Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

17 October 2018

Post No. 61

The Week’s Contents

• A la une Campaign: Marine Biodiversity and Poverty Relief

• Micro-Volunteering with Smart Tasks

• All-year round Projects: Play, Run and Vote this Autumn

… and much more!

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents

~ Marine Biodiversity and Poverty Relief

The main message of this week’s communication is the continuation of the A la une (Autumn Leaves of Action to Upkeep the Nature in Existence) campaign with Marine Biodiversity (or Life in the seas and oceans) as a themed area of focus.

Marine Biodiversity has to be placed within the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14 of Life Below Water; goal which is stated as conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.  The Marine Biodiversity advocacy at CENFACS is in line with above goal and its targets.

Under the Main Developments section of this post, we have provided further details about this themed area.

~ Micro Volunteering with Smart Tasks

Last week, we provided you with some of the new ways we would like to add to our traditional ways of getting support.  This addition to our usual way of getting support we have called it as no direct cash donations support. 

Taking the same path in embracing the changes that are happening in the way charities get support, especially as we are increasingly in a mobile society, we will be using mobile technology and campaign to reach out to our supporters.  As a result, some volunteering opportunities will arise within CENFACS through its All in Development Volunteering Scheme.

We would like to re-engage with our supporters via a mobile smart phone.  We will be giving to our newly recruited volunteers some micro smart tasks and activities towards the end of the year.    

Under the Main Developments section of this post, we have given some basic details about Micro Volunteering with Smart tasks

~ All-year round Projects: Play, Run and Vote Projects

The three components of our all-year round projects (that is Run, Play and Vote) are back this Autumn.  As we are heading towards the end of the year 2018, one can hope progress has been made for these projects; records have been taken since these projects started in January 2018.

Under the Main Developments of this post, we have summarised what needs to be done for those engaged with these projects.

Extra News

~ Making Zero Hunger Africa Project

This week, we are joining our forces to advocate for a Zero Hunger World and a Zero Hunger Africa.  As explained in our last week’s communications, hunger and the lack of food are still major issues in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world.  To effectively deal with these issues of hunger and lack of food, climate change and wars need to be addressed as well.  CENFACS’ Making Zero Hunger Africa project is this week focusing on these issues.

~ An Employment Opportunity: A NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE WANTED!

The Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire are looking to recruit a new Chief Executive at the salary of £50K plus benefits.  The National Arboretum, Westonbirt is the UK’s finest tree collection that works closely with the Forestry Commission.

Anyone who is interested in applying to this new role, they need to contact the Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum (FOWA) at https://www.fowa.org.uk/

Main Developments from the Week’s Contents

• A la une Campaign: Marine Biodiversity and Poverty Relief

The advocacy about Marine Biodiversity and Poverty Relief this week would be for sustainable use of marine resources and sustainable management of fisheries and aquaculture on one hand.  On the other hand, it would be against unregulated harvesting and overfishing, and against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.  Our work would also be against threatening fish stocks and waste dumping (like chemicals, plastic, domestic waste etc.) in the seas and oceans.

For example, it is well known that dumping any chemicals in the seas and oceans (including lakes and rivers) can adversely affect human health, marine environments and economic potentials of the seas and oceans.  This can as well affect marine resources and species (such as fish, plants and minerals).  The adverse effect can further lead to the reduction of the potentials to reduce poverty for poor countries making the borders with and relying on resources from the seas and oceans.  This can happen with lakes and rivers as well.  We have seen in the case of Lake Chad in Africa how the shrinkage of this Lake has meant fewer possibilities for the people living around it to meet basic life-sustaining needs of food and clean water.  

• Micro Volunteering with Smart Tasks

There will be some smart tasks to be conducted by volunteers to be recruited by CENFACS.  These tasks will briefly include the following: prospecting potential supporters, running questionnaires with us, recruiting new supporters, engaging with supporters, sending and receiving messages from supporters etc.

To apply to this new volunteering role, one needs to have access to a smart phone, pass the DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks, have suitable references and meet CENFACS’ All in Development Volunteering terms and conditions.

Full role description and person specification for this incoming volunteering capacity will be released in due course.

• All-year round Projects: Best Country, Best Runner and Best Manager of 2018!

The three components of our All-year Round Projects – which are Play, Run and Vote – continue to be active during this Autumn.  One can hope that progress has been and every step has been taken to undertake actions and get the results or outcomes at the end of the year 2018.

To refresh memories, we would like to repeat the following.

If you are Playing the CENFACS Poverty Relief League (the World’s League without relegation) and its sub-project Le Dernier Carrẻ, there are 16 team countries in this African Nations Poverty Relief and Development League playing each 32 matches/games each against the other.  Around this time of the year, there should be only eight countries remaining or qualifying in the games.

If you are Running for Poverty Relief and Development, you can do it alone or as a group.  Whether you are doing it alone or as a group, make sure you have in place a reliable system to record and monitor what you are doing. 

If you are casting your Vote for an International Development and Poverty Relief Manager of 2018, there are two and half months remaining until the end of the year.  Again, do have in place a reliable system to record and monitor what you are doing.   

Whether you are Gaming or Running or even Voting for Poverty Relief and Development, please keep a track record (including the facts, data, videos, reviews and images) of your Autumn activities to make and share your story with us and others.    

To keep your track record, you do not need sophisticated technologies or a specialist third party.  With your mobile phone only – if you have one – you can text, record voices, make a video, take pictures, make a short film, phone etc. to capture and communicate the impacts in your own words of any event or activity you are doing or taking part in this Autumn. 

Also remember, the final results or outcomes of any activities and actions from the All-year round projects, which are a summary of what would have happened during the entire year (meaning from January to the end of the year).   

At the end of this process and of the year, one should be ready to announce the 2018 Action-Results for either of the project: Run or Play or Vote.

The final Action-Results consist of finding out the following:

√ The Best African Countries of 2018 which best reduced poverty

√ The Best African Global Games Runners of 2018

√ The Best African Development and Poverty Relief Managers of 2018

If you have not yet thought about it, start thinking now and have your say about it!

Help CENFACS keep the Poverty Relief work going 

We do our work on a very small budget and on a voluntary basis.  Making a donation will show us you value our work and support CENFACS’ work which is currently offered as a free service.

Donate to support CENFACS!

FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

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 2018.

With many thanks

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

10 October 2018

Post No. 60

The Week’s Contents

• History Month: Relationships between Imaging History and Oral   History

• Making Zero Hunger Africa

• A la une (Autumn Leaves of Action to Upkeep the Nature in Existence) Themed Activities

… and much more: 8 No Direct Cash Donations!

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents

~ Relationships between Imaging History and Oral History

We are working this week on the relationships between images and spoken words, before holding our two days (27 and 28 October 2018) of Making Memorable Difference project.  We are particularly interested in the ratio between images (or infographics or data visualisation) and spoken words in the process of telling a story or making oral history.

We are looking at the fact that whether or not too many images can or cannot elude or reduce people’s (especially children) ability to develop their own pictorial representation of the story or history.  In other words, we are searching on the extent to which too many images can enhance or reduce human visual system’s ability to spot trends and patterns in the process of interpreting the past. 

If reduction occurs, can it diminish or derail searches for solutions to the problems of poverty and hardships in the modern world?  Our interest is therefore on the cognitive effect of images – effect that can be destructive, stimulating or neutral – to people’s own imaging representation of the history told.

To engage or contribute to the above work, contact CENFACS.

~ Making Zero Hunger Africa

Making Zero Hunger Africa (MZHA) is one the CENFACS XI Starting Projects for this Autumn.  MZHA has to be placed in the context of the United Nations’ seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, Zero Hunger being Goal number two among them.  MZHA is also in line with similar global projects working to eliminate hunger across the world and Africa. 

Next week, we shall join forces with these other initiatives to strongly advocate for a Zero Hunger World and Africa.  Why we are and will be doing it?  Under the Main Developments section of this post, we have given some reasons for this advocacy. 

