This year, 2015, the centenary of the death of Mary Slessor, the asteroid has officially been named ‘Slessor 4793′ after a petition was established by a Belgian based twinning charity.

Only a few days before, a motion was discussed during a member’s debate in the Scottish Parliament discussing Mary Slessor and the Mary Slessor centenary events in light of this important day.

See this video of the debate…

http://www.scottishparliament.tv/category.aspx?sort=date&vid=0_ixaisymp

This December, the Mary Slessor Foundation celebrated the graduation of several students. We wish them good luck on their journey onwards.

Students come to the Mary Slessor Foundation (MSF) in rural Nigeria to learn skills that will enable them to contribute to their well-being and those of their families and communities. However, many students struggle to pay school fees each month without a current source of income or someone to support them such as a parent. We were delighted when a pioneering scholarship offer came to us from Xenos Media Group, LLC, a first for both MSF and the company that will enable one promising youth to complete the entire two year training program at no cost to them.

After careful review of all applications and final selection by Antony Adolf, founder and Managing Member at Xenos Media Group, LLC, we are excited to announce that a winner for the inaugural Xenos Scholarship has been selected! Gospel Friday Etim will now complete the two-year Mary MSF Vocational Training & Skills Acquisition program in Fashion & Design through this generous scholarship. The process began months ago and involved dozens of local organizations, who assisted in generating applicants from around the region.

A key component of the Xenos Scholarship is for students to demonstrate the principle of diversity as a positive force, a theory which Mr. Adolf began developing in his book Peace: A World History and sees the Xenos Scholarship as one of many ways of putting it into practice. The following description of diversity was provided to organizations and applicants, who were asked to explain how diversity has positively impacted their personal lives, their communities, or the world in their view.

“Diversity is the principle that what makes us different from one another can make us stronger and smarter all together, presenting both opportunities and challenges. Differences include language, religion, race, culture, nationality, tribe, gender, class and generation. By understanding these differences, we learn more about ourselves and each other. With this knowledge, the gaps between “us” and “them” narrow without the destruction and disrespect of eliminating differences, making possible wider bridges of ideas and practices that improve the decisions we make and actions we take upon them. In this way, diversity empowers us to solve problems, meet needs and enjoy life in ways that would not be possible otherwise. Diversity is vital to the development of individuals and societies, education is vital to the development of diversity, and so the purpose of the Xenos Scholarship is to support individual and societal links between education and diversity.”

“MSF and students like Gospel are creating the future of small businesses in Nigeria in a sustainable, ethical way that also meets present needs,” says Mr. Adolf. “The Xenos Scholarship is a highlight in the brief history of the organization and for me personally.” Gospel currently lives with her parents and siblings in the Eseku Essien Ekpe community. She hopes to use her acquired skills in Fashion & Design to support herself and her family in the future and also to train others in the trade.

The Xenos Scholarship certificate and a yearly planner were awarded to Gospel this week at a ceremony in the school compound, presented by the Fashion & Design trainers, Alhaji and Rose, as well as by CUSO International/VSO Nigeria volunteer Christine. The scholarship will provide a bright future for Gospel and those she will touch with her skills and smile along the way. Congratulations, Gospel!

The fate of empires depends on the education of youth.” (Aristotle)

In any educational environment graduation is a significant milestone that celebrates and recognizes the hard work and achievements of the students completing their studies, as well as all the teachers, mentors, family, and friends who supported them in making this dream a reality. Many students at the Mary Slessor Foundation (MSF) Vocational Training & Skills Acquisition Centre are supported financially by one or more relatives, though some manage to pay for their own training.

Preparations for the MSF graduation began a month in advance as we planned and worked to make the day memorable for all in attendance. There were the refreshments, invitations, DJ, decorations, awards, and most importantly the graduate certificates. Over one hundred invitations were personally delivered to parents, chiefs, government officials, local business owners, and friends of the Foundation.

On the day of the graduation, we welcomed our many visitors including parents, siblings, friends and supporters from Calabar and prominent community members, some of whom were seated at the high table. This was also a good opportunity to showcase our facilities and the work of students, which stood on display for everyone to admire. The students had prepared and sang a few songs and acted in a short skit to entertain the guests.

