Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
04 September 2024
Post No. 368
Welcome back Message
Before starting the contents of the blog and post of this first Wednesday of September 2024, we would like to welcome back all those who are returning this month.
We are welcoming back the following:
∝ Our users, project beneficiaries supporters, members, representatives of Africa-based Sister Organisations, audiences and other stakeholders who came back from Summer break and school holiday
∝ Those who are or have been working during the Summertime
∝ Those who lost touch with us for various reasons and would like to come back.
This welcoming back message also applies to those using or helping or supporting our UK and Africa Development programmes.
Welcome back to all of you for a happy, healthy and good return!
The Week’s Contents
• Back-to-relief Programme 2024: Programme for Pre-autumn Season 2024
• Goal of the Month: Reduction of Back-to-school Poverty in 2024
• Activity/Task 9 of the Transitions (‘t’) Year and Project: Guide People Who Are Transitioning
… And much more!
Key Messages
The key message from our weekly communication and menu, which is often made of three courses, is as follows.
• Back-to-relief Programme 2024: Programme for Pre-autumn Season 2024
To smooth the understanding of this key message, let us briefly explain back-to-relief programme, September as advice- and guidance-giving month within CENFACS, the particularity of this year’s programme, the potential beneficiaries of this programme, and the possible needs of these beneficiaries.
• • What Is Back-to-relief Programme?
Back-to-relief Programme is a set of related activities and services with an aim of reducing poverty (particularly back-to-school poverty but not exclusively) amongst multi-dimensional poor children, young and families (MDPCYPFs) by working with them to meet their needs after summer break and/or school holiday so that they can start September 2024 without or with less hardship.
The programme is made of a number of supportive elements like the following:
Capacity and skills development, advice, advocacy, translation, information, guidance, support to child educational needs in Africa, signposting, etc.
The programme is generally run around September and can be extended to October depending on the needs and demand in the community and available resources.
• • September: Advice- and Guidance-giving Month
We run Advice service as part of our activities throughout the year. However, Advice is CENFACS’ main theme in September and in the back-to-school season. Because of that, it is more pronounced in September and the back-to-school season compared to other months of the year. In other words, we invest more resources in advice in September than at any other times of the year.
We provide generalist advice to both individuals and organisations as mentioned above. We also give specialist advice on matters relating to the fields of poverty reduction and Africa’s development.
Where both individuals and organisations need specialist advice in other matters than poverty reduction or Africa’s development, we guide them. We can as well signpost beneficiaries to other organisations/individuals providing specialist advice if beneficiaries’ request for advice is beyond or outside our advice capacity and resources.
Advice and Guidance can be given in the context of Back-to-Relief Programme and outside this context. When Advice and Guidance are given in the context of Back-to-Relief Programme, they become constituent part of this programme like other elements making this programme.
The programme is particular in its kind as it targets certain types of returnees and what these returnees may need.
• • The Particularity of This Year’s Programme
The Back-to-relief 2024 programme is designed to include the needs of these returnees. It is also conceptualised to anticipate any changes of economic situation.
Our Back-to-relief 2024 programme will be delivered in the current context of the UK economy; context in which the current bank rate is 5% (1), the consumer prices index including owner occupiers’ housing costs rose by 3.1% (2) and the rise of 10% on average (3) from 1 October 2024 for the price to be paid for gas and electricity by most households.
These three indicators (that is, the bank rate, consumer prices index and energy price) affect or will affect the real household disposable income and the cost of living. The latter is still higher at the moment. Besides that, we shall factorise in this programme other events (like the lingering effects of the polycrises, changing climate, etc.). This year’s programme has been specifically designed to take account of these indicators.
• • Types of Returnees Who May Need This Year’s Programme
At the end of this Summer 2024 and during this September, we may have three types of returnees, who are:
√ MDPCYPFs who already planned what they want to do and how they will continue to manage the above-mentioned indicators and their other aspects of life
√ MDPCYPFs who already planned their start of September and the end of Summer 2024, but they may need some help to carry on with their plan or family project
√ MDPCYPFs who could not plan because they could be overwhelmed by the impact of these factors/indicators or poverty and may need advice or guidance in terms of coping strategies during this September
√ MDPCYPFs struggling with back-to-school transitions and change from Summer holiday to school return
√ MDPCYPFs who need transitionary skills and transitioning back-to-school programme to adjust to life cycle transition.
• • What These Returnees May Need
Because we are dealing with MDPCYPFs, who are supposed to be poor or in need, they could ask for some support in the form of information, advice and guidance to cope or manage their transition problems.
They could even require further advisory support during this September as many of them would face the pressure linked to the end of Summer and the start of Autumn, in particular those families having to deal with the financial pressure of the start of the new academic year for their children.
