February 5, 2012

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Happy New Year- from all of us

January 7, 2012 By
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Happy New Year to you our dear readers!

 

What a great start to the year! some of our African female bloggers made it onto  the Birds on th

Rhino wading through yellow flowers

e Blog wonderful women bloggers list - http://www.birdsontheblog.co.uk/women-bloggers-for-2012/

We would like to develop this idea right here on Africa on the Blog. Would you like to see something like that on Africa on the blog? A post where we list the best 100 African centric blogs?  If so let me know as we can raise everyone’s profile with something like this.

We would love to share some community posts with our readers.

Can you send us 300 words about what you love about Africa?

Africa in 2011 – did we make progress? come and leave a comment here

http://www.africaontheblog.com/a-look-back-at-africa-in-2011/

We’d also like to build a resource of African recipes, so if you have some of those please send them in. The recipes on the site get a huge amount of traffic so you would get a lot of exposure by sharing a great recipe.

And finally… have a great new year.

From all us at  Africa on the Blog

 

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Filed Under: AFRICAN DIASPORA, Latest, Out of Africa Tagged With: , ,

Villages in Action – an unusual conversation on development

December 29, 2011 By
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Are you interested in the development of Africa? Do you ever wonder what the recipients of Development programmes think about development? Are you curious about what Africans are doing to develop the continent? Then sit back as we take on on a journey in Masindi NW Uganda

If you have come this far and want to learn more then head over to VILLAGES IN ACTION and better still if you can get to Masindi  Nw Uganda on 14 January 2012 for an unusual conversation on development

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Filed Under: African Development, AFRICAN DIASPORA, Ida Horner, Latest Tagged With: , , , , ,

African Diaspora at work Awards- and the winner is..

December 19, 2011 By
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Salha Kaitesi

African diaspora At Work awards celebrate the work of African diaspora who contribute to the development of the continent. The winner of the award Salha Kaitesi was selected by readers of Africa on the Blog -

She took time out of her busy schedule to speak to our Editor

 

  1. congratulations on being our first winner please introduce yourself and your company  to our reader. Who is Salha and what  inspired you to start your business?

 

My name is Salha Kaitesi and I am the CEO/Owner of Beauty of Rwanda, a company that works to empower women and their children in Rwanda.  On a trip to Rwanda my motherland I came across basket weavers and knew right then that they were the people I wanted to help the most. I didn’t know how this help was going to come about so I gave it a little more thought and that is when I came up with the idea of me buying the beautiful handwoven crafts then selling them to the western market on a website. The website is now up and running http://beautyofrwanda.com and orders are shipped worldwide.

The basket weavers are women facing poverty in rural Rwanda and weaving is the only source of income for them. These women survived the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and would love to see then survive poverty too. Our campaign to end poverty for many is called “OnlyOneBasket”. This is where we ask you to buy at least one piece of basket/craft from our website in order to help these women. The more crafts we sell the more we help these women help themselves.

 

How has your business grown?  What risks have you taken in order to grow/develop your business? What would you say have been your main achievements since starting up? What problems have you had to overcome and how did you do it?

Business is growing at a slow but steady pace and are confident that in a few years it will be a lot better. The more people get to hear about us the more sales we get. Having a Twitter account and a facebook fan page has made this possible. Starting the business solemnly as an online business is a risk that I had to take. Had no experience with e-commerce or business as a whole. Learned everything and still learning new things every day.  On the 11th November 2011, Beauty of Rwanda celebrated its first anniversary. That is our greatest achievement to date.  I didn’t know how the year was going to go so am shocked but pleased that even to this day, despite all the obstacles that I have come across, I still feel the same way I felt when I met those women in Rwanda years ago- if not more.

In March of this year, I was voted as one of the 20 inspirational women of African diaspora in Europe. Will forever be grateful to those who took their time to vote for me. Finding out on 8th March- International womens day made it extra special.


Please tell us why the business is a success.

 

Lol … I don’t think I need 400 words to describe the success of the business. A sentence perhaps?  Passion, courage, hard work, determination and love for my people.

