First Thursday August conversations - part 2 - How can Individuals Make a Difference? August 8, 2010
Now for the final lively conversations: items 13 -15 below. I have marked them clearly so you can easily scroll down to an item that interests you.
13 - Edi and Pamela Tidying up Some Loose Ends
14 - How can Individuals Make a Difference? - Some Practicalities
15 - End note - how to connect with us if you want to get involved
Earlier parts of First Thursday August 2010 were published in First Thursday August 2010 - The People and Trying Skype Public Chat
and in First Thursday August conversation - part 1
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13 - Edi and Pamela Tidying up Some Loose Ends
I belatedly noticed the chat had restarted and responded - although it seemed at first that everyone really had left now:
Pamela
- thank you for coming back
- sorry - I did not wait longer
- I thought that you had left us. Many thanks for your input.
- Thank you for continuing to persevere despite the glitches you had
- We are grateful that you do have a such an amazingly good connection given the area where you are based - thanks to Zittnet.
- We appreciate the way that we are usually able to have all the meetings that we schedule. We understand that sometimes there are glitches and delays.
Edi Jerry
- Thanks Pam
Pamela
- Edi - thank you for your input, and please thank Chollom and Kelechi for theirs too.
Edi Jerry
- Sorry for my absence
- it was break - when my counsellors had all gone out and i sveral clients coming in to uptake HCT
Pamela
- I understand that there are always lots of things going on.
Edi Jerry
- It was absolutely useful. Thanks for your patience
- At a point I was not seeing anybody again
- and I thot you had all left
Pamela
- yes - that problem about not seeing anybody.... we were hoping you would type again
- we thought you had left.
- sometimes it seems that skype holds on the the messages for a long time then they all come through at the same time
- but it does it in different ways for differnt people!
- sometimes Nikki and i are in a UK-Nigeria meeting and we are sitting next to each other - and soemthing will come up on one computer before it comes up on the other
- usually it is all smooth and simple - but soemtimes it is very odd
Edi Jerry
- yeah, some uncertainties which come technology i guess
Editor’s note:It was not just the people at Fantsuam who experienced some problems. Oluniyi described his connection as “epileptic”(a term Nigerians also often apply to their electricity supply). While the connection was fast again Edi and I had a final chat.
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14 - How can Individuals Make a Difference? - Some Practicalities
Edi Jerry
- To know people care and are willing to help is awesome
Pamela
- I think many people are concerned with the inequalities that we see in the world
- but it is not easy to see what can be done - except to give to big NGOs
Edi Jerry
- you are right
Pamela
- but people do not always want to do that - or they do not have much money to give
Edi Jerry
- sometimes one is blinded by the depth of such inequalities such that you begin to wonder if people will ever care
Pamela
- sometimes they want to understand the situation better
- yes - the problems seem so big
Edi Jerry
- especially when faced with it and there is only very little one can do
Pamela
- yes - but there is the saying that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness
- what if John or Comfort had decided the problem was too big and they could not do anything about it
Edi Jerry
- it must be pretty tough for Fantsuam - doing much, but in reality only able to little compared to the magnitude of the problem
Pamela
- yes - but if we could have "more Fantsuams".. then perhaps that would help
Edi Jerry
- you are right it much much better ti light a candle than to curse the darkness
Pamela
- and if we could find more people from outside who could all do something (even it was only a little something) to help Fantsaum and the "other Fantsuams"...
- then perhaps we would all feel encouraged by the bigger results we would see....
Edi Jerry
- pls gimme a minit
- i need to handle a case quckly
Pamela
- sure
- I do not mean to keep you when you have other work to do. You have already been very generous with your time
Edi Jerry
- ok, Pam. I am about to go now thanks a million
- bye
- have a good evening
The information above has been edited down from complete unedited archive of First Thursday August 2010 and slightly re-ordered to make for easier reading
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15 - End note - how to connect with us if you want to get involved
If you want to play your part in the Dadamac Community then we will help you to find the overlap between your interests and ours - just as we are doing with Elaine.
As my profile on twitter says - 'I’m helping people in UK and Africa to connect, to learn from each other, and work together on all kinds of stuff. '
You can send me an email at pamela.mclean(at sign)dadamac.net , or add a comment below or tweet me - my twitter ID is Pamela_McLean.
We hope sometime to put up on our website all the ways that people can get involved - but we are a small team and there is much to be done - so we need help in getting that information onto the website (that is one of many ways you might like to help us). Also Dadamac Foundation has no external support and no fundraiser - you might like to get involved there. The best way is to explore shared interests so we can create a role that is win-win - closely fitting what you most want to give.
Please spread the word to anyone who might like to copy Elaine’s example and give us some of their spare time.
(If anyone prefers to give money, that can be done online through Dadamac Foundation . None of us gets paid by Dadamac Foundation, but if you want any of our team to work for you that can be arranged through Dadamac Limited) .
Thank you for your interest
Pamela