The Foreign Service Journal, May 2004

“Changing Landscapes” tells the tale of South Africa’s “Big Five” game animals and the roles they play during the course of a migration to new pastures. The animals are used in the training programs, notably in a board game that tests the negotiation skills of players, their patience and their own roles in the workplace. Seventy-five members of the Department of Justice have been trained as facilitators and multipliers of the Habits Training Program. Not only have court workers at every level discovered skills that may have forever gone untapped, but the Department of Justice learned the power residing within its own people. “Habits Change” seminars have boosted morale and reduced worker absen- teeism. The project marks the first time hundreds of employees received on-the-job training, and has led to a commitment by the justice minister to allocate each employee an hour every week for training purposes. The New Court Support Services Model is expanding to service three additional provinces. Dr. Biki Minyuku, Re Aga Boswa’s director and program director at Business Against Crime, says: “The best investment we have made is in the minds of people. People are our most strategic resource.” Reverie Zurba Information Officer USAID, Pretoria Two Success Stories from Nigeria 1. Midwives No Longer Flee Calabar Mothers Midwives in Nigeria’s Cross River state used to scamper away from women in the midst of painful childbirth if the mothers were suspected of living with HIV. In at least one major Calabar hospital, though, midwives trained in a U.S.-funded infection prevention program over the last four years now assist with all deliveries, regardless of HIV status. With this newfound focus on treating all patients regardless of any HIV stigma, doctors at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital said they could do their job better. One doctor said the best part of the U.S.-funded infection prevention program is that it has helped save lives by conquering an unnecessary fear over HIV. “That is where the beauty of the infection prevention program comes in,” she said. Since 2000, the U.S. Agency for International Development has worked with local partner Engender Health to fund more than $30,000 of equipment and printed materials for the Calabar hospital. Beyond the training materials to prevent infections, the U.S. funded the construction of a theater for performing surgical con- traceptive practices, training for staff counselors and out- reach to remote local government areas. 2. Oiling The Wheel Of Progress In rural Imo state, women leaders have high hopes that a single palm oil processing center funded by the U.S. government can spur economic progress and democratic development. “It will improve the life of women and other people there,” said Monica Okorafor, a member of the women’s organization installing the palm oil “digester.” The machine is the first step in empowering people together to address their common problems, Okorafor said. With a grant of the equivalent of $1,400, the Obiwuruotu Women’s Organization, a group dedicated to women’s empowerment in the Imo village of the same name, is working with Enugu’s Global Health and Awareness Research Foundation to install the palm oil digester this year. The money comes from the U.S. Ambassador’s Special Self-Help Fund. The U.S.-funded machine can pound, press and extract one pound of palm kernels in three minutes and produces an entire drum of palm oil in less than three hours. The 200 women members of the Obiwuruotu organization plan to use the digester to make oil used in cooking, soaps and machinery, using the scraps from the machine as poultry feed. For less than 15 cents, the women can buy a bunch of palm kernels that the machine can turn into a bottle of oil that sells for the equivalent of nearly a dollar. The women also plan to rent the machine out for the use of neighbor- ing villages. With the profits from the machine, the women plan to buy new tools, expand their community meeting facilities and provide small loans to other women entrepreneurs. Obiora, the founder of GHARF, said these communi- ty benefits are just as important as the money gained from the machine’s operation. Her “greatest pleasure” is seeing attitudinal change for adolescents and women, especially as they discover new ways to be involved in democracy and decision-making, she said. Mike Hankey Information Officer U.S. Consulate General, Lagos F O C U S 54 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 4