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July – August 2009 Newsletter
Contents
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Introduction
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Chief Financial Officer Arrives at APOPO
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Founder attends the World Economic Forum on Africa
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Partnership with New Global Citizens announced
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Armored Casspir arrives in Mozambique to expedite APOPO’sDemining operations
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Reflections from our HeroRATs volunteer, Whitney Burton
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Support APOPO’s work
Introduction
We hope the summer finds you all well! Last month, 6 rats passed their finaltests in landmine detection and 4 passed the month before. In June and July,73 patients were detected by our rats after being missed by microscopy inTuberculosis detection.In this newsletter, we are happy to announce the arrival of our Chief FinancialOfficer, Sabrina Antognazza. We are very grateful to have her on our team! You will also find an article about APOPO’s founder, Bart Weetjens, attendingthe World Economic Forum on Africa earlier this summer on June 10ththrough the 12th in Cape Town, South Africa.In addition, New Global Citizens, an organization committed to educating,equipping and mobilizing young people to help solve world problems,announced HeroRATs as one of its next projects to support for 2009 -2010academic calendar year.
An armored Casspir vehicle that will make our HeroRATs work even moreefficient has arrived in Mozambique and has begun safely transportingindividuals, mapping the suspected area, and aiding in the preparation of landfor demining.Lastly, meet some of our team: Volunteer Whitney Burton shares a few of herthoughts and experiences as a volunteer with the HeroRAT program for sixmonths. We hope you have a wonderful August!
Chief Financial Officer Arrives at APOPO
APOPO is happy to announce that our Chief Financial Officer, Sabrina Antognazza, arrived in Morogoro in the beginning of May. Antognazza will bein charge of administration and finance, and assist with Human resources andgeneral management. Sabrina became interested in the idea of APOPOoriginally: “It's amazing the idea of rats helping people, it's a constructive andnon destructive way to cooperate with wildlife instead of exploiting andharming it. That made me curious enough to apply,” said Sabrina Antognazza.She says that the enthusiasm and commitment she saw when she visited APOPO made her really want to work in this organization.Originally from Milan, Italy, Sabrina Antognazza has been working indifferent social projects in Africa prior to starting at APOPO. She has workedin Africa for the past four years in Tanzania and Chad. In the previous ten years, Antognazza volunteered in Sudan, Kenya, Rwanda, India and Italy. When asked why she likes working in Africa, Sabrina Antognazza replied: “Ifeel home here, I prefer a simple lifestyle and I'm happy with the culturalexchange that you enjoy in a multicultural environment.” We are very excited to have her as part of our team, and we want to warmly welcome Sabrina Antgnazza to our team!
Founder attends the World Economic Forum on Africa
Bart Weetjens, the founder of APOPO, attended the World Economic Forum
on Africa from June 10th to the 12th. The theme for the 2009 conference was"Implications of the Global Economic Crisis for Africa;” the conference washosted in Cape Town, South Africa.The economic crisis took precedence over the annual meeting with many discussions on the impact of the crisis on Africa’s traditional drivers of growth. Many African countries depend largely on mineral extraction andtourism as sources of income, so many countries have been strongly impacted. Some main topics discussed were foreign capital flows, demand foroil and commodities, and infrastructure development. Innovation and localresponses to local problems were also key elements in these discussions of growth. Weetjens joined renowned social entrepreneurs from Africa to discuss theirinnovations and how these innovations can be used to create a better world.
Partnership with New Global Citizens announced
New Global Citizens, a program that supports young people wanting to makechange in the world, has recently announced it’s partnership with theHeroRAT program. The HeroRAT program was selected through acompetitive selection process to be one of the 20 projects that New GlobalCitizen groups in schools all over the world can work to support throughoutreach, advocacy, fundraising, etc. APOPO and the HeroRATs team looksforward to the opportunity to work with youth in this fashion and are excitedto be a part of their mission.New Global Citizens goals are to educate, equip and mobilize young people tohelp solve the greatest challenges faced by communities around the world.They do this by partnering with grassroots organizations, like APOPO, that arefinding local solutions to local problems. NGC supports these young leaders asthey work to create sustainable change. We are very excited to join the New Global Citizens through this partnership! We hope to provide another venue for the youth community to learn, takeaction and create a better world.
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