Dear All:

Neglected diseases such as parasitic infections reek havoc on many
communities in different parts of the world.  As part of our committment
to responsible, sustainable development and a community culture, we will
make neglected disease problems, where we evaluate we can make a
significant difference, a goal of our collaborative virtual
organisations in years to come.  Please contact me to discuss your ideas
and also consider joining the new Collaboration Pools summarised
at bottom of this email.  We can also work together on new funding
opportunities.

However and also, my experiences in Africa, for example on our
conservation trip to the remote Caprivi Delta region of Namibia
(http://barryhardy.blogs.com/theferryman/2009/02/experiences-from-expedition-work-in-the-caprivi-delta.html;
please keep in mind this post was based on a summary for my
younger son for awareness!), are that "small contributions" can make a
big difference.  One story from that trip was the inability of a local
clinic to deal with the torn foot of one of our party, and we ended up
stitching him up with a veterinary kit back at base camp. Once that was
done, how would he get around we asked, as there were no crutches to be
had locally?!  Discussing the incident around the camp fire afterwards,
we came up with the simple solution of each throwing some money into a
"needles and crutches" hat, and that was able to buy needles and
crutches for the local clinic to keep them going for a couple of years,
and it could be directly organised.  So in this reality-focused context
something like $200 made a bigger difference on the real problem for the
future than a (possibly failed) major $100m program.  A bit of a
stretched analogy, but you probably get the point.

We intend to continue our support of sustainable development work in the
community in Caprivi in community-involved wild life conservation
development, and look forward to our next trip, and others in the
community who might be interested.  Let me know, if this might be for
you too.

Here I would like to draw attention to a new local initiative in the
area to help support the families affected by a widespread HIV infection
epidemic.  There is need for education, healthcare, and support of the
many orphans left behind by parents who simply die from untreated HIV
infection.  Consider what you might do by volunteering some simple help
and support to the work out there.  The new center is called TAG
Volunteers (TAG for think-act-grow):
http://www.tagvolunteer.com/
I vouch this is a real legitimate project as Ronel, the woman setting it
up, was also very much involved in competently running the important
activities at our base camp on our last visit, such as getting something
to eat when we got back very tired and hungry from our trips into the bush!

Welcome your feedback!  If you do decide to take some time out to
volunteering in some way, I suspect you will find it rewarding!  And it
is also at the same time such a special and beautiful country to experience!

best regards
Barry

Collaboration Pools:

OpenTox - predictive toxicology
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M7TFM6C

eCheminfo - drug discovery
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/V6T2YSD

InnovationWell - life science innovation and knowledge management
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/782L9DZ