Four organisations have joined Kabissa this week, two from the Cameroons, two involved in rural conservation and one Arts and human rights group.  Rural-Urban Development and Education Agency  is a youth centered NGO  based in Cameroon that aims to address the educational and employment needs of young people by providing community based teachers and creative teaching methods and urban community projects.  

Forest & Agroforestry Promoters - A conservationist organisation whose aims are to improve the environmental and living standards of rural communities in the Cameroon.  The wetlands of Cameroon are one of the most delicate eco-systems in the world with rare species of birds and monkeys. The communities of the wetlands region are trying to introduce a system of eco-tourism to help revitalise the area without compromising the environment. 

 
Biodiversity Conservation Kwahu  - A Ghanaian based organisation whose focus is also conservation with the aim of protecting the forests and trees and by doing so improve the living conditions  including health care of local communities.

Art for Humanity is a South African organisation which uses the Arts to advocate human right.  One of the projects is the Women for Children Project

Children's rights, as with the voice of women in South Africa, Africa and large parts of the developing world, remain invisible. To address this issue, Art for Humanity has initiated the Women for Children project. Throughout history, art has acted not only as a form of expression, but rather it has provided the means for artists to raise controversial issues, bring light to an unspoken topic and has been the source of critical debate.

Staying with the conservation theme, Dipesh links to a blog by Paula Kahumbu called Conservation Tools to benefit wildlife anywhere.   I think it is really encouraging that we in Africa are beginning to focus on wildlife and conservation issues as part of our ecology systems including people and communities. 

Tobias reports on Sangonet's new  Prodder directory of Southern African NGOs

 The aim of PRODDER is to provide specific information on the organisations and institutions involved in our country's development. By doing so we are making strides towards our vision and mission of facilitating access to information, raising awareness of important issues affecting the development agenda, enhancing the reach and impact of development activists, and linking people and organisations through the use of ICTs in  Southern Africa .