Written by Pamela - My connection with Loren came about because, in February 2011, she contacted some of the team in Nigeria (John, Bala and Kelechi) in preparation for a trip to Nigeria. As she is based in London John Dada asked me to contact her, to offer background information.
She is Trust Executive for Indigo Trust. Indigo Trust is particularly interested in the use of "Information Computer Technology (ICT) and Mobile Phone Applications to encourage democratic transparency in Africa." It is also interested in supporting innovative projects, which utilise ICT to stimulate development in any sector including the health, education and agricultural spheres.
Like Dadamac, Fantsuam Foundation and Zittnet, Indigo trust has a preference for Open Source technologies, with recent grant recipients including My Society http://www.mysociety.org/, the democracy and transparency charity, Africa Gathering and FrontlineSMS Radio.
John's initial thoughts on likely overlapping interests related to innovative use of ICTs in Agriculture and Health. He emailed her to say "We are currently working on deploying VOIP4D (based on Open Source) to ease communication for some women farmers; we are keen to see how we can expand this to provide market intelligence for our farmer partners. Use of Mobiles is also an area we would like to discuss with you."
I met Loren soon after she took up her post, and before she went to Nigeria for a brief fact finding visit (Lagos only - March 2011). I think her intial impression of us was that we just wanted some free phones. We agreed to connect up again afer her trip - not yet done.