 

By how much has your turnover (in percentage terms) increased since 20 November 2010

40 percent! All thanks to friends and well wishers. Beauty of Rwanda, has a working group via our LinkedIn account (BoR Working Group) and hoping to have a much higher turnover in years to come.  The working group will be focussing on ways to improve our work around the world. We are yet to fully start working. Lately, I have been up to my eye balls with this and that but work should be in earnest in early next year.

 

 

 

 

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A plea this Christmas: Woman2Woman making a difference

December 9, 2011 By
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It’s full steam ahead – developing relationships woman to woman, and not just a one-night stand: this is a lasting relationship.

 

It was a year or so ago when Susan Popoola challenged Patricia (TACT – The Akabusi Charitable Trust – Trustee with portfolio for Nigeria) and I to find her a widow that she could support with a gift aid of £100 to start up a business. It was to be an investment with no pay back (unlike our micro finance programs) that would help the lady to start a business that would alleviate poverty and initiate self-sufficiency.

 

Mrs Orji was the beneficiary who proved that with a little support, the seed funding affected not just her life but also the lives of her children who previously had been hawking artifacts for sale on the busy high roads into the capital city of Imo State which is called Owerri. There is a similar scene up and down the urban centers of Nigeria, the home of 160 million Africans and the most populous Black country in the world.

 

And so Woman2Woman was born. Since that first success story, the children are no longer hawking (gateway into drugs, gangs and for young women prostitution) but are back in school. Mrs Orji is now the proud owner of a fruit and veg stall with an official registration document from the State government. This means her future is bright; the children’s are secure, and the family is a good role model to other members of her rural community.

 

In Nigeria like many countries Christmas is seen as a time of family festivities , giving, sharing and celebrating the gift of life the Almighty gave as he provided His son as sacrifice for the sins of the world. This Christmas TACT are looking for 100 women (or people/organizations/establishments in the name of women) over the forthcoming year (2012) to give £100 to 100 women widowed in Nigeria, so they can start up their own businesses. We have found that this is the best way to help these women help themselves, their families and their community. On the ground, our delivery partners Forward Africa then run a capacity building and sustainability programme which ensures that as many as possible of the start up businesses succeed and do not fail.

 

Will there be failures? You bet. Our experience in the micro finance world has shown that these vulnerable groups – just as in the western world – have people whose ambition is greater than their abilities and despite the training support and guidance they are unable to maintain the disciplines or sustain the knack of making a business work. However these are few, and are far outweighed by the many who go on to make a thriving contribution to the local economy. This includes – by extension – sending to school and educating many other local children, and developing a sense of self worth and appreciation for being part of the solution and not the problem in Nigeria.

 

At TACT we are aware that we can not solve all of the challenges that the developing world of Nigeria holds, but we are also aware that we can do our little bit as in the words of the 18th century Whig Edmund Burke “for evil to prevail good men do nothing.”

 

And finally I go to a parable that has stuck in my mind as we at TACT work with like-minded people to make a difference in the county of my origin, one person (and in this case woman) at a time…

 

A little boy was apprehended as he was picking up starfish on an oil-infested beach and putting them in to a pail of seawater. He then walked a couple of miles to the other side of the peninsula to release the starfish into an unpolluted environment. A casual observer was so intrigued that on apprehension of the youngster he asked, “what on earth are you doing”?

 

“I’m saving these starfish” came the reply.

 

“But there is no way you can save all these starfish. There are literally thousands”, said the interloper with a rye smile.

 

”Aye” said the youngster, fresh of face, “I can’t save all of them but I can make a difference to this one and this one and this one”.

 

Thank you in advance for being prepared to join us in making a difference to the few people we meet, for being prepared to give, share and celebrate over this Christmas period and beyond the precious gift of life and the abundance that your world has provided to you. Clearly we will not be able to cater for all the widows of the world but as in the parable, you will be able to make a difference to this one and this one and this one xx

 

Warmest wishes

 

Kriss

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Filed Under: African Development, AFRICAN DIASPORA, Kezie Akabusi, Latest Tagged With: , , , , ,

Africa Investigates- A New TV Series Exposing Corruption

December 7, 2011 By
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I heard about Africa Investigatesa few weeks ago and I really needed to share. It’s a new TV series (broadcasted on the Al Jazeera channel), in which journalists risk their lives to expose corruption taking place in their countries. Their goal is to have everyone become accountable for their actions. No matter who the person targeted is: police, minister, scammers…they are reported. These journalists are allowing civil society to find out the truth, giving them proof of what is going on in their societies.

