At Saint Finbar’s College in Lagos, more than 50 pupils pack into a small rundown classroom for their English lesson. Patches of sky are visible through the corroded tin roof. Surrounded by the mouldy walls and windows that have long since lost their panes, Denrele Akinfenwa throws her hands up in resignation when asked how she manages to teach. "I can’t really complain because the situation in my class is quite typical," she sighed. "In some parts of Nigeria pupils don’t even have a roof over their head and have to study under trees."

In a non-verbal but eloquent answer to a question posed by a visiting government and UN delegation about health conditions in her school, eight-year-old Tendayi Bwanali started coughing. When she finally settled down, she told the education department and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) officials: "We are holding lessons in tobacco barns where tobacco is prepared (cured) every year - the smell of tobacco is so strong that we have problems breathing."

The students of Gamal Abdel Nasser University in the Guinean capital Conakry have gone on strike to demand the release of a student leader who was arrested on Wednesday. The 14,000 students at Guinea's oldest university were also demanding an improvement in conditions at the cash-strapped university and the settlement of various other grievances. An IRIN correspondent who went to the campus last Thursday found lecture halls empty and no signs of academic activity.

This Forum, which is organised by the Consortium for Street Children in collaboration with the Hope Village Society, will be a mixture of field study,
plenary, and group sessions focusing on street children in the context of children's rights, poverty, and social exclusion. Key experts working with street children from the following countries will be attending: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan/Palestine, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. For more information, contact: Consortium for Street Children, Unit 306, Bon Marche Centre, 241-251 Ferndale Road, London SW9 8BJ, UK; Tel:+44(0) 20 7274 0087; Fax: +44(0) 20 7274 0372; Email:[email protected]

A Baltimore-based aid agency, World Relief, issued a guide in Kenya to assist churches with caring for Aids orphans in Africa. Entitled "Our Children: The Church Cares for Children Affected by AIDS", the 92-page document underlines the importance of helping orphans - or children who are caring for parents with AIDS-related illnesses - to continue their education.

It was once celebrated as a rare African success story, an example of what committed leadership can do. Education for all was the policy Zimbabwean authorities pursued diligently for much of the first decade since independence, from Britain, in 1980. The goal was to extend education to the previously disadvantaged black majority. As a result, scores of schools were built and the training of thousands of teachers speeded up. Sadly, those classroom gains are currently in jeopardy, threatened by triple digit inflation and political impenitence.

Up to 300 cases of measles have been reported in Basankusu, 210 km northeast of Mbandaka, the main town in the Democratic Republic of Congo province of Equateur, the deputy director of epidemiological services at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Mondonge Makuma, said on Friday. However, doctors in Basankusu told the UN Mission in the DRC that some 800 people were infected, three of whom had died.

The Charities Aid Foundation Southern Africa will be hosting a regional one-day working conference on governance and accountability in the non-profit sector on the 25th May 2004. Entitled: 'Governance and Accountability: Developing Guidelines for Southern African NGOs,' the conference is aimed at generating discussion on the need for Southern African NGOs to apply principles of good governance and accountability in their work, as well as to launch the process of developing a draft Code of Good Governance for the non-profit sector.

AFRODAD (African Forum and Network on Debt and Development) and MWENGO (Mwelekeo wa NGO), a reflection and development centre for NGOs in East and Southern Africa will be holding an Activist Learning Workshop on the 26th to the 30th April 2004, in Harare, Zimbabwe. This is the second workshop, the first being held successfully in March 2003. The workshop will focus on learning for activism targeted at policy activists.

In just one month Jocelyn, 12, has learnt to read. He is attending one of Madagascar’s 260 learning centres scattered in villages in the poor provinces of Fianarantsoa, Majunga, Tamatave and Toliara. The centre is Jocelyn’s first contact with an educational institution. Like many children living in rural Madagascar, Jocelyn’s parents, who are farmers, could not afford to send him to school. “I hope the courses won’t stop. I want to continue to learn,” Jocelyn says, while proudly reading to his parents from his book. Madagascar’s government and the UN System Joint Programme to Promote Basic Education for All Malagasy Children are behind this innovative non-formal education programme.