~ A la une Themed Activities

Our environmental campaign A la une has already started.  The selected themed areas of work that would work together to shape the central topic or theme of A la une this Autumn have been given under the Main Developments section of this post. 

The first themed area of work is Lifestyles in Harmony with the Nature; themed area which kicks off from today the 10^th of October 2018.  Lifestyle is important for the nature and environment.  It is pointless to say that the way we live as human beings is important in terms of our behaviour, habits, tastes, attitudes, environmental standards, works, leisure etc. towards the health and wealth of the nature and the planet Earth.

One of the key recommendations from this week’s Key Climate Report by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change is to make an effort, better take decisive action, at individual level in our lifestyle to significantly reduce the risks of raising global temperature.  We must do it if the goal of 1.5 degrees C has to be reached; as the world is now completely off track in heading towards 3C.

~ Extra News: You can support CENFACS without directly giving cash

Ways of supporting charities are changing.  We too at CENFACS are implementing these new ways of giving and generating incomes.   There are many ways that one can use to support CENFACS without directly given cash.  Under the Main Developments section of this post, we have listed eight ways of giving no direct cash donations.    However, if you choose to donate cash, CENFACS will still accept your cash donations.  

Main Development from the Week’s Contents

• Making Zero Hunger Africa: An Increasing Need to Step up Action

The following data explain the growing need to take bold action in order to achieve or Make Zero Hunger Africa.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (1) Africa remains the continent with the highest Prevalence of Undernourishment, affecting almost 21 percent of the population (more than 256 million people) (p.3)…  In Africa, the situation is more pressing in the region of sub-Saharan Africa where an estimated 23.2 percent of the population – or between one out of four and one out of five people in the region – may have suffered from chronic food deprivation in 2017 (p.3).

Likewise, studying the link between conflict and hunger, the World Food Programme (2) argues that there is growing evidence that the increase in hunger of recent years is primarily due to the impact of armed conflicts in countries in Africa, Asia and Middle East.  The same World Food Programme states that a recent 11 percent global increase in the number of people experiencing acute food insecurity … can largely be attributed to conflict and insecurity in countries such Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria (north-east), South Sudan and Yemen.

The above few data show that we are far from reaching the Zero Hunger goal in Africa by 2030 as planned in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations.  Therefore, there is a pressing need to step up action.

(1) Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, The State of Food, Security and Nutrition in the World, Building Climate Resilience for Food Security and Nutrition, Rome, FAO, Licence: CC BY-NC-SA, 3.0 IGO

(2) World Food Programme, Fact Sheet, Hunger and Conflict, Oct. 2018

• A la une Themed Activities

During the following periods within this Autumn and A la une season, CENFACS’ advocacy on environment will focus on the following areas from the beginning of every Wednesdays (starting from 10 October 2018) to the rest of Autumn:

Periods                                  Titles of themed areas of work

10/10 to 16/10/2018            Lifestyles in harmony with the nature

17/10 to 23/10/2018             Marine bio-diversity and poverty relief

24/10 to 30/10/2018       Transfer of marine technology for poverty reduction

31/11 to 06/11/2018             Reduction of marine pollution

07/11 to 13/11/2018             Prevention of extinction of threatened species

14/11 to 20/11/2018             Forests and lands

In total, there are six themed areas of work starting from the 10^th of October 2018 and thereafter every Wednesdays until the end of Autumn 2018.  These activities will help us to re-communicate our environmental message to upkeep the nature in existence as well as triggering changes with our leaves of action.

To engage with A la une, contact CENFACS. 

• Other Ways of Supporting CENFACS this Autumn and Beyond

Ways of donating to charities are changing.  We too at CENFACS are embracing this change or evolution in our way and pace of getting support.

Those who would like to support CENFACS by using other means than directly giving cash, they can consider the following.

Eight ways of donating to consider this Autumn and in the lead up to the end of the year

1/ Giving unwanted goods and items to CENFACS e-charity store at  http://cenfacs.org.uk/shop/

2/ Sign up for a Gift Aid declaration from which CENFACS can earn an extra 25p for every £1 you give

3/ Nominate CENFACS for a donation at charity fundraising and donation events

4/ Select CENFACS as your preferred charity for donation from advertising revenue

5/ Raise free funds for CENFACS with your online shopping or choose CENFACS as a donation recipient of some of the profits raised from online shopping

6/ Donate your unwanted and unused points and cashback to CENFACS as your chosen charity from your loyalty shopping rewards or good causes gift cards

7/ Name CENFACS as your favourite deserving cause if it happens that you have the opportunity to click the online option “donate cashback to charities”

8/ Donate any unwanted excess points of your loyalty card from apps that may give support to good causes

The above is just the few examples of ways of helping that one can think of or come across with to support CENFACS without having to directly give cash.

Help CENFACS keep the Poverty Relief work going 

We do our work on a very small budget and on a voluntary basis.  Making a donation will show us you value our work and support CENFACS’ work which is currently offered as a free service.

Donate to support CENFACS!

FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

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 2018.

With many thanks

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

03 October 2018

Post No. 59

The Week’s Contents

• History Month 

• A la une

• Autumn Humanitarian Appeal 

… and much more!

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents  

~ History Month with Making Memorable Difference

The lead story line of poverty relief and sustainable development at CENFACS this week is about Making Memorable Difference in October.  October is the History month in CENFACS development calendar.  We normally remember the African history through Making Memorable Difference (MMD) project.  This year’s MMD is about acknowledging African Oral History Legacies.

For further information on this acknowledgement, read below under the Main Developments section.  

Besides the main history theme of October, we are also running our environmental campaign A la une as planned. 

~ A la une (Autumn Leaves of Action to Upkeep the Nature in Existence)  

International trade versus upkeep of the nature

This month and week is the start of A la une.  We are going to reintroduce A la une by looking at ways of not only improving our understanding about the reason behind the upkeep the nature in existence this Autumn, but also the way of doing something concrete to make this upkeep a reality.  This will be done through the case over the agreement or disagreement between peoples and nations, which is going on at the moment between the need to internationally trade and the necessity to keep up the nature in existence.

This case will enlighten us to build on keeping up the nature in existence while respecting basic rights of humans, animals and other living beings; as well as the need for people and nations to freely trade.

As part of making the nature’s upkeep a reality, CENFACS is pleased with the strengthening of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) legislation in Central, West and Southern Africa at the symposium held in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) from 10 to 12 September 2018 regarding the international trade in wild animals and plants.

For more information about this year’s A la une, please contact CENFACS and or continue to read our posts over this Autumn season.

Likewise, our usual Autumn Humanitarian Appeal has already been re-launched. 

Just to let you know, the environmental campaign A la une and humanitarian appeal are part of Autumn programme.  

~ Autumn Humanitarian Relief Appeal

Our humanitarian appeal for Autumn 2018 has been launched since the 2^nd of October 2018 and is live on the Support Us page of this website:  cenfacs.org.uk/support-us/

This appeal is about supporting needy people, flora, fauna and organisations in Africa.  It includes the following five selected projects: 

1/ TRIACONTADI

2/ Cross-border in-work Poor People and Markets

3/ Righters of financial deprivations

4/ Hardship After Summer Holidays

5/ Save Flora and Fauna projects. 

A brief summary of these projects is given on the page Support Us of this website. 

Donors and funders can directly and respectively donate or fund these projects. 

A message about this appeal can also be passed on to a person who is in a position and willing to support.  Many thanks for passing this message!

You can donate any amount starting from £1 or more as you wish, gift aid your giving and support these projects in a way that is the most suitable and related to your situation, capacity and willingness.

To donate, gift aid and support otherwise; please contact CENFACS.

Main Developments from the Week’s Contents 

• Making Memorable Difference (MMD)

What is MMD? 

MMD is

∼ a two-day event of Awareness, Thought and Recognition set up by CENFACS in 2009 to celebrate the Black History Month in our own way and feeling while preserving the tradition linked to this remembrance and standing on the shoulders of similar celebrations

∼ a historic project of collective memory about works carried out, heritage and legacies left by Africans

∼ all about collectively telling, acknowledging, studying and learning that every day Africans wherever they are (in Africa) or elsewhere (in the UK-Croydon and the world) are striving to improve the quality of their lives and of others. Through their historically valuable works, they are making memorable difference and the world a better place for everybody, including the generations to come.