photo from- talkmedianigeria.com

Oftentimes, these journalists venture into forbidden places, experience threats, are arrested, tortured and still strive to bring the truth to light. Their lives are always in danger. Some keep a personal diary of who they suspect is after their life so that if anything should happen to them, people might be able to trace down the culprit.  Others have their friends take turns to check up on them and ensure that they are still alive. One journalist said he had a panic button to press when he feels he is under siege. “Most importantly, I never walk alone”.  Still, many others don’t have this safety net available to them and are constantly living in fear. Journalists’ families become targets for those who feel they are being attacked or exposed. Some of these journalists can’t spend much time with their own families or even in the same location for more than a few days.

These African journalists are doing such brave work and for most, it is worth the risk. They have been through horrific experiences, some difficult to recount. One journalist who was tortured for years states: “When they torture you, your spirit is being broken down.”  But this does not seem to stop them because they have a common purpose: “Acting on behalf of the helpless and getting their stories heard”. “Even if one life is impacted, I am satisfied”, says one journalist. Every day they work hard to change inhabitants’ circumstances for the better and for this they deserve all of our respect.

A few of these episodes are on Youtube. The first one I watched: What Price The Story is an account of what drives people to become investigative journalists.  In another episode, Fool’s Gold, a journalist named Anas goes undercover to expose a multi-million dollar scam in Ghana over fake gold. One interesting point that the journalist makes is that such scams in turn damage real investment opportunities and prospects for the country. In this story, there is a wide network of people involved: police, customs officers…some engaged in fraudulent behavior, others on the good guy’s side. The story eventually serves as a warning to all investors.

In another episode, Zimbabwe’s Child Exodus, a journalist examines what motivates children to leave their native Zimbabwe and attempt to cross the dangerous border into South Africa. In one instance an 11 year old boy works for 8 months to be able to save $50 to pay human smugglers (Magumagumas as they call them)  to help him cross over to the neighboring country. It’s really sad the risks theses children take for a chance at a better life. But they are not the only ones taking big risks. The journalists also risk their lives each day to tell a story that warns people or sheds light on injustice.

It would be interesting to look into what motivates “the bad guys” to act the way they do: high unemployment rates? Poverty?  Also, finding a way to gain more international support for these journalists should be a priority because without international community support, their jobs become all the more difficult and dangerous. Most of these journalists operate alone and that is frightening because if they were to get arrested, held captive or tortured, there is no telling if they’d make it out alive without the international media to help bring to light these injustices. Hopefully this TV series will help start a very crucial dialogue not only about the issues being addressed in the documentaries but also the need for international support.

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Filed Under: African Development, AFRICAN DIASPORA, African People, African Television, Latest, Saran Kaba Tagged With: , , , , ,

Existentia one Saturday Morning

December 2, 2011 By
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The philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Friedri...

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All conundrums between Mind, Body, Soul and Spirit are on my mind. The Mind and the Body seem pretty self explanatory to me; most people reading this will have access to both of these, and recognize that these are resources for the Soul to enable sensory perception and interaction with the world.

What the Soul is, may be less tangible. From my lexicography I learn that the Soul is the seat of the Will, Emotions, and Psyche (the id [instinctive self], the ego [idealized self] and the super ego [collective societal imposed self]). When people use the term “pull your self together, man” in general they mean the unifying around one objective of these parts of the self. I guess the spirit is the part where most debate ensues; where most opinion diverges, and where apathy resides and utopia reigns.

The Judea Christian narratives (in which I have been immersed) promote the idea of God in three persons – Father, Son and Spirit. My forefathers in Nigeria activated their spirit by engaging Pneuma via worship/communications with the world around them, the woods, certain creatures and most definitely the elders past (animism).

Two books that have been informing my current thinking have been “Willful Blindness” by Margaret Heffernan and “The Existential Jesus” by John Carroll. For many years I have toyed with the ideas of existentialism, autonomy, existence determines essence … authenticity, choice, courage to be and much more.

Note I make no reference to the absurdity of life or nihilism, because in my view they are not necessary conclusions to existential thought – rather they are conclusions some people come to after an authentic extrapolation from their situational sojourn.

