John Dada

This page will have information about John Dada harvested from various sources.

Some of the information will come from blogs that Nikki Fishman wrote for Dadamac. Nikki wrote weekly blogs from 2008 to the end of 2012, and they provide excellent background to John's work.

Note. Links to Nikki's blogs may soon be broken, as the Dadamac website content is currently in a stage of transition. As time allows these links will be replaced.

Some of it will come from other sources.

The information below is something written several years ago by Pamela McLean for a Dadamac.net web page. John Dada and Pamela McLean have worked together closely since 2002. sometimes face-to-face but more often through at-a-distance collaborations.

John Dada and Pamela McLean have worked together closely since 2002. sometimes face-to-face but more often through at-a-distance collaborations.

John Dada PhD, MPH, RN, DipHE is best known for his innovative community-development work as the director of Fantsuam Foundation (a voluntary role). He also directs Dadamac projects in Nigeria and has regular online meetings with Dadamac in the UK.

Fantsuam Foundation serves the needs of local communities over a wide rural area. It is also at the forefront of rural connectivity and relevant ICT (Information and Communication Technology).

John has a holistic approach.

This holistic approach comes from responding to the needs of people, and the fact that people have all kinds of intertwined needs. John's voluntary work means that he brings to Dadamac an extensive social network and a deep knowledge of rural realities.

Sharing knowledge and networks through Dadamac

People and organisations can use John's knowledge and connect with his networks through Dadamac. It is possible to work with him, and his team, at a distance or at the sites where he works. Through his voluntary work at Fantsuam Foundation John serves local needs. Through his wide personal and professional networks he connects widely in Nigeria and in other countries in Africa. Through Dadamac he looks outward, enabling fresh initiatives from outside of Africa, in new win-win collaborations. Attachab John works in his home area of Kaduna State in North Central Nigeria. One of his plans is to bring together the various Fantsuam Foundation projects at a new eco-friendly site, Attachab. He wants Attachab to become a showcase of good practice - a genuine community which is also a leading centre for research, development and training. Read more about Attachab in this blog. Attachab and its related Knowledge Resource Centre provide the sites for various Dadamac projects. John and the UK John was a research fellow in the UK, at Leeds University. He stayed on to do a nursing qualification - because he anticipated that, helping people back in rural Nigeria, nursing would be a useful practical skill to have. As a result he has had an unusual work history. He has worked as a University lecturer and professor, helping to educate fellow Nigerians. He has also come back on visits to the UK, taking the opportunity to work as an agency nurse in order to maintain his skills and earn extra money to boost the funds of some of his community projects. (Back home his nursing knowledge is a valuable input to the clinics and other health projects he has helped to set up.) John's ongoing links with the UK mean that there are very few cultural barriers when people in the UK collaborate with him on projects in Nigeria. John comes online weekly to update the UK about the situation in Nigeria. From 2008 to the end of 2012 the information from these meetings was shared each week in Nikki's blog. Blogging has now been taken over by the Fantsuam team and is published through Frances' blog.

In January 2015 Dadamac organised an event to share some insights related to Uk-Nigeria collaborations enabled by the Internet and mobile phones. Tim Unwin gave the keynote address.