∼ a celebration of African Abilities, Talents, Skills and Gifts to Africa and the world.

This year’s dedicated two days (27 and 28 October 2018) are the days of historical study, analysis and skill recognition and celebration of the legacies left by Africans in the Oral History in Africa.  We will search on the African Oral History. 

So, our sharing and engaging content this October is how the spoken word, compared to the written word, had help in reducing poverty and enhancing sustainable development in Africa since the pre-colonial era. 

As we are in CENFACS’ Local Year Campaign or the Local People’s Year, we will look at how Oral History had helped to preserve local values, creations, dialects, cultures and customs.  In doing so, alleviating local poverty and enhancing local sustainable development.

27 October 2018 (African Oral History Value Day): We shall identify the power of oral history (e.g. oral tradition) in Africa’s history to relieve and possibly to end poverty as well as its implications for the new generations in understanding Africa’s history today.  It will be about finding out how poor people and those who are marginalised (like working classes, ethnic minorities, women and others) find their way through oral history to express their needs and voices.

28 October 2018 (African Oral History Legacies & Gifts Day): We shall find out how history collectors and preservers contributed to the process of poverty reduction in Africa before written word or history and audio recording eras.  Likewise, we will celebrate the empowering capacity of oral history and communications in lifting people out of poverty as well as the legacies and gifts of the African history collectors and preservers; those who bring together oral history and those who save oral history from loss, damage, decay or deterioration. 

To engage with this year’s MMD theme and or support this project, please contact CENFACS on this site. 

• Making Memorable Difference Timeline

2009: CENFACS recognised environmental sustainability.

2010: We acknowledged and honoured sports contributions and history in relieving collective poverty and improving community lives beyond fitness and beyond individualistic achievements.

2011: We recollected, remembered and revered caregiving talents and legacies of young carers in enhancing human development (their own development and other people’s development) by reducing the burden of poverty.

2012: We dedicated our historical recognition to Africa’s Global Game Runners and the Science of Running.

2013: Our two days were about the Memorable Difference Made and brought by Working Poor (Miners & Factory Workers) in relieving poverty. We consecrated them to the historical study of The Role of Working Poor Miners and Factory Workers of Natural Resources and Extractive Industries in the Poverty Relief in Africa since the Berlin Conference (1884-5).

2014: We celebrated the place of the African Music and Dance in the pre– and post-colonial eras, the late 1950s and the early 1960s. This celebration focused on the African History of Singing and Dancing and their Impacts on Liberation and Freedoms.

2015: Making Memorable Difference focused on African Negotiators of the History. 

2016: We remembered the Protectors and Guardians of the African History and Heritage. 

2017: We acknowledged the Communicators of the African History 

For further details about these past MMD events, please contact CENFACS. 

Help CENFACS keep the Poverty Relief work going 

We do our work on a very small budget and on a voluntary basis.  Making a donation will show us you value our work and support CENFACS’ work which is currently offered as a free service.

Donate to support CENFACS!

FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

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 2018.

With many thanks

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

26 September 2018

Post No. 58

 The Week’s Contents

• Autumn Fresh Start Help with Fresh Autumn Start, 2018 Edition

• Save Fauna and Flora Advocacy

• Digital Literacy and E-learning for Poverty Relief (LePR Project)

… and much more! 

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents

~ Autumn Fresh Start Help and Resources

Autumn Fresh Start Help strikes or kicks off our Autumn programme.  It is our Autumn project striker.  Autumn Fresh Start Help and Resources are made of fresh start skills, tips, hints, tweaks, hacks etc to overcome poverty and hardships. 

Our advice-giving month of September continues as planned and will end this week.  Advice-giving is also part of our Autumn Fresh Start Help and Resources.  Although we put particular emphasis on advice-giving activity in our September engagement, other aspects of Autumn Fresh Start or striker are also important and will continue beyond September.

Autumn Fresh Start Help comes with Fresh Autumn Start (FAS) resource.  The highlights of the 2018 Edition of FAS is given below under the Main Developments section of this post.

To ask for Fresh Start Help and or access Fresh Start Resources, just contact CENFACS

~ Save Flora and Fauna (SFF) Advocacy

Our Save Animals Advocacy has changed into Save Flora and Fauna.  In other words, we have added to fauna (or animals) flora (trees, plants and flowers). 

We are advocating for the protection of animals in Africa and elsewhere in developing world whereby animals get killed, traded and extinct to such extent that some species are at the brink of disappearing.  Animals such as jaguars, tigers, elephants, snakes, alligators, rhinoceroses etc are under threat.  There are several reasons about it which include: hunting, illicit and illegal trade, over-harvesting, habitat loss, climate change, poaching etc.

CENFACS’ Save Animals or Fauna advocacy is to advocate for the enhancement of protection of endangered, threatened and vulnerable species. 

We are as well extending our advocacy to other species in danger like trees, plans and flowers (flora).  It is a two scopes campaign of Saving Fauna and Flora.  

Save Fauna and Flora is only an iceberg of the wide natural creature protection campaign. 

In April 2016, we celebrated CENFACS Year of Protections and one of the celebratory themes was Protection of the Nature.  The September 2016 Save Animals advocacy fell within the scope of the celebration of CENFACS Year of Protections.  We looked at how we can improve protection on endangered species. 

Our efforts echoed and coincided with the work of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the 17^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES.  This meeting took place in Johannesburg, South Africa from 24 September to 5 October 2016.   It is in these international and global contexts of trade in endangered species that CENFACS advocates for wildlife in Africa and elsewhere to be protected and animal rights to be respected. 

It was good to learn that on 12 September 2017 the 193 Member States of the United Nations adopted a far reaching Resolution on tackling illicit wildlife trafficking at the final meeting of the 71^st session of the United Nations General Assembly. 

Likewise, it is an encouraging news to hear that World Wildlife Day 2018 will tackle the threats to survival in the wild facing by the world’s big cats (such as lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar, cheetah, snow leopard, puma, clouded leopard etc), the world’s majestic animals and symbols of power and courage.

CENFACS’ Save Fauna and Flora is run this last week of September 2018 and will be soon after followed by our Autumn environmental umbrella campaign, A la une (Autumn Leaves of Action to Upkeep the Nature in Existence) project. 

A la une takes our Save Fauna and Flora advocacy to the next level of environmental communications.  It goes further about protection of endangered species to include rainforests, water and air pollution, climate change in order to help meet Global Goals such Sustainable Development Goals linked to the upkeep of the nature alive.

To advocate and raise your voice to save endangered species, contact CENFACS.

HELP   •    ADVOCATE    •    REPORT   this Autumn with CENFACS!

~ Support Digital Literacy and E-learning for Poverty Relief (LePR Project)   

High on this week’s agenda is also the LePR project, which was launched last week as planned.  You can support CENFACS to deliver for educationally and digitally needy children in Africa a digital and e-learning project of literacy to help reduce both digital and literacy poverty there. 

To support the LePR project or to get information about it, go to http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

~ Extra News: Happiness survey and questionnaire

As part of our Summer Reporting and Sharing of experiences and stories, we are running a Happiness survey. 

The survey, which is mostly about hearing your Summer experiences and stories,  is also about improving on planning and delivery of summer projects and of enhancing the outcome of our advice on summer break and season.

For those who may be interested in this survey, there is a questionnaire to complete and return to CENFACS.  This questionnaire is also found in our Fresh Autumn Start resource. You can request the questionnaire as well.

To request and or complete the questionnaire, contact CENFACS.

Main Developments from the Week’s Contents

Making Autumn Start & Season Easier           

What is Fresh Autumn Start (FAS)

FAS is a continuation of our Summer Support projects into the Autumn season.  It is a building block or additional back up of useful survival tips and hints to embrace Autumn as smoothly and trouble-freely as possible. 

