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Do you get the Drumbeat newsletter? Every so often they send out an issue on Awards and funding. These tend to be small-scale and specific to people or areas – but if you fit these conditions…why not try? For example, New Field Foundation has grant money and wants the submission of introductory information from organisations in certain areas of West Africa that are: headed by African women; working to improve rural women’s organisations, their families, communities, and countries etc; Deadline: Rolling > New Field Foundation Grants

Social Centre for Humanitarian services, Agriculture and Environmental Protection (SCHAEP) development program [ History ] [ Purpose ] [ Objectives ] [ Activities ] [ Partners ] HISTORY OF THE ORGANISATION Liberalization in Cameroon’s economy has led to the abandonment of farmers to unscrupulous market forces – forced to buy expensive farm inputs and sell their produce at giveaway prices. SCHAEP was launched as a capacity-building organization to assist farmers in Kumba to control, manage and benefit from the proceeds of their labour. As members of the community living the experience, the following problems were diagnosed by SCHAEP’s working team: Lack of organization amongst the farmers and hence poor communication. Poor sales of agricultural products due to lack of common markets. High cost of farm inputs as a result of individual purchase as opposed to less costly group purchase. Farmers’ reluctance to modernize traditional farming methods. Inability to resolve boundary problems amicably. Poor management of the farms’ hard-earned proceeds. Lack of knowledge re diversification of resources to generate more income at the end of production season. Rapid population growth due to migration from other villages for fertile lands. Poor hygienic conditions both at home and on the farms. PURPOSE OF THE ORGANIZATION (MISSION) SCHAEP aims to teach, train and organize the farms into common initiative groups through which they can better manage their agricultural products to their benefit. SCHAEP further seeks to empower the farmers physically, morally, and financially so that they can later on solve their own problems. OBJECTIVES To assist communities in the villages by building their capacity on how to live and work in common initiative groups, in order to strengthen their bargaining position over sales of their produce and purchase of farm inputs. Train members of common initiative groups in the need for good governance and accountability. Educate the common initiative groups on individual management of resources. Teach the farmers nutrition and hygiene. Establish a school outreach program on environmental protection through tree planting and formation of clubs. Advocate and lobby for programs that will help the public and members of common initiative groups. Give assistances to widows and their children. Increase farm yields and raise the standard of living. PLANNED ACTIVITIES Create more common initiative groups in the village and neighbouring villages. Inform members of the market trend of their produce. Plant trees in schools. Train farmers on management, leadership and accountability in running and managing a common initiative group. Support widows and their children in vocational institutions. Carry out vision education in the community and schools. COLLABORATION WITH OTHER INSTITUTIONS SCHAEP works with farmers irrespective of race, colour and religion, and with quarter and village heads, which are auxiliary of government. SCHAEP volunteers are available to other organizations for further training. SCHAEP also seeks volunteers to work with its programs.

Big business, with its pursuit of profit at all costs, creates some huge problems in society. Such as poisoned environments, factories run with slave labour… and the process of globalisation is spreading them everywhere. So what can the little person do? Just this: make a conscious choice not to participate – and actively search out better alternatives. Because while the world is awash with stuff we don’t need, we definitely do need more ethical entrepreneurs. And, at the same time, conscious consumers. A nice example is Sanchi Bags, recently started up in India with the vision to promote the use of eco-friendly products and empower women. The idea is that the fashionable bags – including ones for laptops and tablets – will attract youth into the “go green” movement and become trendsetters across generations. The bags are made from locally-sourced biodegradable material and, most importantly, manufactured in their own households by suburban and rural woman homemakers. You can connect with Sanchi via their facebook page www.facebook.com/sanchibags

This expanded edition of Bryan Walker’s manual is updated and restructured, and has a new section of games and learning activities. » Download directly from the Library

Networklearning’s newest manual aims to give carers – and their supervisors – greater insight into the work that they do for their older clients. Caring for The Elderly : Best Practice in Person-centred Care includes examples from colleagues in the field and exercises for learning skills.

Will you have the money for Windows 2012 or Apple SuperDuper? If you may not, think again about the no-cost alternatives. The Word Programme that you already have includes functions that have been around for over 20 years and will be perfectly adequate for your lifetime. OR there are free, good quality Open Source programmes that you can download: for example, OpenOffice does everything Word can: Could you write a good-looking document? Yes. Could you send it to colleagues whatever programme they are using and have them open it? Yes. Could you open old documents? Almost certainly. But if there is a really old document that you need but cannot open, you could consult Jon, our technical expert at networklearning. > Contact