Dadamac

Solar training in India - could we connect? Read now

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 mains power supply fails (which usually seems to be more often than not).

Teachers Talking Read now

Teachers Talking (TT) is an introduction to ICT (Information and Communication Technology) for teachers in rural Africa. It is an inservice training course which ran for the first time in 2004 at Fantsuam Foundation. It has taken various forms over the years, and has also been presented in Kenya. Pamela McLean designed and presented the course at John Dada's request when local teachers started asking to become computer literate.

TT is based firmly in the realities of under-resourced schools in rural Africa. It is recognised that most of the course participants have few books in their schools, no electricity, and therefor little chance of using a computer in their classrooms. However their pupils need to know about computers, and be ready to use them if ever the chance presents itself. This is not just a matter of operating a computer, but of having a wider vision for the potential of digital technology, both for information processing and for communication.

Beekeeping - training and livelihoods Read now

The situation

In rural Nigeria people tend to go into the bush and hunt for honey, rather than keeping bees. Hunting for honey involves killing the bees; the resulting honey is not as clean as honey taken from managed hives.People at Fanstuam have been wondering if it would be possible to keep bees at Attachab, and so Dadamac is helping them to find out. (This is a Dadamac OK project - people are sharing knowledge, but we will also need to find some resources).

Story so far

In 2008 beekeeping at Attachab became a regular agenda item during our UK-Nigeria team meetings. We started to learn something about the necessary pre-requisites for beekeeping, thanks to some expert advisors (including people at First Thursdys). We got as far as checking there were suitable forage plants for bees, and that there would be a market for honey, and deciding how it should be sold. We decided that it could become a useful small enterprise.

However, we needed money to arrange training, and to buy bees, hives and other equipment, and there were more urgent projects pressing for attention so the beekeeping idea was put aside for a while.

Hand Held Learning and Ago-Are, rural Nigeria. Read now

Folabi (Fola) Sunday teaches in a primary school in rural Nigeria -  a motor-cycle ride away from Ago-Are, in Oyo State. He is a Dadamac Self Directed Learner, who keeps in contact with the "connected community" through his phone, and joins in First Thursday chats whenever he can.

Fantsuam Foundation and Dadamac Read now

This account of our partner organisation, Fantsuam Foundation (FF), is to help the newcomer understand how FF's various activities have come about, how they fit together, and where Dadamac Foundation fits in.

A rich mixture of activities

There are facts and figures elsewhere which prove FF's impressive track record and illustrate why it is highly regarded.  However, FF is much more than the sum of its parts.  To work with FF for any period of time is to get a strong feeling of ‘family’ and community. Once that is understood or experienced, then the whole mixture of activities begins to make sense and certain apparent contradictions fall into place.  Many large traditional organisations focus on a particular area of need – schools for education, clinics for health, banks for finance, and so on, yet FF, covers all those and more. The reason is simple - daily life is complex.  Even the smallest of families is concerned with the effectiveness of the local infrastructure, (transport, power, water, sanitation and so forth); food security; housing; finance; education; training; employment and all the issues of life and death. All these things are important in family life - and FF is concerned with families.

Knowledge Resource Centre (KRC) Read now

The Knowledge Resource Centre (KRC) is in a building on the main site of our sister organisation Fantsuam Foundation. The KRC offers free Internet connectivity, and reference books, CDs and DVDs. It is also sometimes used for meetings and non-formal training.

John Dada was the driving force behind the building of the KRC, and he is there frequently, supporting it in many ways.

John's  long-term vision is to develop KRC as a learning hub: providing affordable tertiary level education and training, doing research, and creating resources for local use and distance learning.