Promotions, Moves and Recognition

Elsie Hamadina, 2009 AWARD Fellow, Nigeria

AWARD Fellow Elsie Hamadina was recently invited to give a presentation at the Fundamental for Life: Soil, Crop, and Environmental Sciences Conference in San Antonio, Texas, under the auspices of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSA), and Soil Science Society of America (SSA). The title of her talk, delivered on October 17, 2011, was “The Effect of Provenance, Growth, and Storage Agro-Ecology on the Timing of Sprouting in Yam (d.Rotundata Poir)”.

Hamadina, a lecturer in the Department of Crop and Soil Science at the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, was one of 23 presenters to an audience of 4,000 scientists, students, and professionals from the industry. “I am grateful that AWARD funded my ASA membership fees for two years,” said Hamadina. “I also appreciate the fact that USAID, through AWARD, supported my trip to San Antonio.”

Access her talk by clicking here

Asimenye Nthakomwa, 2011 AWARD Fellow, Malawi

Asimenye Nthakomwa, a monitoring and evaluation officer at Malawi’s Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust, recently won second prize in a photo competition organized by Connect4Climate or C4C, the World Bank’s climate change awareness campaign.

“Among our project activities at the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust, we are promoting the use of energy-efficient clay stoves,” says Nthakomwa. “I submitted a photo taken during one of our field days to the connect4climate team, and I entitled my write up ‘Clay Stoves—Use Less Firewood and Conserve Energy’” She placed second in the Energy category and her prizes included a solar backpack and a Toshiba HD camcorder.

The goal of C4C is to raise awareness about global climate change issues, with an initial focus on Africa. This competition was open to African youth between the ages of 13 and 35, who were invited to submit a photo or video telling a climate change story.

Clay stoves are an efficient energy-saving technology that goes hand-in-hand with promoting the sustainable use of forest resources. “One woman testified to using the same bundle of firewood for two weeks with a clay stove, whereas she could use it for only one week with the three-stone traditional stove method that is common in rural communities,” says Nthakomwa. Her team is training rural women in Malawi in how to make clay stoves, which they can also use as an income-generating activity.

To see Nthakomwa’s image and all the winning photos, visit: http://www.connect4climate.org/

Kehinde Moyib, 2010 AWARD Fellow, Nigeria

Kehinde Moyib recently completed her PhD at the University of Ibadan. A lecturer in the Department of Petroleum and Chemical Sciences at Tai-Solarin University of Education, Moyib sends her appreciation to AWARD for helping to shorten the long journey. Her goal is to combine the tools of biotechnology and bioinformatics for breeding and improving varieties of cassava, and aspires to be a role model to other women. Moyib encourages other AWARD Fellows to seize the opportunities provided by the program.

Tawina Jane Kopa-Kamanga, 2011 AWARD Fellow, Malawi

Tawina Jane Kopa-Kamanga was recently awarded a US$10,000 grant from the Public Health Institute (PHI) through its Adolescent Girls’ Advocacy and Leadership Institute (AGALI). The PHI is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting health, well-being, and quality of life for people throughout California, across the U.S. and around the world.

As one of only four candidates to receive the grant, Kopa-Kamanga was invited to take advocacy and leadership training by AGALI in August, and is now a 2011 AGALI Fellow. AGALI promotes global health and development by enhancing the capacity of Latin American and African leaders to improve the health, education, and livelihoods of adolescent girls and young women. Kopa-Kamanga’s project, which will be implemented through an NGO called SACCODE-Trust, involves training adolescent girls in the areas of education, rights and responsibilities, sexual and reproductive health, and participatory monitoring and evaluation. She was recently interviewed by a local newspaper in connection with becoming an AWARD Fellow.

Read the newspaper clippings here and here.

For more information about PHI, visit http://phi.org/about/index.html.

Maria Alexandra Jorge, 2009 AWARD Fellow, Mozambique

Maria Alexandra Jorge, gene bank manager at ILRI, was recently interviewed in connection with a two-day event hosted by the ILRI Board of Trustees called liveSTOCK Exchange, which was held to discuss and reflect on livestock research for development. She spoke about ILRI’s forage research and the importance of the forage seeds gene bank, which is hosted at the ILRI campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

For the full text of the interview, visit ILRI's Blog.