The certificates were presented to students and three students received awards to support them in launching their careers post-graduation. A brand new Butterfly sewing machine was awarded to Margaret Edet Etim, who was the top Fashion and Design student. The two highest performers in terms of attendance and overall dedication and skill in Metal Welding and Mechanical Maintenance, Okon Ebe Okon and Etim Okon Asuquo, were awarded welding machines.

The single word that best captures the atmosphere that day is pride. Students who were incredibly proud of their certificates and achievement, parents proud of their children for completing their advanced studies, trainers beaming with pride for their students’ acquired skills, and the community proud that the Foundation that operates in their midst and is run by their brothers and sisters was graduating and propelling many young people forward.

The celebrations continued with the DJ playing danceable Nigerian beats, food and drinks being served, and congratulatory remarks that were made in honor of the graduates. Visits by the trainers to some of the students’ homes that evening, where many parents hosted their own graduation parties, included congratulatory speeches and thanksgiving.

It was a very special day indeed and one that will forever remain in the hearts and minds of those who were privileged enough to be involved.

Some of the MSF graduates bowing their heads for the opening prayer.

Chrysanctus Odiong Inyene (Metal Welding/Mechanical Maintenance Department) receives his certificate from Geraint (far left), and trainers Essien (left) and Effiom (right), joined by Hilary (far right) who was our graduation MC

Christine (CUSO International/VSO volunteer) says a few words prior to the student awards.

Interview & Pictures with a new graduate from the Skill Centre

Full name: Alhaji Sani Mohammed

Role with Mary Slessor Foundation: Head Trainer of the Fashion + Design Department at the Vocational Training and Skills Acquisition Center

Trainer with the Mary Slessor Foundation since: 2006

Originally from: Kano State, Nigeria

Favorite thing about being a trainer at the Mary Slessor Foundation: Teaching the students and also everything that my work has enabled me to do for myself and my family such as have my own home in the community, my own motorbike, and my own sewing machines.

Something unique about Akpap Okoyong, Cross River State, Nigeria: This is a good and peaceful place that welcomes ‘strangers’ (people from other parts of the country).

Hope for the future of the Mary Slessor Foundation: To open another branch of the foundation in another state (such as Kano).

Alhaji in the Fashion + Design classroom

Alhaji assists graduation award winner Margaret with her new sewing machine

Alhaji and Rose (Assistant Trainer) work on their department’s curriculum development

MSF Attends Maker Faire Africa 2012 – Lagos, Nigeria

“Maker Faire Africa is both a yearly pan-African maker faire & a community of makers. A compendium of handcrafters that hail from Africa’s tiniest villages to her most expansive urban burgs. What we have in common is an unwavering commitment to origin, ingenuity & innovation. A fellowship of creators who believe making is the most authentic form of manufacturing, and manufacturing is what forges a vigorous middle class. We’re bold & we’re gritty, curious & quirky. Our inventions have largely stayed hidden in the ‘punk of the bush’ and the outer reaches of the informal sector, until now.  At our annual pan-African Maker Faire, we connect up, size up, mash up, and up the anti on redefining the future of the world’s most promising continent through our own authentic, relentless African ingenuity.”

 –Maker Faire Africa website

 Essien, Effiom, and I took off on the daylong journey by bus from Calabar to Lagos unsure of what to expect, but looking for new contacts, creative inspiration, and of course some fun! As the trainers of the Metal Welding/Mechanical Maintenance department of the Mary Slessor Foundation (MSF) Vocational Training & Skills Acquisition Center in Akpap Okoyong, the guys had much to gain from attending an event such as this, particularly the inspiration to create local solutions to local challenges and to be innovative in their fabrications, all of which they’d pass on to their students. The event showcased everything from agricultural equipment to a urine-powered generator, and from fashion accessories to children’s toys. We were all fascinated by the creativity displayed at Maker Faire Africa and each took away something that we can apply to our work at MSF.

Palm oil processing is part of everyday life here in southeast Nigeria. Every community has countless palm trees giving the landscape a picturesquely tropical look, while the not-so-pleasant scent of palm fruit cooking is never far away. The process of turning palm fruit from the oil palm tree into crude palm oil for consumption is not only an important end product and key ingredient in many local dishes, but it is also an income generating activity that enables many women, as well as some men and youth, to earn additional finances to support their families. Nigeria is currently the third largest producer of palm oil, but consumes more crude oil than it produces leading to the importation of additional oil from other countries. The oil produced from both the palm fruit and palm kernels have many other uses as well, including cosmetics and as an ingredient in processed foods.