They need advice and guidance to cope with poverty in which they are already living, to deal with the on-going cost-of-living crisis and the financial pressure to send back to school their children for those having children at schooling age. This is why we have assembled and blended activities and services (that is; the Back-to-relief Programme) to work with them.
For more details on CENFACS’ Back-to-relief Programme, please read the details under Main Development section of this post.
• Goal of the Month: Reduction of Back-to-school Poverty in 2024
Our goal for the month of September 2024 is the reduction of back-to-school poverty. To deliver this goal, we need to understand it and work with those who may likely experience back-to-school poverty.
• • What Is Back-to-school Poverty?
Back-to-school poverty is the inability to afford the educational requirements of the start of the new school year. It is the incapability or incapacity for parents and carers to meet the basic life-sustaining needs of the education for their children in terms of purchasing school items (such as uniforms, clothes, books, electronics, etc.) and providing the basic infrastructures and necessities (whether it is at home or outside) to support the education of their children.
This incapacity can include other expenses that compete against or with educational materials; expenses that are school fees, living expenses to start a new school year, transport cost to travel to schools, food, a place to study at home, family relocation, adequate meal to study, a proper bed to sleep well, health costs, basic healthcare and hygiene at home, etc.
As Walden University (4) puts it,
“It [poverty] pervades multiple areas of life – and for parents whose income is below the poverty line, it often means sending their children to school hungry, along with other disadvantages, both academic and otherwise”.
For back-to-school poor children, back-to-school poverty or deprivations could be their inability to cope with changes, new routines and meeting new people.
Back-to-school poverty can be tackled. This is why during this September we will be working with those suffering or may suffer from back-to-school poverty so that they can find the tools and means to navigate their way out of this type of poverty.
• • Back-to-school Clinics to Help Tackle Back-to-school Poverty
CENFACS does not provide money to tackle back-to-school poverty; CENFACS can however work with parents of children going back to school in sessions whereby they can have social prescription or the tools to transition or navigate their way out of the back-to-school poverty.
CENFACS can work with the community through its advice service and other services so that the members of its community can find their way out of this type of poverty. Particularly and specifically, CENFACS’ Back-to-school Clinics can work with them to tackle back-to-school poverty or deprivations in the following ways:
√ Reducing the competition between living expenses and educational expenses within the household budget coverage
√ Exploring potential supporters to help them with educational costs for their children education
√ Budgeting with them their living expenses for a better start of the academic year
√ Examining together any issues relating to transport cost to travel to schools or places of education while advising them on net zero CO2 emitting means of transport
√ Discussing ways of saving on energy use, food and meals relating to educational purposes
√ Looking into school catchment area for those looking for a place to study
√ Working on a feasible and realistic plan when studying at home
√ Re-examining back-to-school spending and income budgets for households
√ Supporting family relocation matters (e.g., accommodation in the vicinity of schools and working places for parents)
√ Working with them to tackle hygiene poverty and learning poverty to keep children better engaged with their education and learning
√ Managing transitionary changes from the Summer schedule and routines to the school schedule
Etc.
The above is our poverty reduction goal for this month, which is part of our back-to-school campaign and which we are asking to our audiences and supporters to help or promote.
• Activity/Task 9 of the Transitions (‘t’) Year and Project: Guide People Who Are Transitioning
Our Transitions (‘t’) Year and Project has reached its 9th Activity/Task which is ‘Guide People Who Are Transitioning’.
• • What This Guidance Activity/Task Is about?
This Activity/Task is about guiding and supporting the people with transition problems by providing them practical tips and resources for transitions and change. It is about leading, directing and showing the way to those who are struggling with transitions and who need help, advice or counselling.
• • Supporting This Activity/Task
Those who would like to proceed with this activity/task by themselves can go ahead.
Those who would to be part of a working group helping in the realisation of this activity/task can let CENFACS know.
For those who need some help themselves before embarking on this activity/task, they can speak to CENFACS. To speak to CENFACS, they are required to plan in advance or prepare themselves regarding the issues they would like to raise.
For any other queries and enquiries about the ‘t‘ project and this year’s dedication, please contact CENFACS as well.
Extra Messages
• Financial Plan Updates for Households – In Focus from Wednesday 04/09/2024: Household Financial Action Plan
• Happiness, Healthiness and Wellness Journal – It is time to share the contents of your creative activity
• Unlock Your Summer 2024 Holiday Data and Tell Your Story
• Financial Plan Updates for Households – In Focus from Wednesday 04/09/2024: Household Financial Action Plan
Like any couple who would like to have a baby needs to plan, households too need to plan and update their finances if they want to have a financial security and peace of mind in the future.
As part of a 4-series of Financial Plan Updates for Households we are working with households making our community and wanting to update their financial plan. The first serial of these updates is on Household Financial Action Plan. Before going any further, let us explain the meaning of financial plan.