Carroll’s existential Jesus, extrapolated from the Gospel of Mark, strides on to the scheme as a man with no name, no background, no family, throwing around miracles like confetti, showing him to be the master teacher and pre-eminent physician.

Quickly things turn around as he finds himself misunderstood, at odds with all around him, alienated from society alone with his God and struggling to answer the time-honored question “who am I?” Faced with the reality, they may deny your mind, even pour scorn on you body but only you can access the realms of your Soul and your struggle with Spirit.

My inkling is that the Spirit is what comes from God – interacts (worships) with God in all of its facets while we are here on earth … before returning to God when (in old parlance) “we give up the ghost” – we shuffle off this mortal coil.

Heffernan’s New York Times best seller begins with the case of US Government vs Enron before exposing the plethora of examples in Politics, Commerce, Industry and Religion of the danger of “willful blindness.” These are the things we know but pretend we don’t know or worse still, don’t know but can’t be bothered to find out, preferring the cowardice of following the crowd or wallowing in the romance of wishful thinking and ignorant prejudice.

The reader pretty quickly then is confronted with their own cowardice “to be” – to be authentic, to challenge the sacred cows in one’s life, the orthodoxies we all know to be true save for those, in my words, prepared to take the existential path.

Then of course for me there is the challenge of being an African in the Diaspora where “might is right” as recently witnessed in the legal assassinations of – more recently – Gadhafi, as in Sadam before him.

Black, social, religious or political thought is OK only if it fits in with the “enlightened self interest (whatever that may be) of the Caucasian dominated western world,” which allows only “non-white” activists the privilege of independent intellectual social, religious and political thought as long as they remain contained in academia or don’t impact negatively on the commercial modalities of world domination.

I have no such delusions of grandeur; my psyche is well interred. I’ve accepted a reality that I’m of no relevance on the grand scale of things, so I shall enjoy my musing of existensia in religion, life and the pursuit of happiness … and in the Voltaire sense I will be happy to tend my garden until I go the way of all flesh, yet hoping for a liberation “essence of being” in the world yet to come. #utopia

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Filed Under: AFRICAN DIASPORA, Kezie Akabusi, Latest, Out of Africa Tagged With: , , , , ,

What are our sons inspiring?

November 20, 2011 By
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It has been over a week since I had the honour of being on a panel of leading ladies at an Inspirational YOU event. I was going to write about it last week but I had to spend some time thinking about the day, the panel discussions and the follow up from the event.

The most recent beingU blog is about the black community having many g

Children volunteering

Image via Wikipedia

roups that aim to do good and the fragmentation there is.

The Inspirational YOU event was the second event over a few days where the organisers showed us that what motivated them was their children. Foluke from the Precious Awards was quite clear about what motivated her – her two beautiful daughters!  If anyone has listened to me at all over any period of time you will know I do not shut up about the fact that it is all about my daughter and have no future plans to stop.  It really struck me how many of us, black women were putting their necks out to do something to show their daughters (at the moment that is all I have to go with) they can be so much more.

Combined with watching ‘The Help’. This brought up feelings that I had when I read the book. We have come a long way from bringing our daughter up to be exactly like us, we want so much more. There is a fight still out there in what our children see and how they think about themselves but I have always been of the school of thought that what I have had absolute control over is my child’s self esteem and values. For me, I cannot spend valuable time worrying about things out of my control so I put my all into what I can.

I mention this as one of the topics that sort of took over the Leading Men’s panel at the  Inspirational You event, was about what our children (mostly sons) see in the media and how they perceive themselves.

For me this is why we have the Sonia Meggie’s of this world, she started Inspirational YOU, taking a stance and saying there is a lot of  greatness within our community and I am going to just go out there and show people.

So For me Saturday 29th October, I was humbled to be on a list with Kehinde Olarinmoye, Charlene White, Diana Hilson, Helen Jennings, Yolande Letshou, and Christelle Kedi to be able to play a small part in what Sonia was is trying to achieve within our community.

Thing is though we want to see more stories of boys being put forward by their mums and dads as the inspiration for setting groups like this up. At the moment I am only hearing it for the girls, which should not stop but we need to hear that boys are the motivation as well!