One of the key components of the Mary Slessor Foundation (MSF) is the agricultural processing facility we operate for the community that provides the equipment, facility, and extra labor needed in the highly laborious process of turning palm fruit into crude oil, as well as the equipment for cracking kernels to be sold to traders and for processing cassava into garri, a staple food in the local diet. Currently, during the high season, we employ a manager (Nte) and three additional staff (Akong, Asuquo, and Emmanuel) and serve over twenty-five direct customers and their families. Our equipment is semi-mechanized, though many steps in the process are manual. A benefit of our integrated NGO model is that every department supports each other in the development of the organization and community. When a piece of equipment in the mill needs servicing, trainees from the Mechanical Engineering & Metal Welding department at the MSF Vocational Training Center will come have a look and repair the equipment promptly under the supervision and with guidance from their instructors.

For those of you who are not familiar with the process, I’ve outlined the main steps below as an introduction.

Palm oil processing:

• Step 1 – Fruit bunch reception
• Step 2 – Threshing  (This means removing the fruit from the bunches they come off of on the tree.)
• Step 3 – Cooking fruit (The fruit is cooked in big metal pots to soften the fruit in preparation for processing.)
• Step 4 – Digestion (A mechanized step that uses a generator to power the machine that pounds the palm fruit to soften the inner layer of the fruit in preparation for the oil extraction.)
• Step 5 – Pressing (This is the process of extracting the oil from the fruit.)
• Step 6 – Fibre-nut separation (A manual step, typically undertaken by elderly women, that involves using a hand tool to remove the fibre from the nut of the palm fruit.)
• Step 7 – Nut drying (You’ll see piles of palm nuts sitting out to dry around our mill.)
• Step 8 – Kernel cracking (The final step that we facilitate here, this is also a mechanized generator-powered step in which the nuts are cracked into small pieces. These are sold to traders from Calabar town and Akwa Ibom State who will take them on for further processing into palm kernel oil.)

1. Nte (MSF mill manager) cooking palm fruit.
2. Emmanuel & Asuquo working hard on the presser.
3. Community members and customers work together to separate the fiber from the nut.
4. Women cooking garri at the MSF facility.

Additional resources and information:

• http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/Y4355E/y4355e04.htm#bm04.1
• http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/opinion/16ayodele.html?_r=2&src=sch&pagewanted=all

It was only recently that Elizabeth supported us in Waterstones book shop in Dundee, signing copies of her book to help us promote  the play “Mother of all the Peoples”.

We shall always be grateful to her for her wonderful support and talent.

Our thoughts are with her family and friends.

ROBERTSON – ELIZABETH. Suddenly on 2nd June 2012,  at home in Doune, Elizabeth McKay Robertson(nee McMorland), beloved wife of the late Rev. Alex Robertson, treasured sister of Maureen and Alison, much loved mother of Alastair, Sheena and Alan, loving mother-in-law of Eve and Stuart and adored grandmother of Alison, Katie, Rosie, Hannah, Calum and Jay. Funeral service at Kincardine-in-Menteith, Blair Drummond at 12 noon on Tuesday 12^th June, thereafter to Falkirk Crematorium at 3.30pm. Family flowers only but if desired, donations to The Mary Slessor Foundation and The Balmore Trust.  All family and friends respectfully invited.

Mary Slessor Foundation Vocational Training Center: School is in Session May 7, 2012 Akpap Okoyong, Cross River State

As you stroll down the green grassy field of the Center when school is in session, you’ll get a glimpse of student life as they practice what they’re learning each day here in Akpap Okoyong.

Students can choose to pursue careers in Carpentry, Fashion and Design, or Mechanical Engineering and Metal Welding. Most of our students are from one of about 40 surrounding communities in the Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. Many of them struggle to pay for their own education (a modest school fee of NGN 800-1000/month is charged), seeing this as the path to a better future economically and otherwise, while the families of some students financially support their training in the hopes that a skilled child will bring in additional income for the family. Most of the students are college aged youth, though we do have some adults, and we train both men and women. Our courses comprise of both theoretical and practical training, with lots of individual attention from trainers who are incredibly dedicated to preparing their students. It is inspiring to watch the enthusiasm that the trainers bring to the school and pass on to their students. More than half of the current trainers were part of the first graduating class of the Center, and they take great pride in the Foundation and everything it has enabled them to learn and do. This month, students in each of the three departments are keeping busy, as we’ve been able to purchase materials for them to work with from Calabar town. We also recently hosted an MSF student and staff appreciation celebration, honoring a ‘Student of the Month’ in each department and enjoying an afternoon of fun after yet another month of hard work.