• • What Is a Financial Plan?
Financial plan can be defined in many ways. In this first serial of our Financial Plan Updates for Households, we are referring to the definition given by ‘financestrategists.com’ (5), which argues that
“A financial plan is a written statement of your current financial condition, intended financial state, a timeline for achieving [your financial] goals, and the steps you will take to get there”.
The same ‘financestrategists.com’ explains that
“Your current financial condition is the foundation for all financial planning and the goals you hope to achieve. It will involve adding up your income, estimating expenses, creating a budget, managing debt load, savings and investment inventory, and the like”.
Although ‘financestrategists.com’ clearly speaks about businesses in their definition of financial plan, their definition can be applied to households with some adjustments. Indeed, households need to clarify their financial goals and roadmap in the form of plan to indicate where they want go and to be in six months, one year, two years, etc. As ‘creditkarma.com'(6) puts it,
“With a financial plan, you can start and grow your savings, ensure you are prepared for emergencies, improve your quality of life, and set yourself up for a financially stable future”.
There are households which are skilful enough and capable of writing their own financial plan. Likewise, there are online resources and platforms that can help in producing financial plan. There are other households that need some help and support. Amongst them are the household members of the CENFACS Community.
Because we are also talking about financial action plan, we need to explain what an action plan is.
• • What Is an Action Plan?
The website ‘vennage.com’ (7) states that
“An action plan is a meticulously structured strategy that pinpoints specific steps, tasks and resources vital to turning a goal into reality… It is the strategic map that outlines every step, decision and pitstop needed to reach your ultimate decision”.
From this definition of action plan, it is possible to argue that a financial action plan is a meticulously structured strategy that applies to one’s finances. In the design of this strategy, one needs to include the above-mentioned definition of financial plan into their financial action plan. It is this financial action plan which is the focus of our work with the community this week.
• • Working with the Community on Financial Action Plan
There are many models of financial planning or steps. In our plan to work with the community, we are going to use the following model of eight components of financial planning as explained by ‘financestrategists.com’ (op. cit.):
1) Financial goals (what households hope to achieve with their money)
2) Net worth statement (a snapshot of their financial health)
3) Cash flow projections (a detailed estimate of their income and expenses)
4) Short-, medium- and long-term budget (a plan of 6 months to 2 years, 2 to 5 years, 5 to 10 years or more on how they are going to earn and spend their money)
5) Debt management plan (a thought-out arrangement on how they are going to pay their creditors/lenders)
6) Investment plan (a strategy to make their money work for them and grow their money)
7) Insurance plan (a cover for life, health and disability)
8) Retirement plan (assurance that they will have enough money to live on during the retirement).
To the above eight points, we can add children’s future planning, education planning, tax planning, etc. To be consistent with themselves, households need to monitor and review their financial plan.
So, our work with them will be about reviewing their financial plan and updating it in the light and in line with new data in their life circumstances and changing economic climate. Financial planning will help them deal with economic variables (like inflation, interest rate), contingency emergencies, enjoy a better standard of living, increase their savings, and have a financial peace of mind. It is finally about getting their finances organised.
Those who may be interested in updating their Financial Action Plan can contact CENFACS for further details.
If you need support with your Financial Plan Updates, please do not hesitate to communicate with CENFACS.
• Happiness, Healthiness and Wellness Journal – It is time to share the contents of your creative activity
After six weeks of journaling, it is time to start sharing the contents of your journal. Indeed, during the last six weeks of Summer, some of you have been journaling on one of the six predictors that explain happiness and healthiness, which are: income, social support, healthy life expectancy, generosity, freedom, and trust. They have been also journaling on the components of wellness.
As previously said, the contents of these journals could be shared with the community at the end of Summer 2024 as a Summer memory or souvenir. Although Summer is not yet over, those who have created their Happiness, Healthiness and Wellness Journal can start to share with the community. However, in order to share their contents they may need a strategy and tools as well as to monitor their social performance.
• • Content Sharing Strategy
You need to plan or strategize yourself the way in which you want to share your content. In other words, you need to have a process of or planning and conducting some content sharing tasks.
• • Content Sharing Tools
You also need implements or instruments to deliver your content to us and others.
For example, if you want to share you content online you can refer to online tools to do it. Let say you use Twitter. You can use Twitter feed to share your content to a range of platforms. You can go online to share your content. You can use online tools to do it. You can share it multiple times. You need to have social sharing plugins on.
• • Monitoring Your Social Performance
You can monitor your performance in content sharing.
For example, you can monitor the traffic you get to your posts relating to Happiness, Healthiness and Wellness Journal, whether it is online or offline.