It includes real life situations that users may face when and as they return from their Summer Break or season on one hand, and possible leads to proffer solutions to their arising Autumn needs on the other hand.

This FAS resource is not exhaustive or an end itself.  It has to be completed with other resources.  It is a good basic insight into a Fresh Start as it provides helpful advisory tools for a Fresh Start and confidence building for the rest of the Autumn season.  It could also be used as a reference for users to engineer their own idea of Fresh Start and the sustained management of autumn needs. 

At the end of this resource, there are some websites addresses/directories for help and support.  These sources of help and support are not exhaustive.  We have mainly considered third sector organisations and service providers as well as social enterprises. 

For further or extended list of service providers for your Autumn needs, people can  contact your local authorities and service directories (both online and print).

Brief summaries of the contents of FAS 2018 Edition

The contents of 2018 Edition of Fresh Autumn Start (FAS) include: Autumn situations and what to do, People needs and Autumn leads, What you can get from CENFACS, and Autumn online and digital resources.

Possible Autumn Situations & Possible What to Do

When returning from Summer Break and/or season, people can find themselves in a variety of situations depending on their own individual circumstances and life experiences.  This variety of situations may require or be expected to be matched with a diversity of responses in order to meet people’s Autumn needs.  These variable circumstances and diverse responses or a course of actions can take the different shapes.

Examples of Summer Break Expenses Track Record and Autumn Start Budget

Tracking down and reassessing summer break/season expenses is a positive step to put one through a positive start for the Autumn season.  As part of this positive step, FAS is packed with an example of Summer Break Expenses Track Record.

Budgeting autumn items and needs is also good for a Fresh Start and for overall control over the start and rest of autumn season expenses.  To support this financial control, FAS contains an example of Autumn start budget (fresh start budget) or budgeted expenses.   

People’s Needs and Autumn Leads                

Variable circumstances can obviously result in multiple needs.  To meet those needs, we may have to gather resources, tools and institutions to guide us.  The 2018 Edition of FAS provides a table that gives an idea of the likely leads to satisfy people’s needs  

What You Can Get From CENFACS in Autumn Under Autumn Start Help

The set of help provided in the FAS 2018 is part of CENFACS’ UK arm of services.  Besides that it also takes into account specific needs of people that may require specialist organisations and or institutions to deal with them.  In which case CENFACS can signpost or refer the applicants to those third parties.

We hope that the basic tips and hints making the contents FAS 2018 Edition will help you in some aspects of your Autumn needs.

Have a Good Fresh Start and Autumn season!

FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

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 2018.

With many thanks

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

19 September 2018

Post No. 57

The Week’s Contents

• Autumn of Freshness

• Autumn 2018 Programme: Starting XI Projects 

• Autumn Involvement with CENFACS

… and much more!

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents 

• Autumn of Freshness

Autumn is the time of natural recycling process of plants and trees.  Leaves change colour and fall.  Without reinventing the wheels, we can say that Autumn of Freshness at CENFACS is the season after the long sunny weather and break of Summer during which our body and mind naturally recycle and engage in renewed energy, strength and thoughts.   

Autumn of Freshness is the season of

~ making fresh start after returning back from Summer to resume our life routine, work, education and voluntary action, particularly poverty relief work

~ restarting after having some life and/or work experience (e.g. volunteer experience over the Summer, project visits, holiday trips, tourism, travel/expeditions of all kinds etc.)

~ beginning to apply or introduce and share those new experiences, ideas and discoveries we had during the Summer break or holidays

~ novelty, creativity and innovation to try to resolve the old, new, challenging and emerging issues of poverty and hardships

So, the keywords for our sharing and engaging contents over the Autumn are Freshness and Fresh Start which will underpin all our works over this period.

• Autumn Programme with Starting XI Projects

Report, Refresh, Renew, Develop and Thrive  with Fresh Start Projects from the Autumn Programme

Autumn of Freshness is about working together with our users and stakeholders through helpful collection of Fresh Start projects blended together to give a new seasoned leaf of relief during Autumn 2018.  

The Autumn programme is made of 

1/ Fresh Start Skills, Tips, Hints, Tweaks and Hacks 

2/ Transformative experiences  

3/ The Season’s appeal to stand up again against poverty and hardships  

4/ A slice of Africa’s history 

5/ Fresh Start thoughts and inspirations for a better climate protection and sustainable development agenda. 

All this is flavoured with hopes, dreams and reasons to believe in the future; a poverty-free, sustainable and carbon-free world. 

So, the line up for CENFACS’ Starting XI Projects for this Autumn is as follows:

(1) Women, Children and the circular economy

(2) Climate Protection and Stake for African Children (Phase 2) with Katowice Implements Paris as our working theme

(3) Adaptation for Building Capacity Development

(4) Project MISATU

(5) Save flora and fauna

(6) Making Memorable Difference

(7) A la Une 

(8) Triancontadi 

(9) Fresh Start Help 

(10) Making Zero Hunger Africa 

(11) Autumn Appeal

For more on these projects, read below under the Main Developments section of this post.

• Starting or Renewing your Involvement with CENFACS’ Work

The beginning of every season is an opportunity either to continue to do the things we always do as they work or to think of taking on new initiatives in the new season.  There are many ways in which we can freshly start this Autumn.

For example, one can rethink on the types of organisations and projects they support.  One may find appropriate to start or increase or even reduce their support to a particular development cause.  One could also think of getting involved in CENFACS’ work or renewing their commitment to it if they have ever got involved in it before.  The decision is theirs.

Below we have spelled out various ways in which you can enhance CENFACS’ cause and make a useful impact on poverty alleviation with us.

• Extra News: Supporting Literacy E-Learning for Poverty Relief (LePR project)  

Our appeal for the support of the LePR project will go live on the 22nd of September 2018.

You can support CENFACS to deliver for educationally and digitally needy children in Africa an e-learning project of literacy to help reduce poverty there from the beginning of this New School Year.

For further details and to support this project, contact CENFACS.

Main Developments from the Week’s Contents 

• Autumn Programme with Starting XI Projects

Please find below the projects making CENFACS’ Autumn of Freshness.

11 PROJECTS : 11 WAYS OF HELPING TO REDUCE AND END POVERTY THIS AUTUMN 2018

September 

~ Save Flora and Fauna projects (advocacy)

~ A la Une (Autumn Leaves of Action to Upkeep the Nature in Existence (Campaign)

~ Autumn Fresh Start Help (Resource)

October

~ Autumn Appeal to Support projects (Humanitarian appeal)

~ Making Memorable Difference (History project): Role of Oral History in Poverty Relief and Development

~ Making Zero Hunger Africa (Campaign) – A new campaign to support Africa feed Africa, to make the decision between buying food and paying energy bills easier, and to reduce food poverty – NEW 

November

~ Climate Protection and Stake for African Children (Phase 2): “Katowice Implements Paris” (Child Protection and Climate Advocacy project)

~ Women & Children FIRST Development Day (Thoughts): Women, Children and the Circular Economy

~ Triacontadi (Project 32): Together for Renewal of Infrastructures in Africa to Create Opportunities and Needed Transformations for Alternative Development Intergenerational – A project that helps to both create inexistent infrastructures and develop basic infrastructures destroyed by wars, armed conflicts and environmental disasters in order to relieve poverty (Basic Infrastructures project) 

November/December

~ Project MISATU (Project M): Making Impactful Support to Africa Together with Users – A project that helps to capture and communicate in effective way the impact of support to Africa by involving users (Impact Analysis project)

~ ABCD (Adaptation, Building Capacity Development), which is a rebrand of Post-REI (Regional Economic Integration) Transitional Capacity Building and Development (Empowerment project), aims at enhancing people’s ability and capacity to survive in the new environment of exiting/exited economy.

Note: Although the above is scheduled for Autumn 2018, we may slightly alter our initial plan and or introduce occasional initiatives to cope with the reality of the unpredictability and complexity of development situations (e.g. humanitarian and emergency situations), in which case we shall let you know as early as we can.

