During the just ended 3rd African RCE Regional conference, at least two people raised concern on the fact that illiteracy is usually associated to not being able to read, write or communicate in any foreign international language like English and French. I think indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage comes in handy here. I think local communities should be made to understand that they have a lot to contribute towards Global Development. Looking forward to a model plan for propagating such knowledge from various communities far and wide.

During the just ended 3rd African RCE Regional conference, at least two people raised concern on the fact that illiteracy is usually associated to not being able to read, write or communicate in any foreign international language like English and French. I think indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage comes in handy here. I think local communities should be made to understand that they have a lot to contribute towards Global Development. Looking forward to a model plan for propagating such knowledge from various communities far and wide.

I will like to suggest that RCEs in Africa should start thinking of how to tackle conflicts as an impediment to sustainable development in Africa.

Dear Colleagues. Collaborative activities (Researches and projects) that touch on wider thematic areas such as conflicts, climate change issues etc will bring us together as one

This seems to be a big group with many interesting posts. At this stage on the road to Nairobi it would be useful for those, like me, who would like to join the site, to be able to pick up on some of the key lines of conversation that need to be taken into RCE deliberation in Nairobi. After this initial opening-stage, will there be discussion documents or position papers available and how does one get to these?

Dear Colleagues I also want to second the ideas presented by Mr. Maarifa and Dr. Bukar. I have also observed that the quest for stronger collaborative ties is very much solicited. What do you think about a Twinning scheme?

Dear Colleagues, sorry for coming late to the discussion forum. Thank you all guys for your contributions and I am sure this year's African continental meeting will be exceptional. One thing I want to open up for discussion is the issues of policy makers involvement in our RCEs., We saw last year in South Korea, the organisers had arranged for a meeting with policy makers and out of that meeting a lot of important ideas came out. We have also seen and learnt from out colleagues in Nigeria where policy makers fully supported the RCE continental meeting. It is also pleasing to hear that some policy makers will be present in Kenya. How can we motivate policy makers from other countries to follow these good examples. I personally feel we need the support from our policy makers and with that African RCEs will be very unique.

The other one is the active involvement of the youths. We have seen from our colleagues in Kenya that youths are getting more involved. We also had good experiences in the Netherland where the youth are very active participants of the RCE. We also need to see how we can promote that. I know Ali and Tich will have good ideas about these because they have been engaging with youths. Let us also thing more about it.

Colleagues, thanks for the interesting posts on upcoming conference. I am also sorry for being out of touch fro a week or two due to unavoidable engagement. However, i see we are on the way there now and we haven't missed the target. We are on course.

A few months ago, i uploaded a case study in Africa and rest of the world on rising cases of child abuse and murder. It was meant to be discussed and get views on how child welfare and security could be addressed at the conference. The case study was on topic ' Child Welfare and Security' and this was actually meant to be a new topic for discussion by this group to zero in on items that need to be addressed urgently to save our children.

As you may have read on papers and other news briefs, on live media, there are rising cases of child murder and abuse. The murders occur in insecure family. It would go that a father and mother have a quarrel, and one of them would kill the children. The reason given by experts on this strange phenomena, is that there are three reasons why parent end up killing their children after a slight quarrel. One would be because of self pity and unfulfilled family expectations, two, stress syndrome, and lastly family infidelity by one of the parents. The experts suggest that if there be one or two of above factors in family, it would definitely trigger the scenario. Yesterday here in Kenya, a man killed his two children aged four and six respectively, just because he did not find his wife at home when he came back from work.
He slashed his two children two death and took poison and also died instantly.

My main suggestion in this column was to find out if this may be an item we need to discuss at conference. Personally, i think we should because of the following reasons. Child Welfare and Security is an environmental concern that affects the society in as much as child welfare is concerned. In Kenya, the center of expertise that would usually be responsible for this phenomena is called 'Child Welfare Society' In my own assessed opinion, this is the group that would have much to say about what is happening in our country here. I am sure, in other countries too, there are similar society as this.
I do now know if we should discuss this as to find what the center of expertise for children should do in order to contain this menace in our society?

However, looking into this in broader terms, it would be a concern to everyone of us. Our children are our future
and without them we have no future.

Before i post what i think could be discussed at conference first it would be good to hear from you also what you think about this problem.

I am really very much in agreement with Mr. Kachilonda's suggestion on looking at ways to get policy makers involved in our activities. I hope we get to share on this.

The issue of funding has really affected many good ideas and projects in africa. even when there is funding it is in the hands of wrong people but let us discuss on how to address policy and implementation of our activities.ESD is to help us look beyond our interests for us to succeed and save this beautiful and resourceful continent.

GOOD MORNING MY FELLOWS