Please share with the community your experience of happy, healthy and good Summer through the contents of your journal to help build a better Summer holiday experience and memory.
• Unlock Your Summer 2024 Holiday Data and Tell Your Story
In our July and August 2024 communications, we asked everybody to store and keep their Summer data so that when we all return in September, we can report back or share parts of our Summer experiences that are shareable and spreadable.
Now some of you are back, we can try to feedback our poverty-reduction and development experiences of using Happiness, Healthiness and Wellness projects and of any other similar activities over the Summer period. To feedback, you may need ways of unlocking your summer data.
• • Ways of Unlocking Your Summer Data
To unlock your Summer data, one can proceed with the following:
σ Have your holiday records updated, complete and accurate
σ Know where your data is stored or sitting (e.g., mobile phone camera, laptop, tablet, etc.)
σ Extract your data including images from sources where they are stored
σ Use technology or manual means to unlock them
etc.
• • What You Can Report Back or Story You Can Tell
Apart from the above-mentioned experiences, one can feedback any creations, any other experiences, any community practices and any volunteering stories, if they volunteered, they had over the last two months.
One can report back a personal Summer experience as well.
Likewise, one can combine their Summer journal (about predictors that explain happiness and healthiness) and this reporting back exercise into a single or all-in-one Summer report.
For those who managed to store their Summer data and who would like to share their experiences, this is the time to start unlocking their Summer data and preparing to tell their Summer story.
• • The Good Thing about Sharing Your Experiences
Sharing your experiences with us helps to keep the CENFACS Community active, engaged, connected and grow together. It also contributes in carrying out prescriptive analytics that enables to use smart data discovery capabilities to predict market developments, trends and insights to help relieve or possibly end poverty and hardships within our community and beyond.
Please share your poverty-relieving and development experiences and contents with us; parts of your experiences and contents that you think are shareable and perhaps spreadable.
Should anyone have any concern about data protection issues regarding the sharing of their information, please let CENFACS know. We will be able to assist.
Message in French (Message en français)
• Examen de la performance financière
Ce qui suit est le récapitulatif de nos encaissements et paiements pour l’exercice se terminant le 30 juin 2024.
Du côté des paiements, les effets persistants du coût de la vie se sont poursuivis. En raison de ces effets, nos coûts ont augmenté, sauf pour les bénévoles et les comptes de ravitaillement. Nous avons fourni des rafraîchissements à faible coût et couvert des dépenses très raisonnables pour les bénévoles.
Trois comptes (c’est-à-dire timbres-poste, transports et voyages, et bureaux divers) ont affiché une augmentation énorme.
En ce qui concerne les comptes postaux, nous devions maintenir des moyens d’impliquer nos usagers et les bénéficiaires de projets qui étaient encore attachés au courrier imprimé et papier. Cependant, le prix de l’affranchissement de première classe d’une lettre pesant de 0 à 100g est passé de 1,25 £ en 2023 à 2,70 £ en 2024. Cette augmentation a eu un impact sur notre compte de timbres-poste.
Concernant les transports et les déplacements, nous avons continué à travailler en mode hybride. Nous avons continué à investir dans des moyens de travail en ligne et virtuels afin d’améliorer l’efficacité de l’ensemble du CENFACS. Mais, cela ne nous a pas empêché d’améliorer nos contacts en personne avec les intervenants. Cependant, l’augmentation du prix des transports et des services connexes a entraîné une augmentation de nos transports et de nos déplacements en raison des réunions en personne, du réseautage et du travail de sensibilisation.
Pour ce qui est des articles divers du bureau, nous avons dépensé un montant raisonnable pour répondre aux besoins de l’administration du bureau à la suite des économies que nous avons réalisées l’année précédente sur ce compte. Ces dépenses diverses de bureau étaient destinées à nous couvrir contre l’incertitude de l’économie.
Les autres comptes qui ont connu une augmentation sont l’impression et la photocopie (54%), la papeterie et les livres (26%), les abonnements informatiques (10%), la téléphonie mobile et l’internet (34%). En effet, pour répondre aux préférences des usagers et aux évolutions technologiques, nous avons dû maintenir un niveau de stock de papeterie relativement adéquat. Cela nous a permis d’éviter les ruptures de stock. De même, le prix des cartouches d’encre était plus élevé. Pourtant, les estampes étaient toujours populaires parmi nos utilisateurs. En outre, les frais d’hébergement Web et de large bande ont été augmentés; ce qui signifie que notre abonnement informatique ne pouvait pas rester le même.
En ce qui a trait à la collecte de fonds et aux recettes, il restait à relever le défi de recueillir les fonds nécessaires pour répondre aux besoins de la communauté. Cela pourrait s’expliquer en partie par l’effet cumulatif des effets persistants de la crise du coût de la vie et de l’incertitude économique qui a continué à susciter des hésitations ou des réticences à l’égard de nombreux donateurs et bailleurs de fonds individuels.