• Getting the Most of your Involvement with CENFACS into Poverty Alleviation Work from Autumn 2018 and Beyond

Where to start: Sign up!

√ Register with us and or update us with your contact details

√ Respond to our communications and communicate with us when occasion arises 

Stay in touch with our

√ Newsletter, and other paper and free-paper communication materials

√ Regular updated and upgraded resources and supporting information 

Involving us in raising awareness of the poverty relief issue

√ Advertise with us for helpful good causes

√ Pass our relief messages on to interested third parties  

Share your transformative experience

√ Tell us what you think and or your development story

√ Help us improve with your voices, comments, reports & feedbacks 

Boost your support

√ Support us according to your means and limits as every support counts

√ Add value to your support, if you can, by improving your support to us to support you and or others 

Get noticed to go further with your involvement

√ Register and keep up to date with information about your event, project, activity etc

√ Join up our network of poverty relief and development work 

Stay ahead of the game with us

√ Communicate with us before hands and when the needs arise

√ Often read our news alerts, tweets and switch to our new developments 

Make our communications with you to be a two-way process and multi-channel approach

√ Talk to CENFACS and CENFACS will talk to you as well and vice versa

√ Help us improve the flow of information on poverty relief and development using a variety of channels 

Be contactable and present via

√ E-mail, (tele or mobile) phones, physical address and social media platforms

√ Word-of-mouth recommendations, outreach and other means of contact

Get the word out on your communication channels

√ Spread the word about CENFACS’ work on your social media links

√ Promote CENFACS’ work in what and where you think we can fit in

Keep your involvement with CENFACS digital and on papers

√ Up-to-date information on to your mobile by our free text alerts and messages

√ Check CENFACS’ website and make enquiries online 24 hours 7 days a week

Continue the legacy of CENFACS’ work

√ It is now 16 years and two months that CENFACS has been working on poverty relief and sustainable development since it was registered in 2002.  You can continue this legacy with us.

√ You can be the face of CENFACS to those looking for a line of support from us.

The above ways of getting involved in CENFACS’ work may not be exhaustive.  Should you have any other way, please let us know.

FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

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 2018.

With many thanks

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

12 September 2018

Post No. 56

The Week’s Contents

• Virtual Open Day and Hours: How They Work

• Summer Reports

• Abstract for the 61^st Issue of FACS Newsletter, Autumn 2018 Issue

… and much more!

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents

~ Virtual Open Day and Hours (VODHs): How They Work

Our Virtual Open Day, which is every Fridays of September 2018, is held from 10 am to 2 pm.

You can access VOHs by contacting CENFACS.

You do not need to register with us.

Every Fridays, you can either email, phone or text between 10 am and 2 pm.

~ Summer Reports

Last week, we started to unlock or unpack our Summer holiday data and to prepare to tell our Summer holiday stories.  This week, we are going further in putting our unlocked or unpacked data in support of Summer experiences or stories. 

From this week until Thursday the 20^th of September 2018, we are simply asking those who can to share with us and others their Summer experiences; experiences about what they did during the Summer break and think that it is useful for sharing. 

For further details on the kinds of experiences or stories you can share or give, please read under the Main Developments section of this post.

~ FACS Newsletter, Autumn Issue, No. 61

The Autumn Issue for our bilingual newsletter FACS is entitled “Poverty Reduction through Mobile Money and Digital Financial Inclusion in Africa”

We have chosen this theme because of what the increasing use of mobile and digital technologies is trying to achieve for people in need, particularly but not exclusively for those of Africa. 

The Issue looks at the extent to which money transfer and digital financial inclusion through these technologies, are trying to pull out people from poverty and hardships.  Our focus will be on our areas of intervention in Africa with Africa-based Sister Organisations. 

The theme of mobile money and digital financial inclusion is also in line with CENFACS New Media and Digital Communication programmes.

For more on these programmes, please contact CENFACS.

We have provided an abstract about this Issue and the kinds of contents that will make it.

For further details about the Issue, contact CENFACS.    

Main Developments from the Week’s Contents

•• Abstract for the 61st Issue of FACS

The title of the 61^st Issue of FACS is:

Poverty Reduction through Mobile Money and Digital Financial Inclusion

The abstract for the 61st Issue is as follows.

There is a number of works and evidences that show that mobile money and digital financial inclusion contribute to the relief of poverty worldwide and in Africa in particular.  We are not disapproving these works or evidences.  What we are trying to look at in this 61^st Issue of CENFACS’ bilingual newsletter – FACS – is how we can make this contribution better and or how to capture the nature of the relationships between poverty reduction and mobile money on the one hand, between poverty reduction and digital financial inclusion. 

The 61^st Issue of FACS is a step forward in highlighting and including two important points regarding the contribution of mobile money and digital financial inclusion to poverty reduction.

The first point is about capturing the effects and impacts of mobile money and digital financial inclusion on poverty reduction. 

There is a difference between accessing (or opening) mobile money accounts and transaction accounts on the one hand and reducing poverty on the other hand.  Likewise, the record number of registered mobile money accounts is not always a reliable indicator of poverty reduction.  Equally, the deployment of active mobile money accounts is not all the time a matching representation of poverty reduction.  Furthermore, the BIG picture of mobile money economy in terms of volume of transactions is not always the Small images of poverty reduction and poor people’s stories. 

For example, in its snapshot of the mobile money industry, the GSMA (1) – Groupe Speciale Mobile Association – indicates that there were 338.4 million of mobile money registered accounts for the whole Sub-Saharan Africa  in 2017 (p.17).

From the above astronomic figures, one should not deduct that for the same year 338.4 million of people were lifted out of poverty.  Opening a mobile money account does not necessary lead to poverty alleviation.  Poverty and poverty alleviation are more complex things compared to what one may think.

The second point developed in the 61^st Issue is about the successfulness of mobile money and digital financial inclusion as models for poverty relief. 

Once one has made clear in their mindset that the link between mobile money and poverty reduction, or the link between digital financial inclusion and poverty reduction, is a complex issue; then one can now start to think if they are able to reduce poverty through mobile money and digital financial inclusion.  In other words, how many people to be pulled out poverty so that mobile money and digital financial inclusion as models for poverty relief can be said successful?  This success should be measured by the numbers of poor people out poverty and the improvement in their quality of life; but not by the volume of business transactions of their economies.

In the light of the above, the 61^st Issue is about working with our Africa-based Sister Organisations to be careful about the claim or case for poverty reduction.  It is about putting our feet on the grounds by getting the impact and data right about the people and communities who have been effectively relieved from poverty because mobile money and digital financial inclusion.  This could lead to the redefinition of poverty and its multi-dimensional aspect in the digital era. 

The 61^st Issue engages poverty relief supporters and readers with the following contents:

Mobile money accounts versus traditional bank accounts in relation to poverty reduction; Mobile money and gender inclusion; Links between digital financial inclusion and poverty reduction; Mobile phone as a centre piece in the process of poverty reduction; Mobile-enabled insurance and savings services to reduce poverty; Mobile money markets and sustainable development for the poor in remote areas; Engaging Africa-based Sister Organisations with the links between mobile money and poverty reduction;  Projets d’inclusion financière, de numérique et d’argent mobile pour la réduction de la pauvreté en Afrique, Mobile credit services and eligibility criteria for the poor, especially for women; Financial literacy skills and digital inclusion to reduce poverty; Meeting the financial needs of the poor through cash digitalisation etc.

The above engaging contents will help to explore ways of capturing the effects and impacts of mobile money and digital financial inclusion on poverty reduction on the one hand; and finding out how successful are mobile money and digital financial inclusion as models for poverty relief in pulling as many as possible people out of poverty. 

To reserve a copy or to get further details about the Issue no. 61, please contact CENFACS.

(1) GSM Association, 2017 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money, 2018

•• 2018 September Advice service continues…

as planned for both UK and Africa projects. We have provided below basic activities making the contents of advice services.  While this Advice-giving support is running, we are conducting Summer 2018 Reports as well.

