We are delighted to have formed our first partnership with an African village. Okaseni Village is on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in northeastern Tanzania, close to the border with Kenya.

It took several steps to find Okaseni. Inspired by Stephen Lewis, HIV/AIDS activist and former speical UN envoy to Africa, I sent my report to his foundation in April 2007. Two weeks later, I was ecstatic to receive a phone call from Alexis Macdonald, Director of Programmes of the Stephen Lewis Foundation . I could hardly put two words together! She gave me much good advice -- the most important was that I should find a contact in a village. A contact, she said, would make establishing a relationship with a village much easier.  

Great idea! But how to find a contact far away in Africa from a technology institute in a Canadian city on the west coast of North America? A colleague and now one of the founding members of The Africa Project, Patricia Sackville, gave us the answer. At the time, she was taking an on-line course about the Holocaust with participants from around the world. She volunteered to send out a call to those from Africa.

Within hours, she received five replies. Unfortunately, due to the time crunch at the end of the term, it took me several weeks to get back to them, but I immediately heard back from Tumaini Minja, a lawyer and peace activist in Tanzania. Tumaini lives in Okaseni with his mother and sister and was extraordinarily helpful and responsive to my inquiries. After weighing the information he and the Village Chairman, Melkizedeck Mushi, sent me, I became convinced that Okaseni would be a perfect village for The Africa Project.

We are tremendously pleased to have formed this partnership with the Okaseni community and hope that our future work together will help to develop this African village.

You can read more about Okaseni by clicking on the Okaseni Village link on the left menu.