If you have any stories where boys have inspired their parents form an organisation or a business, please let us know

In the meantime I would urge anyone reading this to take a look at Inspirational YOU and Precious Online (who graced my company beingU with two awards recently!) and see what they are about.

 

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African diaspora at work- A school and clean water for Ruhanga SW Uganda

November 16, 2011 By
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In these photos is part of the story of what African diaspora can do when to impact development. Ruhanga is a remote village in SW Uganda and until recently had no running water and the local children especially those under 8 had no access to water. Having been introduced to the village by Ann McCarthy, I got work and in the early days that involved bringing a group of African diaspora women like Grace and Emang to help of and we set up a charity

 Let Them Help Themselves Out Of Poverty- is a UK registered charity no. 1127387

As they say the rest is history

This photo shows the typical day for a woman in Ruhanga SW Uganda. She works the land until mid-day, children in tow, she then has to carry water and food back to the house to cook meals for the household

School play ground under construction

What started off as a nursery school is now a school that provides education to 280 children through a sponsorship programme and Willy Nsubuga Mutenza a Uganda diaspora sponsors 5 of those children

These are some of the children from the school trying out the newly installed water

 

village children trying out the new water supply

this is Isaac one of the boys from the school

Tour around the village and the water source

We are fundraising for the children’s end of year and Xmas party and here is how you can support us http://www.mycharitypage.com/ethnicsupplies/

 

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Harnessing the Diaspora to Drive Investment, Enterprise Development and Jobs in Africa

November 15, 2011 By
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Do you live in the UK or can you get to London on the evening of 23rd November 2011 if so, Business Action for Africa, DFID, IDS, Shell Foundation  are putting on an African diaspora event

Speakers:

  • Welcome Remarks: Richard Gomez, Shell Foundation and Mirian Kene-Kachikwu, Co-Founder & Chairperson, Shell African Network
  • Georgina Awoonor-Gordon, Comic Relief
  • David Smith, British African Business Alliance
  • Ida Horner, Ethnic Supplies

Chair: Simon Maxwell, Research Fellow, ODI

 

Background:

The African diaspora are a potent force for driving investment, enterprise development and jobs in Africa.  A recent World Bank report estimates that there are at least 30 million people in the diaspora, with migrant remittances exceeding US$40bn in 2010.  Beyond remittances, the diaspora can be a powerful driver of trade, investment, enterprise development, job creation, innovation and skills


This event will explore:

  • Examples of practical initiatives and sources of finance aimed at harnessing the diaspora for development impact in Africa, and what the lessons are for how to do this most effectively.
  • Ideas for bringing together the different African diaspora communities currently working independently, to stimulate more collaboration around advocacy, action and knowledge sharing.
  • Advice on how governments and donors can help drive the scale and development impact of engagement by diaspora investors and entrepreneurs.
  • Thoughts on how multinational corporations investing in Africa can harness the diaspora to enhance the development impact of their investments.
How to register:

  • To register for this event, you first need to become a member of Business Fights Poverty. Membership is free and comes with a number of benefits. To become a member, click here.
  • Once you have become a member, return to this page and click on one of the RSVP options on the right hand side of the page.

http://www.businessfightspoverty.org/events/harnessing-the-diaspora-to-drive-investment-enterprise

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Celebrate Christmas African-style with AMREF!

November 13, 2011 By
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AMREF, Africa’s leading health charity, are holding their annual African Christmas Celebrations in December in the beautiful church of St. Dunstan-in-the-West on Fleet Street. There will be music from inspirational African choir ACDarts as well as a chance to hear from Dr Noerine Kaleeba, one of their international trustees, and enjoy a performance from AMREF’s maternal health ambassador, jazz singer and broadcaster Jumoké Fashola.

Afterwards, the AMREF team will welcome you back to ‘their place’ for African Christmas hospitality (as well as mulled wine and mince pies!). The event takes place on 6 and 8 December, and tickets are available for both, priced £20 for adults and £5 for children.

 

All funds raised will go towards AMREF’s work transforming health in East and Southern Africa. For more information and to order your tickets please call Lucy at AMREF on 020 7269 6865 or email l.scanlon@amrefuk.org.

 

 

 

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