An ADF leadership delegation conducted working visits to four African nations in January, meeting with heads of state to discuss potential new strategic partnerships and program operations, and performing site inspections of a wide range of new and proposed projects.

ADF President Nathaniel Fields offered newly appointed board members Dr. Ephraim Batambuze and Jack Leslie a detailed orientation on ADF’s unique approach to community-led development in Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, and Uganda, and the group met with the presidents of each nation.

Also accompanying President Fields on portions of the trip were Claude Allen, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services and a former ADF board member; ADF board chairman Ernest Green; and former ADF President Bill Ford.

 Highlights of the trip included:

Nigeria

• A tour of a recently completed emergency housing construction project in northern Nigeria that was financed on a 50/50 basis by a strategic partnership between ADF and the Government of Jigawa State. The project provided nearly 400 housing units to families whose homes were destroyed by floods in 2002. An innovative venture in emergency housing production, it used environmentally friendly compressed-brick technology and employed local sociologists to assist engineers in designing houses that are appropriate to the cultural preferences and economic needs of local residents. Each home was built at a cost of less than US $3,000 per unit, and the project generated dozens of local jobs while providing local laborers with professional training in masonry and carpentry.  
   

• A visit to a bazaar that featured products produced by the members of Women Development Initiative (WDI) in Kano.  With ADF support, WDI has successfully financed the expansion of small women-owned businesses in northern Nigeria's largest city by launching a micro-lending program and training WDI's staff in financial management and computerized loan tracking.
   

• Meetings with the governors of several Nigerian states to discuss potential strategic partnership activities in other regions of the country.
   

• A meeting with President Obasanjo of Nigeria to discuss opportunities for ADF to enhance the Foundation’s program activities in Africa’s most-populous nation.
   

Ghana

• Meetings with President Kufuor and other senior officials of the Government of Ghana to discuss ADF’s progress toward implementing projects to help small Ghanaian entrepreneurs scale up their operations and develop high-quality products for sale in regional and international markets.
   

• Tours of several potential projects that would be funded under ADF’s Ghana trade and investment initiative (T&I). ADF has approved support for its first Ghana T&I project, Afrique Link, a tomato products processing company based in the northern Ghana town of Wenchi.
   

• A visit to the ADF-funded Youth Peer Education Project (YPEP), which has provided HIV/AIDS prevention instruction to more than 120,000 young people in Ghana.
   

Botswana

• A meeting with President Mogae and the signing of a new five-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) between ADF and the Government of Botswana that will provide 50/50 funding support for small and micro enterprise projects. The new MOU follows on the success of ADF’s first five-year strategic partnership with GOB, which provided 50/50 support for 19 development projects in Botswana between 1998 and 2003.
   

• Visits to two ADF projects:  (1) the Okavango Polers Trust, an indigenously owned and operated eco-tourism project, and (2) Godisa Solar Hearing Aids, a non-profit trust that produces low-cost sun-powered hearing aids for the developing world and provides jobs and technical training to deaf youth.
   

Uganda

• Meetings with President Museveni and senior government officials to discuss opportunities for expanding ADF’s program operations in Uganda.
   

• Tours of several successful trade and investment projects, including Mukono Vanilla, which recently received international recognition for the quality of its cured vanilla, and Uganda Marines, a growing small enterprise that exports fresh Nile perch from Lake Victoria to fish markets in Europe and Australia.
   

• An awards ceremony honoring Mukono Vanilla and Iganga Green Ladders Vanilla for their financial contributions to ADF’s Community Reinvestment Grant program, an initiative that engages ADF grantees in endowing a financial trust that will finance future ADF projects in Uganda.
   

• A festive homecoming for new ADF board member, Dr. Ephraim Batambuze. In celebrations hosted by the King of Busoga, Dr. Batambuze – an Illinois cardiologist who was born in eastern Uganda and received political asylum in the United States during the Idi Amin regime – returned to the land of his birth as ADF’s first African-born board member. The event drew wide media coverage across Uganda and focused public attention on ADF’s grassroots development projects.