The following are the areas covered by CENFACS‘ September 2018 Advice-giving Activities 

• Areas of Advice for Individuals we cover

We can provide advisory support on a wide range of issues which includes:

post-regional economic integration and economic transition skills, financial literacy and information, consumption and buying information, conversion of technical skills, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS awareness, education and training, educational development of children, cultural barriers, knowledge and respect of the British rule of law, opportunities for enterprises and credit access, social integration and behaviour, self-help development projects etc. 

• Areas of Advice for Organisations we cover 

We can provide advisory support on the following areas:

project planning and development, investment in capacity building and development, resource mobilisation for African Sister Organisations for the Post-REI (Regional Economic Integration) times, sources of international fundraising, climate finance and digital finance, online fundraising strategies etc.

You can request advice online by just filling an advice form at www.cenfacs.org.uk/services-activities and by posting it to CENFACS and CENFACS will get back to you.

•• Summer 2018 Reporting In Your Own Words

The 2018 Summer Reporting activity is a further experience reporting, sharing, learning and development opportunity for those who have not yet informed us about the outcomes of projects pending for reporting, personal experiences to be shared, lessons to learn and development trends to spot.

Giving Development Experiences, Stories & Reports about Summer 2018

As we are nearly reaching the end of Summer 2018, we would like our users and supporters as well as those who sympathise with CENFACS’ cause to share with us and others their experiences, stories and reports over the following

∴ Run, Play & Vote projects 

You can feedback the outcomes or Action-Results of your Run, Play and Vote projects if you ran for poverty relief during Summer 2018 (or organised a Run activity), played the CENFACS League For Poverty Relief and or have already voted your 2018 African and International Poverty Relief Manager.

∴ Volunteering & Creation Stories 

You can also share your volunteering stories with us and others if you did volunteer during the Summer break. Likewise, if you had any creation adventure you can tell us about it.

∴ Summer programmes: Happiness and Appeal projects

Summer programmes are another area of feedback.  You may prefer to report on your use of Happiness projects and your response to our Humanitarian Relief Appeal during Summer 2018.  If this is the case, then report your experiences on these areas.

∴ Other Experiences & Stories Reporting

Finally, you can report or feedback on any moving experience or transformative story you have had during Summer 2018; experience or story you think may be of help to us and others.

For example if you did Trending in Poverty Reduction (i.e. following the direction of poverty reduction) through Tourism with us or alone, you can report this as well.

You can report your experience via e-mail, over phone and through social media networks or channels of communication (e.g Twitter).  

Using less papers but e-mails or even online technologies when responding to us is in line with our sustainability policy and practice on saving the environment, which is part of our Environment and Conservation activity.  

Also, as we are in CENFACS’ Year of the Local People or the Local Year Campaign, we would be more than happier to hear any stories that involve local people where they happened.

Thank you for supporting us with your Summer 2018 experience, story and report In Your Own Words.

FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

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 2018.

With many thanks

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

05 September 2018

Post No. 55

BACK TO… LA RENTREE

The week beginning 03 September 2018 is our welcoming week. 

We are welcoming our users, supporters and other stakeholders who came back from Summer break and holidays. 

We are also welcoming back those who are or have been working during this Summer time. 

We are finally welcoming back those who lost touch with us for various reasons and would like to come back.  

Welcome back to all of you! 

 The Week’s Contents

 • New for September 2018: Back-to-relief Initiatives

 • Unlock your Summer Holiday Data and Tell your Story

 • Advice-giving Month

… and much more!

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents

The key messages from our weekly communication and menu, which is often made of three courses, is as follows.

New for September 2018: Two New Back-to-relief Initiatives 

1/ Virtual Open Days for Back to Relief 

It is not always easy for people, especially those who are not feeling well and parents with small kids, to physically move and meet service providers if this service provision cannot come to them even if the need is pressing.  This is why we are organising these virtual days to enable those in need to virtually access services. 

Virtual Open Days are a back-to-relief initiative organised by CENFACS during this September 2018 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.

For more on CENFACS’ Virtual Open Days and how they work, contact us.

2/ Support for Children of Conflict- and Climate Change-affected Areas in Africa in the New School Year

Another back-to-relief initiative for this September 2018 is Support for the Children of Conflict- and Climate Change-affected Areas of Africa in the New School Year.  This initiative comes about the humanitarian relief appeals we launched this year for nine African countries: two countries from Central African region (the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic), three islands East Africa (Madagascar, Mauritius and Comoros) and four countries from the Lake Chad Basin (Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria).  All these appeals were launched under the Light projects.   

The appeals were related to countries stormed by destructive environmental events and or armed conflicts.  While one can still ask the progress made to save and rebuild lives in these stricken countries, one can also question about the support that the children of the stricken areas within these countries are receiving and/or received.  This questioning is relevant as we are in September when a new school or academic year starts. 

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 stricken areas.

For further details about this initiative, contact CENFACS.     

Unlock your Summer Holiday Data and Tell your Story

Throughout our July and August communications, we have been asking everybody to store and keep their Summer data so that when we all return we can report back or share our Summer experiences. 

Now some of you are back, we can feedback our poverty-relieving and development experiences of using Happiness projects, of any creations we made and any volunteering stories, if we volunteered, over the last two months.  One can report back a personal Summer experience as well. 

For those who managed to store their Summer data and who would like to share their experiences, this is the time to start unlocking your Summer data and preparing to tell your Summer story.

Sharing your experiences with us in this way helps to keep the CENFACS Community active.  It also contributes in carrying out prescriptive analytics that enables to use smart data discovery capabilities to predict market developments and trends to help relieve or possibly end poverty and hardships within our community and beyond. 

Please share your poverty-relieving and development experiences with us.

Advice-giving Month

September is our advice-giving month for both our UK and Africa services. Whether you are African and Minority Ethnic People living in the UK or Africa-based Sister Organisations, you can receive advisory support from CENFACS under our Individual Capacity Development programme (for individuals living in the UK) and Organisational Capacity Development programme (for Overseas Africa-based organisations).

Under these two programmes, we provide advice throughout the year. However, the month September is a special one as it is our Advice-giving Month in accordance to CENFACS development calendar.  Advice can be received online, via phone and e-mail or by appointment at CENFACS’ office space.

Main Developments from the Week’s Contents

Back to Relief ∴  Back to  the Upkeep of the Nature ∴  Back to Advice

•• Back to Relief this September 2018

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.  They are now back for the New Academic Year and New Relief, year for which we have prepared projects and programmes to meet their existing, challenging, changing and emerging needs – the back-to-relief projects and programmes.

This applies to both our UK and Africa Capacity Building and Development programmes.  If you are one of our beneficiaries or supporters we wish you Happy Return!  

•• Back to the Upkeep of the Nature this September 2018

September is also the month we resume our advocacy work on the upkeep of the nature.  This advocacy starts from the protection and care of animals in Africa from illegal killings, extinction and poaching.  In the last week of September 2018, we will focus on saving endangered animal species through our “Save Animals” advocacy; the Gorilla, Elephant and the BIG CATS projects being part of that advocacy.

•• Back to Advisory Support this September 2018

Advice is CENFACS’ main theme for September.  We provide advice to both individuals and organisations as mentioned above. 

Advice service for Individuals

Some of you are aware that most of CENFACS services in the UK are designed to support multi-dimensionally poor children, young people and families (CYPFs). After the long summer break and from September onward, many of them will come back to start their life again. They will go back to school for CYPs and to work and training for parents and guardians. 

They may need support to restart or look for occupational opportunity or even just resume their routine activity in September. Their needs could include things such as finding a new school for children, registration to health services, finding accommodation, accessing training opportunity or employment etc.

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 2003 (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, interpreting, advice, guidance, signposting, referral and advocacy. You can contact CENFACS for the range of issues included in this service and to find out if your problem can be dealt with.

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 things such as capacity building and development, project planning, fundraising and grant-seeking leads, income-generation, sustainable development, monitoring and evaluation.  

Again, where our capacity to advice 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 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, contact CENFACS.  To register for or enquire about advice services, go to www.cenfacs.org.uk/services-activities.

FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

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 2018.

With many thanks

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

29 August 2018

Post No. 54

 The Week’s Contents

• The Lake Chad Basin Appeal

• Tourism as Enhancer of Sustainable Development

• All-in-One Feedback (Users’ and Supporters’ Experience): Report on Reports

… and much more!

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents

The Lake Chad Basin Appeal for Peace, Food and Water

The top sustainable development story of this week’s communication is what is happening in the Lake Chad Basin where millions of people have been displaced since 2017 because of long-neglected conflicts and environmental degradation of the Lake.

CENFACS is appealing for something to be done to end this displacement and improve the living conditions of the victims of these conflicts and peoples of the Lake Chad Basin.  The case of Lake Chad Basin is a perfect example of the combination of environmental degradation with the shrinkage of the basin and regional conflicts between extremists and regional armed forces.   This part of the world desperately needs peace, food and water as well as rebuilding.

For more on this appeal, read under the Main Developments section of this post.

Tourism as Enhancer of Sustainable Development

Our Trending month continues with Tourism as an enhancer of sustainable development.  In the last four weeks, we spent time in following the direction of poverty relief through tourism.  The remaining two days of our Trending activity will be devoted to tourism as a way of improving sustainable development. 

We are following the multi-dimensional aspects of sustainability and how they relate or correlate with tourism.  Our focus is not only on how tourism enhances sustainable development generally, but also on how it improves the quality of life or boosts the development that meets the needs of the poor and their future generations specifically.

For further details on this two-day trending activity and Trending in Poverty Relief through Tourism, contact CENFACS.

All-in-One Feedback – Users’ and Supporters’ Experience: Report on Reports

This week’s development news is finally the report on your report about the experiences you had about CENFACS projects and programmes and their impacts.   It is about giving you the news about your report or say as users, supporters or web readers about All-in-one feedback we asked you during our Analytics month last July.

Again, read under the Main Developments section about the news on your feedback.

Main Developments of the Week’s Contents

• The Lake Chad Basin Appeal

What this appeal is about

It is about supporting the displaced people around the Lake Chad region as a result of ongoing deadly conflicts between armed militancy and predatory armies of the region.

The appeal is not an awareness-raising campaign about poverty, but it is an appeal to do something against poverty and hardships in the Lake Chad Basin.

CENFACS would like to appeal to you to address a long-neglected conflict which rose into violent extremism and dire insecurity within this region.

What is the Lake Chad Basin conflict?

The Lake Chad Basin includes the following countries: Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.  The Lake Chad has been shrunk by nine-tenths as result of climate change, population growth and irrigation.  In addition to this natural calamity or shrinkage, the Lake is now subject to other misfortunes related to high level of insecurity.  The insecurity is mostly caused by deadly conflicts between group activists or extremists and regional armies.  This has led to the displacement of around 10 million people since 2017 according local sources.

What CENFACS would like you to do

Whenever there is a general humanitarian relief appeal, there is always some concern about asking and giving money.  In the contrary, whenever CENFACS appeal to do something about people and communities in desperate need, it is not always about asking people to donate money.  Money is not always a king to change deprived lives.  Little or simple things can be the real change makers. 

There are simple things that one can do to influence the situation on the grounds where there is suffering.  These things could include:

making a telephone call to someone who can change lives on the grounds, advocacy, lobbying, campaigning, raising your voice about the issue in a gathering, making the issue top story of your communications, and exchanging views on the social media platforms about the issue.  

It is all about communicating or talking with those who may have the powers to change lives and things on the grounds to do something. 

In fact, in today’s world of digital and online technologies, it has become even more easier than before to support whether through social media platforms or other networking outlets; to engage people in discussions, thoughts and actions to do something.  These little or small things can make BIG impacts on the lives of sufferers. 

The above named things are the ones CENFACS want you to do in order to bring a glimmer of hope to the displaced people around the Lake Chad Basin.  One can think of those kids, displaced in this region, who may not have (even for ever) the opportunity to enjoy education this September or in their life, let alone the fact of being homeless and have lost all your belongings including your family members as a result of continuing conflicts and environmental degradation in the region.

What supporting the Lake Chad Basin can achieve: Peace, Food and Water

Supporting this highly deserving cause of poverty relief and sustainable development will be a gift to be treasured by those who will receive it as it will help to achieve the following benefits:

√ Helping poor displaced families to make a living

√ Restoring agriculture, fishing and livestock which are dying with the shrinkage of the Lake and the conflict-driven region

√ Stopping children and young people for earlier becoming forced fighters and helping them to return to and gain education for peace and sustainable development

√ Enabling farmers to earn a living, to self-help and self-sustain

√ Feeding the hungry displaced persons and amongst them children and women

√ Reducing migration due to climate change, insecurity and financial challenges

Above all, addressing the root causes of the insecurity in the region         

Your support can help refill the Lake Chad with water and bring hope of peace, food and water for the displaced peoples of the Lake Chad Basin, the poor from conflict-affected and climate change-stricken region.

Thank you.  

• Tourism as way of enhancing sustainable development

Recalling the last 4 Trending activities in following the direction of poverty relief through tourism

In the last four weeks, we followed the direction of poverty relief through tourism.  Our follow up was much about trying to understand and check the relationships between tourism and poverty reduction than anything else. 

In our journey, we particularly looked at the following trends: tourism as way of reaching out to the poor, tourism as maker of job opportunities and supporter of pro-poor growth, tourism as trade creator and income generator, and tourism as means of relieving rural poverty.

The focus on these trends was on what tourism can and cannot bring to the poor and poverty relief.  It stems from these trends that tourism does bring substantial contribution to the lives of the poor.  Tourism may not totally eradicate poverty, but it is additional path of reducing it.

Following the direction of sustainable development through tourism

Another area of relationships with tourism for our Summer 2018 Trending is sustainable development.   The remaining couple of days of our Trending month will be spent on this trend.

Tourism can enhance the process of sustainable development for the poor.  To follow this trend, we are going to use the conventional definition of sustainable development as given by Brundtland and others (1), which is

“a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brandtland et al., 1987).

By following the direction of international sustainable development for the poor from this perspective, it is possible to find that tourism can help achieve pro-poor economic growth while preserving the quality of the environment for all (including for the poor).  Tourism can help meet the social and economic needs of the poor while saving the natural or environmental resources for the generations to come to meet their own needs.  Tourism can help reduce environmental degradation while supporting poor people to produce, consume and trade goods and services in a sustainable way.

The above trend concludes our Trending month for this year.  For those who are interested in following the direction of poverty relief and sustainable development with CENFACS, please let us know. 

(1) Brundtland et al. (1987) Our Common Future, World Commission on Environment and Development (The Brundtland Report), Oxford University Press, London

• Brief News about Analytics Report

All-in One Impact Feedback: Users’ and Supporters’ Experience

Last month was our Analytics month.  As part of the Analytics month, we asked some of you to report or give some feedback in your words on the experiences you had about the projects and programmes we delivered in the last financial year.  Some of you did respond and others did not.  We would like to thank those who responded.  

After analysing the information you provided and looking back what happened in the last financial year, we would like to share with you some key information from the preliminary findings about your say and our look at last year’s poverty relief work.

The key news we want to share with you are as follows:

1/ There will be some changes in our projects starting from Autumn 2018. 

2/ Some of the projects will disappear as they have been completed or the need has been met or even they are not anymore required.   

3/ We will progressively introduce new projects to meet emerging and or unmet needs and demand of the community.  One of them will be a new advocacy to follow the global trade rounds to support small African traders.  

4/ When these changes come into force, we shall let you know. 

However, the main household brand projects making the poverty-relieving pitch at CENFACS will remain. 

Please note that the above preliminary news are not the full project and programme reports neither an annual report.

• More news: CENFACS Campaigns

There have been some questions about our services and activities, in particular about the campaigns we are running.  To answer the questions raised, we have included and provided summaries on our website, under the Services and Activities page, the main campaigns that we are running.  They are five, not in particular order:

African Children’s Sustainable Development Goals, Halving Poverty, Climate Protection and Stake for African Children, World Anti-Poverty System, and Autumn Leaves of Action to Upkeep the Nature in Existence.