Nous devons admettre que nous avons encore des demandes de financement pour lesquelles nous n’avons pas encore reçu de réponses de donateurs/bailleurs de fonds/bailleurs de fonds potentiels. Cela signifie qu’il y a des raisons de croire qu’il est encore possible d’obtenir des réponses positives de leur part ou de générer des fonds.
A propos de fonds de trésorerie, nos fonds de trésorerie ont maintenu leurs tendances ascendantes. Au cours de l’exercice 2023/2024, nous avons enregistré la même augmentation (12%) que lors de l’exercice 2022/2023. D’un point de vue comptable, nous avons réussi à augmenter nos recettes par rapport aux paiements, car nos recettes ont presque souligné une augmentation de 12 %. Nous avons continué à faire des économies sur le budget à l’étranger, les frais de bénévolat, les rafraîchissements, la publicité et l’annonce, la traduction, le matériel et le mobilier de bureau, les bénéficiaires des projets, la recherche et le développement et les coûts de collecte de fonds. Cette augmentation et les économies réalisées sur les paiements ont donné lieu à un solde net positif de notre compte des recettes et des paiements pour l’exercice.
Nous espérons que le rebond de nos fonds de trésorerie se poursuivra régulièrement et sera même perceptible au cours de l’exercice 2024/2025. Nous pouvons également nous attendre à ce que les fruits de nos efforts de collecte de fonds apparaissent pleinement au cours du nouvel exercice financier (2024/2025) et au-delà.
Nous pouvons nous attendre à ce que les nouvelles politiques gouvernementales en matière de financement des organismes de bienfaisance ouvrent une nouvelle fenêtre de possibilités pour accroître le soutien financier à notre noble et belle cause de la réduction de la pauvreté.
Nous avons hâte que la communauté fasse davantage de dons à mesure que l’économie et la situation financière s’améliorent.
Merci.
Main Development
• Back-to-relief Programme 2024: Programme for Pre-autumn Season 2024
The following covers our programme for this pre-autumnal season:
∝ Back-to-relief Projects
∝ Open Days under Back-to-Relief Programme
∝ Support for Crises-impacted Children in Africa
∝ Back to the Upkeep of the Nature This September 2024
∝ Back to Advisory Support this September 2024
∝ Back to the Upkeep of the Nature with the Theme of “Brown Spaces”
∝ Brown Spaces-focused Note for Week Beginning 04/09/2024
Let us briefly explain these contents.
• • Back-to-relief Projects
As previously mentioned, most of our projects and programmes are organised to take into account the lives and needs of our beneficiaries, supporters as well. Some of them will be back this week after Summer break. They are back for the New Academic Year and New Relief, year for which we have prepared projects and programmes to work with them so that they can meet their existing, challenging, changing and emerging needs – the back-to-relief projects and programmes.
Amongst the back-to-relief projects and programmes, there are these two ones: Open Days and Support to Children.
• • Open Days under Back-to-Relief Programme
Since we set up hybrid way of delivering service as a legacy of the coronavirus, we continue to operate virtually/online and in-person. There are reasons we operate both ways.
One of these reasons is that it is not always easy for people, especially those who have some physical handicaps and parents with small kids, to in-person move and meet service providers if this service provision cannot physically come to them even if the need is pressing.
Where we are in a position to in-person organise the service requested, users can in-person access the given service prior to arranging an appointment.
So, our open days will be both virtual and in-person. They are virtual days to enable those in need but cannot move physically to access services. They are in-person for those who prefer in-person open days. For the latter ones, they need to book an appointment for in-person open day to happen.
• • • What are virtual and in-person open days?
Virtual and In-person Open Days (VIODs) are days and hours when CENFACS Community members and the members of sister communities can have real chance or taste of poverty reduction experience with CENFACS. They are part of a back-to-relief initiative or campaign organised by CENFACS during this September 2024 to enable people in need to access our advice service and other similar services in order to reduce or end poverty linked to their situations or conditions of life.
• • • How VIODs work
Our Virtual Open Day, which will be every Fridays of September 2024, will be held from 10 am to 2 pm.
You can access VODs by contacting CENFACS.
You do not need to register with us.
Every Fridays, you can either email or phone or even text between 10 am and 2 pm.
Our In-person Open Day, which will also be every Fridays of September 2024, will be held from 10 am to 2 pm. An appointment needs to be booked to have in-person open day.
For more on CENFACS’ Virtual and In-person Open Hours and Days as well as how they work, please contact us.