Rights activists in Angola have accused the authorities of riding roughshod over civil liberties after demonstrators this week were prevented from staging a protest against alleged government graft. According to the protest organisers, police on Tuesday cordoned off access to the venue for the demonstration, a central square in the capital, Luanda.

This paper is the result of a study commissioned by Sida on the status and current trends in adult basic education in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. The study included a review of relevant documentation in several languages, an electronic survey with key respondents throughout the world, personal interviews and a few field visits. The process also included a five-week bilingual on-line forum on the topic, with over 300 subscribers from all over the world.

The management of the state-run Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) in the Tanzanian commercial capital on Wednesday closed the college and suspended all 619 students after accusing them of vandalism. The students on Sunday stormed the college's stores and destroyed foodstuffs and harassed cooks, saying meals were unwholesome. They also accused the institution's administration of mismanagement.

Over 300 primary school teachers in Delta State this week stormed the state House of Assembly and held legislators including assembly workers and visitors hostage for over three hours in protest against non-payment of their due entitlements. The placard-carrying protesters barricaded the gate thereby preventing entry and exit from the assembly complex.

The CIVICUS World Assembly creates an opportunity for civil society organisations which normally do not have access to certain important actors nationally, regionally and internationally to engage in dialogue and debate about the future of the planet generally, and the role of civil society specifically. The overall World Assembly theme is Acting Together for a Just World. Plenary sessions, learning exchanges and capacity-building workshops will focus on the following sub-themes: Civic justice which explores ways to defend the rights of civic associations and to strengthen the governance and legitimacy of civil society organisations; Social justice, which explores civil society's role in situations of public or private conflict; Political justice which explores ways to enhance citizen engagement in decision-making; and Economic justice which will reflect on the ways in which globalisation is changing the world of work.

The e-Government Gateway portal will be made available through the existing government web site (www.gov.za), building on the familiarity that South Africans already have with government information.

Looking to build an effective, efficient and sustainable organisation? Limited resources for attending courses? Need effective training that you can do while working?

Fahamu, in association with the University of Oxford, is offering distance learning courses specifically designed to meet the needs of human rights and civil society organisations. You can be anywhere to do these courses. Using cutting-edge interactive CDROMs, with support from a course tutor via email and an optional workshop, the course methodology is designed for learning at work without the need to take study leave. Those successfully completing the course will be awarded with a certificate from the University of Oxford. Fahamu – Learning for change – uses information and communication technologies to serve the needs of organisations and social movements that aspire to progressive social change and that promote and protect human rights.

The following courses are available in 2004:

· An introduction to human rights (3 weeks)
· Investigating, reporting and monitoring human rights violations (18 weeks)
· Using the internet for advocacy and research (16 weeks)
· Leadership and management for change (18 weeks)
· Fundraising and resource mobilisation (18 weeks)
· Finance for the non-financial manager (18 weeks)
· JustWrite: an on-line course on effective writing (5 weeks)

The first course begins on 1 March 2004. For course dates, information, fees and registration forms kindly contact Camille Downes in Durban, South Africa on TEL: +27-(0)31-2071144/8360 FAX: +27-31-2078403 EMAIL: [email protected] or Hilary Isaacs in Oxford, UK on TEL: +44-(0)845 456 2442 FAX: +44-(0)845-456-2443 EMAIL: [email protected] http://www.fahamu.org/

Zambian workers have threatened to hold nationwide demonstrations and picket parliament to protest higher taxes introduced in the 2004 budget, labour leaders said on Tuesday. "We shall paralyse government operations through mass demonstrations," said Joyce Nonde, president of the Federation of Free Trade Unions of Zambia (FFTUZ). No date was given for the planned protests.

The "Chronicle" newspaper has been brought before the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court in the capital, Monrovia, in an action for "damages for injury to reputation". Philip Keikpo, former business manager of exiled former president Charles Taylor, is claiming US$5 million for a front page lead story entitled, "How Taylor Diverted Millions", published in the 23 January 2004 edition of the "Chronicle".

Developing countries should promote the cultivation of more indigenous crops to help combat hunger and malnutrition facing hundreds of millions of people in Asia and Africa, a U.N. conference on biodiversity was told Tuesday. About 800 million people in the developing world could remain "chronically underfed" unless governments help more farmers cultivate a diverse range of plants that could become food sources, said researchers from the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute.