[FOG news] 2008 Friends of Guinea board elections upcoming!

Dear Friends of Guinea members,
Some of you may have election fatigue, but Friends of Guinea are holding elections that everyone can get excited about and candidates don't have to spend a dime!

Every year, the following positions for FOG's board are up for election: membership director, communications director, advocacy director, financial officer, projects director and secretary.

Any member is eligible to run for any position.

But we particularly need volunteers for the following board positions:

-Communications director

-Secretary


The communications director is responsible for any communications that might occur with outside organizations, such as other Friends of * organizations. The communications director is also the point person for the newsletter coordinator, web admin and blogmaster.

The secretary is responsible for organizing quarterly board meetings and keeping minutes for it. The secretary is also the 'record keeper' of FOG's historical archives.

A full explanation of the duties of all the officers can be found here

If you have questions about or want to know more about any of these positions, please contact me at communications @ friendsofguinea.org

Nominations will be accepted through Friday March 21. Ballots will be emailed to all FOG members on March 22 and the voting period will conclude on March 28. And new officers will start on shortly thereafter, though outgoing officers will remain available in the beginning to assist with the transition period.

If you are a member of FOG and would like to run for any of the positions on the board or have any other questions that might not have been addressed above, please contact me at communications@friendsofguinea.org

Thank you.

Brian Farenell
FOG Elections Coordinator

[FOG news] What else should Friends of Guinea be doing?

Currently Friends of Guinea does many things thanks to the time and effort of its volunteers including...

-Maintaining Guinea general listserv
-Maintaining Guinea PCV parents' listserv (GPS)
-Maintaining RPCV directory
-Publish a quarterly newsletter
-Maintaining a website (as well as a version in French)
-Publishing a blog
-Offering resources for prospective PCVs and their families
-Funding of development projects in Guinea, including the gender conferences
-Partnering with organizations like Guinéenews and Partage Québec Guinée


We can't guarantee that we can do everything but we'd certainly like feedback from members about what sorts of things you'd like to see us try that we are not currently doing. Please leave your ideas in the comments section of this page or email me at communications @ friendsofguinea.org

Brian Farenell
Communications Director

[Development issues] User fees and health care

The IRIN news service has a good piece on the debate over user fees in African health care.

Late last year, the Liberian health ministry suspended the imposition of user fees for primary health care and set up a committee to investigate the impact of such fees on the country's extremely poor population.

The research is in part to show the level of revenue gained from fees contrasted with the extent fees keep people away from health services, one development expert in Liberia said. Many who advocate lifting fees say they do not contribute significantly to government coffers, reported IRIN.

The World Bank is working with Liberia to figure out alternative ways to fund health care. A health economist with the organization pointed out that World Bank does not support user fees, as is commonly assumed. “We’re neither for nor against user fees – what we’re for is that the poor and children have access to health care.”

A spokesman for Britain's Department for International Development said, “We think the evidence is clear that user fees are not desirable because they don't attract a lot of revenue in a typical African country, but nonetheless act as a significant disincentive for poor people to seek health care."

The Globalist, for its part, took a broader look at the challenges of health care in Africa. Particularly, how to make the biggest positive impact on public health with limited resources.

Some of the key problems it cited:
-The problems of childbirth
-The scarcity of physicians
-The 'brain drain' of domestic health workers toward Europe and North America
-Deadly diseases like tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria
-Curing the stigma against AIDS

[Networking] Guinea (R)PCV Facebook page

There is now a page on Facebook for returned, present and future Guinea PCVs as well as friends and family. Click here to go to the page.

[Guinean news] Illegals threaten Guinean fishing

The IRIN news service has a piece on the threat to Guinea's domestic fishing industry caused by industrial trawlers from Europe and Asia that operate illegally in Guinean waters.

[Guinean news] Child exploitation

The UN's IRIN news service explores the phenomenon of child exploitation, abandonment and slavery in Guinea.

[Guinean news] Soccer team eliminated from Nations Cup

The Guinean national soccer team was eliminated from the African Nations Cup at the quarterfinal stage for the third tournament in a row. The Syli national were thrashed 5-0 by Côte d'Ivoire. The game was better than the heavy scoreline would suggest. The young Guinean side was missing its best attacking player (suspension) and best defender (injury) but still remained competitive with the heavily favored Elephants for most of the game. But the pre-tournament favorite Ivorians scored four times in the last 20 minutes to seal the game.

[Soccer news] Guinea to open African Naitons Cup today

The 26th African Nations Cup opens today in Accra, Ghana as the host nation battles Guinea. The Syli national has never won the Nations Cup, with its best finish being runner-up in 1976. Guinea lost in the quarterfinals of the last two Nations Cups. However in order to do so for the third straight year, they will have to advance from group that comprises the host nation, Morocco and Namibia.

Reuters reports that there is already a carnival atmosphere in Conakry.

The tournament is not available on American television but can be viewed online via the website telesud.us, though it appears that the service is pay-per-view.

Guinea's schedule is as follows:
Sunday Jan. 20, Noon ET: vs Ghana
Thursday Jan. 24, Noon ET: vs Morocco
Monday Jan. 28, Noon ET: vs Namibia

The full tournament schedule and more news can be found here.

[Peace Corps issues] Downsize the PC to make it more effective?

Robert L. Strauss, an RPCV and former Peace Corps recruiter and country director, wrote an interesting op-ed in Wednesday's New York Times.

Strauss opines that the present demographics of the Peace Corps prevents it from being an effective development organization. Most PCVs are recent college graduates.

In the Peace Corps' early days, enthusiastic young Americans offered something that many newly independent nations counted in double and even single digits: college graduates. But today, those same nations have millions of well-educated citizens of their own desperately in need of work. So it’s much less clear what inexperienced Americans have to offer.

According to Strauss: What the agency should begin doing is recruiting only the best of recent graduates — as the top professional schools do — and only those older people whose skills and personal characteristics are a solid fit for the needs of the host country... but that the organization is not doing so because it would cause the number of volunteers to plummet.

[Guinean news] General strike threat suspended until March 31

Agence France Presse reports that Guinean unions have suspended the anticipated general strike until March 31.

With public support for another strike waning, unions and the government agreed to a proposal whereby a committee would be set up a committee to monitor the implementation of last year's power-sharing agreement, noted Reuters.