• • Support for Crisis-impacted Children in Africa
Another back-to-relief initiative for this September 2024 is Support for Crisis-impacted Children in Africa, particularly the Children of Conflict-stricken and Climate Change-affected Areas of Africa in this September and beyond. The majority of these children may not start school or return to school this September because of the following events:
> the outbreak of fighting internally displacing them (like the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo)
> violence against them as it is happening in the Central Sahel region of Africa
> severe weather conditions (e.g., flooding in Sudan)
> severe acute malnutrition (e.g., in East Africa)
etc.
As a result of these events on children not starting or returning to school this September, we shall revisit the following eight humanitarian appeals, which are:
√ Libya-Morocco Joint Influence Appeal
√ Support Children Impacted by Crisis in Africa
√ Giving Hope for the Humanitarian Needy of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2024
√ Halving Children Poverty in the G5 Sahel
√ Lighting a Blaze of Hope for the Rain-hit and Food Insecure in Chad, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo
√ The New Internally Displaced Persons of Insecurity in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Need Lighting a Blaze of Hope
√ Burundi’s Flood Victims Ask for Your Aid
√ The Conflict- and Natural Disaster-related Internally Displaced Persons in Africa Need Your Influence Now!
These appeals were launched under the Light projects.
The people on whose behalf these appeals were made included children. Children were amongst displaced persons, the victims of conflict, the impacted of natural events and food insecure as part of appeal beneficiaries.
While one can still ask the progress made to save and rebuild these crises-impacted lives, one can also question about the support that the children affected by these crises are receiving and/or received, especially at this challenging time of the pressures of the costs of living.
This questioning is relevant as we are in September when a new school or academic year starts in many parts of the world and of Africa. This questioning is even founded at this time when many parents will struggle to provide school uniforms and equipment to send their children back to school.
Parents and children have another battle where school infrastructures and buildings were destroyed because of events like wars and natural disasters, or simply occupied as refuges by the war and climate change victims.
These negative effects are even greater for children from poor places in developing countries (like of Africa) where educational opportunities have been denied to many of them regardless of the current global economic situation.
So, during this September we will be working on this back-to-relief initiative to explore ways of keeping education alive for these unfortunate children living in those parts of Africa in crisis. Through this initiative, we will help get education and learning back on track for these children.
For further details about this initiative, please contact CENFACS.
• • Back to the Upkeep of the Nature This September 2024
September is also the month we resume our advocacy work on the upkeep of the nature. Normally, this advocacy starts from the protection and care of animals in Africa from illegal killings, extinction and poaching. In the last week of September 2024, we shall focus on saving endangered fish through our new initiative called ‘Mbisi’ (that is, Maintaining Bagrus In Situ Inhabitation). It is an advocacy for the endangered fish species.
Mbisi is a new advocacy project planned by CENFACS to help protect critically endangered fish species and keep them up in their natural habitat in Africa. Fishes like Bagrus, Boyoma Falls Upside Down Catfish, the Ruwenzori Lampeye, the Line-spotted Ufipa Barb, the Arnegard Electric Fish, the Kunungu Air-Breathing Catfish, African Wedgefish (Rynchobatus Luebbert) and the Angel Squeaker are endangered species because of environmental threats and unregulated fishing activities.
The ‘Mbisi’ project, which has already kicked off, will help us to advocate for a safe life for fish species.
Another initiative featuring this September 2024 is our advocacy on lands which will be conducted under the theme of “Brown Spaces“. Brown Spaces take stock of the advocacy on spaces which we worked on since September 2019.
In September 2019, we worked on the Protection of the Oceans (particularly the waters surrounding Africa and the rivers and lakes in Africa). In September 2020, we carried on with the advocacy on waters through the theme of “Blue Spaces”. In September 2021, we had a 3-week work on sea level rise as notes for the “Blue Spaces”. In September 2022, we had three weeks and five days of advocacy work on safe, inclusive and accessible Green spaces. In September 2023, we continued our space analysis and advocacy with the theme of “Grey Spaces” and space implications for poverty reduction and sustainable development.
This September 2024, we are advocating about Brown Spaces, the redevelopment of these spaces (that is, brown space or brownfield redevelopment). The notes for this new advocacy which are on “the Redevelopment of Brownfields or Brown Spaces” start from the 4th of September 2024.
To conclude the month, we will have some e-discussions on circular economy.
Briefly, Back to the Upkeep of the Nature this September 2024 will include the “Mbisi” advocacy project, access to natural spaces with the theme of “Brown Spaces” and an e-discussion on circular economy (on how to improve circularity inside your household).
• • Back to Advisory Support This September 2024
As above mentioned, Advice is CENFACS’ main theme for September. We provide advice to both individuals and organisations.
• • • Advice Service for Individuals
Some of you are aware that most of CENFACS services in the UK are designed to support multi-dimensional poor children, young people and families (CYPFs). After the summer break, many of them will come back to start their life again. From September onward, they will go back to school for CYPs and to work and training for parents and guardians.
