 2 April 2010 - 9:25pm

Regular followers of our Wednesday meetings will realise that we can never predict exactly what will unfold. Predictably, this week was no exception. Despite travelling, John was fully apprised of events at Fantsuam Foundation and joined the Skype meeting to fill us in. His first input was to let the UK team know that no-one else from Fantsuam would be online - because they were in the middle of some exciting developments. These centred around a huge effort to get their new Community Communication Centre up and running. New equipment ordered from the US had just arrived, so workers were...

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