To find out more and or get involved in these campaigns, please contact CENFACS.

FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

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 2018.

With many thanks

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

22 August 2018

Post No. 53

The Week’s Contents

• TRENDING in Poverty Relief: Tourism like a means of reducing rural poverty

• Virtual RUN to reduce poverty

• Summer Volunteering TRIPS to the need

…   And much more!

Key Messages from the Week’s Contents

Tourism like a means of reducing rural poverty

The last piece in a series of our Summer 2018 Trending in following the direction of poverty reduction is to look at how tourism helps tourists or visitors to connect with rural lives and livelihoods. 

Rural areas in Africa are where the majority of poor people live in Africa compared to the urban areas.  Tourism in rural areas is a good example of including rural poverty into holidays making or  experience for those looking forward to these kinds of tourist expeditions.

For more on tourism like rural poverty reliever, please read under the Main Development section of this post.

Virtual RUN to reduce poverty

This year, we are introducing virtual Run to broaden the scope of our physical activity project of running to reduce poverty.  This new injection is about bringing into our project the running activities carried out in the virtual world or digital and computer worlds or other worlds; activities that may contribute to our efforts in helping to reduce poverty. 

Our focus on physical aspect of the Run project still remains the same including its key spirit, which is of undertaking a basic physical activity of running to help reduce poverty.  However, in real world there are people who would like to do things physically, but for various reasons they may not be able to do so.  Because of that, there is an alternative to do it virtually with CENFACS. 

For further details and to inform us about virtual Run, refer to the notes under the Main Development section of this post.

Summer TRIPS to volunteer for needy people and communities

These are the kinds of experiences we expect people to do over the Summer period especially for those who want to spend their Summer time differently, particularly but not exclusively by doing something about poverty.  We recommend this type of experiences under our volunteering scheme known as All in Development Volunteers Scheme (AiDVS). 

Under CENFACS’ AiDV Scheme, one can take seasonal opportunities like of Summer to volunteer or do some internship on poverty relief and sustainable development.  Where the person decides to go far away to visit needy communities or volunteer to our Africa-based projects, CENFACS would facilitate and liaise with its Africa-based Sister Organisations where the projects are based to smooth the volunteering process or visits to the projects under mutually agreed arrangements and conditions.

For details about AiDVS, contact CENFACS.  If you have visited or volunteered for projects recently and would like to share with us your experience, please contact us as well.

Main Developments from the Week’s Contents

• Virtual Run to reduce poverty

CENFACS’ Run to Reduce Poverty is a physical activity project that aims at improving physical activity and mental health and well-being of the participants while helping to reduce poverty.   However, for various reasons they are people who would like to support the relief efforts about poverty through run, but they may not be able to do it if the only way of doing it is through physical activity.  These people who may be experiencing handicap to do physical activity of running to help reduce poverty could include the following:

~ People/parents caring for very young children

~ Pregnant women

~ Elderly people

~ Disable people

~ Those who are not physically fit or mobile to run

~ Those who do not have opportunity to physically run

~ Under certain conditions and circumstances, we can also consider those who use outdoor and indoor fitness equipment to virtually run.

For these deprived-to-physically-run people, they can virtually run to help reduce poverty with CENFACS.  If you are organising this kind of virtual activity or event, let us know.  It is also better to advise us that the people participating in the virtual run are the physically deprived ones we listed above or they have a serious handicap prohibiting them to undertake any physical engagement.  

• Tourism like a means of reducing rural poverty

It is well known and documented that poverty is more widespread in rural areas than in urban ones of Africa.  Most poor people live in rural areas there.  And if you are tourist and would like to associate your travel with a poverty story or a touch of poverty, then surely where most of the poor people live are the places to visit.  These places can be the rural areas and the peripheral areas of the urban centre. 

Generally speaking, tourism and tourists need food and agricultural products like any humans to live and enjoy their holidays.  Rural areas are as well the places where come food and agricultural products.  By buying and consuming food and agricultural products, tourists connect and generate demand for agricultural products.  In this respect, tourists to the rural areas can help reduce rural poverty and boost rural income even the economy.  Tourism in rural areas is as well a learning curve or experience of new cultures, foods, environments, ways of life and products. 

Finally, whether you are following the direction of poverty reduction as tourists or virtually running to reduce poverty or even volunteering to the local needs; please do not forget to record your data or simply what you are doing.  Please keep images, videos, films, photos and voices of what you think is relevant to share as stories with us and others when you return.

FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

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 2018.

With many thanks

Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!

15 August 2018

Post No. 52

The Week’s Contents

• TRENDING for Poverty Relief: Tourism as Outreach to Local People

• Online TRACK to CENFACS e-Charity Summer Shop

• TRIPs for Fieldwork Research

   … and much more!

Key Messages of the Week’s Contents

Tourism as a way of reaching out to the poor

Our journey in looking at the direction of poverty reduction by following Tourism is now in phase 3.  In this phase 3, we are observing tourism as a way of reaching out to the local people, especially those in need. 

For more on tourism as outreach, please read further under the Main Development section of this post.

Summer goods donations and buys

Every season is an opportunity to do something about the environment and poverty.  You can recycle or donate your unwanted or unused goods and presents to do something about the environment and or poverty.  You can also buy goods to meet the same ends.

This Summer you can online track CENFACS e-charity shop to help the environment and poverty relief.  If you are a fun of online tracking and shopping, you can take an online course of action or online path or even course of travel to save the environment and reduce poverty with CENFACS.

Instead of you physically going to physically shop or donate your goods, you can from the comfort of your home buy or donate goods to CENFACS e-charity shop to help the deserving cause of poverty relief and sustainable development.

To support us either by shopping or supplying us with products or goods you no longer want or use so that we can sell and raise the money for the good cause of poverty relief, please go http://cenfacs.org.uk/shop/

TRIPS for fieldwork research

Trips to the local need this week include as well those travels made or to be made to conduct fieldwork research in Africa and anywhere else in the context of poverty relief and sustainable development projects. 

These fieldwork researches or practical experiences to gain knowledge and skills could be of varying forms such as observation and collection of raw data, interviews, group discussions, practical activities to support overseas development projects etc. 

If you are a researcher and did or are doing some fieldwork research on sustainable development and poverty reduction, and think that your work can enhance CENFACS’ work, you could share with us your experience, research findings or outcomes.

To share the experiences and results of your fieldwork research, just contact CENFACS and CENFACS will get back to you.

Main Development of the Week’s Contents

Tourism as a way of outreaching all

The last two weeks of Trending in Poverty Relief and Sustainable Development, we followed the direction of poverty relief through tourism and tourists to the local need with tourism as helper and enabler for poor people to participate and contribute to growth (week one) and as trade creator and income generator (week two).

This week, we are pursuing the same direction of poverty relief through tourism as a way of reaching out to the poor.  Tourists to the local need can help to meet local needs and those who are in need locally.  They can reach out to them by a variety of means which could include:

√ Income-generating activities run by local people

√ Getting in touch with local arts, cultures and designs

√ Visiting locally-run projects and made creations

Tourism reaching out to the poor is a concept telling us that tourism is not only about visiting rich areas and tourist sides whereby the tourists walk through like in a path drawn for them.  Tourism as outreaching all is about getting in touch with all the realities of the place, and amongst these realities are poverty and hardships as well.  By connecting to both the local rich and poor, tourists to the local need can have a balanced perception of the place.  This can also enrich their holiday experiences and outcomes. 

In fact, doing something about poverty is not only about donating money or goods.  It is also about buying things made by the poor, valuing their creations and makings and caring about the environment they live in.  In this respect, tourism and tourists to the need can reach out poor people in this way.  So, tourism with a local eye on the poor can lead to doing something against local poverty and hardships.    

To follow or track the direction of poverty relief through Tourism with CENFACS this August, contact CENFACS.

FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/

Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.

Thank you as well to those who made comments about our weekly posts.

We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support during 2018.

With many thanks