They may need or ask for support to restart or look for occupational opportunity or even just resume their routine activity in September. Their needs could include the following:
∝ Finding a new school or a nursery for children
∝ Registration to health services
∝ Finding accommodation or relocating
∝ Accessing training opportunity or employment
∝ Looking for a new occupation to deal with the economic effects of the costs of living
∝ Finding help to adjust their life after Summer break or any period of inactivity
∝ Looking for direction to overcome the lingering effects of the cost-of-living crisis
∝ Finding ways of resetting or changing their systems of living
Etc.
Besides the above main menu, we shall have Transitioning Back-to-school Programme. This is a new experiment or experience of working with parents or families who may struggle to manage back-to-school transitions for children suffering from mobility to cope with changes, new routines and meeting new people.
We can provide advisory support to them. Where our capacity is limited, we can refer and/or signpost them to relevant specialist services and organisations to help them meet their needs.
We do it under CENFACS’ Capacity Advice Service which was established since 2004 (through CENFACS’ Capacity Advice and Development project for Croydon’s African and Minority Ethnic People) to help individuals gain various types of help.
The types of help we provide include:
√ Translation (English to French and vice versa)
√ Interpreting
√ Generalist advice
√ Guidance
√ Signposting
√ Referral
√ Advocacy
Etc.
As we are in a digital era, we adapted the provision of the above listed help while still retaining its essence. Three years ago, we introduced leaves in this service to make it Leaves-based Advice Service.
You can contact CENFACS for the range of issues included in this service and to find out if your problem can be dealt with.
Regarding Translation service, we would like to remind everybody that the 30th of September 2024 is the International Translation Day. For those who need a translation service, they can contact us on the day for translation. But, they need to let us know at least three days before so that we can include their request in our plan.
• • • Advice Service for Organisations
The same advice service applies to overseas and Africa-based Sister Organisations.
Under our international advice service, we can advise them on the following matters:
√ Capacity building and development
√ Project planning and development
√ Poverty reduction within the context of Africa Continental Free Trade Area
√ Not-for-profit investment and development
√ Absorption capacity development
√ Fundraising and grant-seeking leads
√ Income generation and streams
√ Sustainable development
√ Not-for-profit investment and impact investing
√ Monitoring and evaluation
Etc.
Again, where our capacity to advise is limited, we can refer and or signpost them to relevant international services and organisations. This advisory support for Africa-based Sister Organisations is throughout the year and constituent part of our work with them. However, they can take advantage of our advice-giving month to seek further advice on any of the above matters.
To access advice services, please contact CENFACS. To register for or enquire about advice services, go to www.cenfacs.org.uk/services-activities.
• • Back to the Upkeep of the Nature with the Theme of “Brown Spaces”
The following will help deal with this theme: theme statement and key notes covering this theme.
• • • Theme statement
The theme of “Brown Spaces” under the back to the upkeep of the nature (which is part of our back-to-relief programme) is about making the redevelopment of brown spaces benefit from blue and green spaces in a safe, inclusive and accessible way. It is also about working for this redevelopment of brown spaces brings new opportunities to those in need to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development.
To help achieve poverty reduction and sustainable development in the redevelopment brown spaces, there could be a need to mainstream conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, to ensure biodiversity-inclusive urbanisation and to improve the health and well-being of the potential beneficiaries of this redevelopment.
Therefore, we are going to look at how the redevelopment of brown spaces can benefit the people in need. Before looking at it, let us define brown spaces.
• • • What Is a Brown Space?
Within the literature about spaces, brown spaces or brownfields are underdeveloped green spaces found in both urban and rural areas. There are many definitions about these spaces which have a common denominator.
According to ‘gosolve.co.uk’ (8),
“Brownfield land refers to previously developed sites that have become underutilised or abandoned, often due to changing industrial practice or contamination from former use”.
The website ‘safetyculture.com’ (9) takes even a hard line of reasoning to define brownfield as
“A piece of land or property that has been previously used for industrial or commercial purposes and is suspected to have been contaminated, such as soil contamination due to toxic waste. Put simply, a brownfield is a piece of land that has been contaminated with dangerous substances and may pose a risk to the people who will be using it in the future when it is not properly cleaned up”.
Adversely, the website ‘eli.org’ (10) argues that there could be benefits deriving from the redevelopment of brown spaces. In particular, ‘eli.org’ explains that
“When owners or developers clean up brownfields and put them to new uses, many people benefit. Clean ups address environmental problems. Redevelopment can bring new jobs and higher tax revenues. Revitalised brownfields can breathe new life into neighbourhoods”.