Students each have a unique story leading up to their enrollment at the school, but the opportunity to learn a skill that will help them generate income is what ultimately leads them to register for the program. What prompts them to stay month after month is the fun they have with trainers and classmates, the wonderful environment of the school, and the progress they see in their own skill level, which clearly gives them a great sense of pride (as it should).

On a typical day on campus in Akpap Okoyong, you’ll hear lots of students laughing, trainers patiently guiding trainees, and the generator running loudly in the background. There is something truly special about this place. Maybe it is the hope you can feel in the air, or the peacefulness of its surrounding landscape of palm, banana, and plantain trees, and cassava and pineapple farms, and of course, the perennially majestic sky.

The Calabar Women’s Organisation, which works to promote education and health in the part of the country where Mary lived and worked, visited Dundee to honour her memory.

Anita Pascal, the organisation’s president, said “Mary Slessor is such an important figure in Nigeria. She helped so many people and did so much for the country. We all regard ourselves as the great, great grand-daughters of Mary Slessor.”

Trustee Lynne Binnie and former trustee Elaine Hackney welcomed the group at the McManus Galleries where they took great pleasure in visiting the Mary Slessor exhibition. The trip also included a visit to Verdant Works and they were able to take part in Sunday Worship at the Steeple Church, where they were made very welcome.

Anita said it had been a “privilege and an honour” to learn about the life of  “our late Mama”

Please click here to learn more about their visit.

AKPAP OKOYONG PROJECT UPDATE

We had a Trustee Meeting in Dundee Scotland early this month, which highlighted the following;

Medical Facility

The Clinic has reopened on a limited basis, with an experienced nurse and Anthony our pharmacist. As our activities expand, having a doctor becomes increasingly important. Unfortunately the medical section is not fully functional due to inadequate funding. Our present funding level is insufficient to have a resident doctor

Training Centre

The training programme has fully restarted under the supervision of Ian Clarke, an English trainer from Voluntary Services Overseas . We have around 50 trainees taking two year courses in fashion design, carpentry, or welding mechanical maintenance

In common with the rest of the country, power supply is very erratic and we again need additional funding to replace our ageing generator.

Palm Oil/Cassava Unit

This is the high season and the processing is in full swing. In the new unit, we are sourcing palm fruit from farmers for processing and also buying palm oil locally for storage now and then selling off six months from now when the price rises.

Our long term need is to get competent and accountable managers.

The medical centre has now been open for eighteen months and in that time has received over two thousand people. Over thirty babies have been born, so far, and to date, thankfully, there has been no fatality of mother or child, and no deaths from malaria. The foundation would like to welcome a new doctor to the centre, Dr Kingsley, who will be instrumental in helping us become the regional centre for HIV Aids and Tuberculosis. We are making great advances in gaining the confidence of the local people in our medical provision and to offer TBA’s(Traditional Birthing Attendees) training, in basic hygiene, complication in childbirth and labor. We are now seeking funding for Solar panel powered electricity for centre.

Palm/Cassava Operation

The Palm and Cassava process is right now in full swing, and we are delighted to say that the unit is almost self sustainable. This plant earns badly needed finance for both the local population and the Mary Slessor Foundation. We are pleased to announce that the French Embassy has recently agreed to fund a 2nd production

We take great pleasure in announcing that in conjunction with Exxon Mobil a second training unit is constructed and now open.. The training centre is currently being run by three of the original trainees, Asuquo, Ubong and Essien, and we thank them for their hard work and dedication.

Training Centre

Fashion Design Centre

Petula Codrington is the VSO fashion designer with us at this time. She has currently twenty students in training and is hoping to have an exhibition of their work sometime in December.

Woodworking Centre

The centre continues to go from strength to strength, from the early days of making bee hives it has recently received a contract to supply school and teachers desks and chairs. The improvement in skills and diversity of products can only increase the drive for self sustainability of the Unit.

Metalwork Centre

This centre is flourishing, and provides all the equipment for the palm processing plant.