It is the number of benefits deriving from the redevelopment or clean up of brownfields, in particular but not limited to the poor, which makes the substance of our work on brown spaces and their redevelopment. To work on them, we have organised ourselves in the manner indicated below.
• • • Four key notes to work on Brown Spaces
To materialise what we have said above, we have planned four key notes or topics (as shown on the above figure relating to brown space theme) which include:
1) The benefits from the redevelopment of Brown Spaces to the community
2) Elimination of health and safety hazards
3) Bringing new opportunities (e.g., jobs into the community, impact investing)
4) Interaction between the redevelopment of Brown Spaces, Blue Spaces, Green Spaces and Grey Spaces in the Process of Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development.
The notes or topics will be the vehicle by which we shall illustrate the central theme or message of the redevelopment of Brown Spaces. Through these notes, we hope users in their journey with us to undergo change in the long term in the way they approach Brown Spaces.
Let’s now summarise the first note or topic of our September 2024 work on Brown Spaces; note which started from 04 September 2024.
• • Brown Spaces-focused Note from Wednesday 04/09/2024: The Benefits from the Redevelopment of Brown Spaces to the Community
Cleaning up and reusing a site which once was brown one can result in a number of benefits as the literature on brown spaces shows. What are these benefits?
• • • Benefits arising from the Redevelopment of Brown Spaces
The literature on the Redevelopment of Brown Spaces provides a number of benefits. Amongst the benefits, are
> the creation of goodwill for the community
> the reduction of the likelihood of contaminated property
> the decrease in liabilities for the environment
> addressing the challenges of growing populations
> dealing with urbanisation issue
> optimization of the use of land
etc.
It is this kind of benefits that we are dealing with.
• • • Making the redevelopment benefits reach the poor
It would be desirable that these benefits go to the poor (for example, a social housing development stemming from the Redevelopment of Brown Spaces benefiting the poor as long as it is safe and healthy for human occupation). If these benefits do not trickle down to the poor, then there is a problem that needs to be addressed in terms of fair distributional effects resulting from the redevelopment of brownfields or brown spaces.
There is more to argue and prove about the benefits from the Redevelopment of Brown Spaces to the Community.
• • • Working with CENFACS Community members to capture the redevelopment benefits
What we are interested in here is whether or not these benefits go to the poor, especially our community members. We are as well interested in the experience that our members had with the redevelopment of Brown Spaces in terms of poverty reduction and sustainable development.
Those of our members living nearby the areas of the redevelopment of brown spaces may or may not know what they can do. They may not be aware that they could be consulted to provide their opinion about the redevelopment. They may or may not be informed if there have been health and safety tests on the site.
By working together with them, they can improve the way they can participate in the decision-making process relating the go-ahead about the redevelopment of brown spaces. By working together, we can identify areas of unmet needs within our community and generate projects or activities to help satisfy those unmet needs.
So, this note will help us to work together with the community members on ways of finding the bases for self-organisation, negotiation, empowerment and providing their opinion in the decision-making process relating to the redevelopment of brown spaces, should they get consulted.
For those of our members who would like to work with us on how they can self-organise, negotiate and empower themselves, they are welcome to work with us. Amongst those who can work with us are those who have been consulted to give their opinion about a particular redevelopment of brown spaces near where they live.
For those members who would like to share their experience in terms of the benefits resulting from the redevelopment of brown spaces regarding their safety, inclusivity and accessibility to services offered as well as effects on their lives; they are also invited to share it with us.
For those who would like to further discuss with us any other matters or insights relating to the redevelopment of Brown Spaces, they should not hesitate to contact CENFACS.
Finally, those who have any queries and enquiries about this year’s Back-to-relief Programme and Projects 2024, they can let CENFACS know them.
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• References
(1) https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy-summary-and-minutes/2024/august-2024 (accessed in September 2024)
(2) https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices (accessed in September 2024)
(3) https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/energy-price-cap (accessed in September 2024)
(4) www.waldenu.edu/progressas/education/resource/what-is-poverty-and-what-role-does-it-play-in-our-school (accessed in September 2023)
(5) https://www.financestrategists.com/financial-advisor/financial-plan/ (accessed in September 2024)
(6) https://www.creditkarma.com/financial-planning (accessed in September 2024)
(7) https://vennage.com/blog/action-plan/# (accessed in September 2024)
(8) https://www.gosolve.co.uk/brown-grey-green-field-land-development (accessed in September 2024)
(9) https://www.safetyculture.com/topics/brownfields/ (accessed in September 2024)
(10) https://www.eli.org/brownfields-program/brownfields-basics# (accessed in September 2024)
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• Help CENFACS Keep the Poverty Relief Work Going This Year
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Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.
Thank you as well to those who made or make comments about our weekly posts.
We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support throughout 2024 and beyond.
With many thanks.
