IIHFD
Annual Reports
2003
The IIHFD: The President’s Annual Report—2003
My Dear Colleagues:
May I take this opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year. May this year bring to you great blessings in life and accomplishments in your career. I also want to seize this opportunity to give you an update regarding where we were in 2003 as an international development research organization and where we intend to head in the year 2004 and beyond.
However, let me first remind you to remit your annual membership dues of $40.00 to us as soon as possible. Make your checks payable to the IIHFD. We sincerely appreciate your annual financial contributions toward the activities of the IIHFD. While those in Zimbabwe should forward their dues and donations to Professor Claude Mararike, Department of Sociology, University of Zimbabwe, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe, those in Canada should send their checks to Dr. Harold Harder at the School of Business, Trinity Western University, 7600 Glover Road, Langley, British Columbia, V2Y 1Y1, Canada. Those in the US and all others should forward their checks to Senyo Adjibolosoo, ABE Department, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Drive, San Diego, CA 92106.
The Year 2003
In the year 2003, I went to Ethiopia in June and July to assist a group of people who became interested in using the human factor (HF) development model to improve their quality of life. The Presbyterian Church of Virginia initiated this project. While in Ethiopia last year, we agreed that we would set up a Microfinance project through which the people can raise their own funds to finance the various Microenterprises they intend to engage in. When I go back to Ethiopia this year, our energy will be directed at helping the people to build the Microfinance project. We have already begun to see great results.
As usual, we also published one issue of our journal, Review of Human Factor Studies in 2003. As many of you will recall, two years ago, we decided that we would be producing one issue of the journal each year until further notice. We continue to keep this commitment. Our journal, Review of Human Factor Studies, is also being carried by EBSCO among its numerous online educational products. EBSCO is one of the largest online information distribution companies in the US. This great success with EBSCO is good news for us because everything we publish in the journal will reach the four corners of the world—higher educational institutions and research outlets.
Regarding our long-term plans to set up the Human Factor Academy—HFA (i.e., the HF Research Center) in Ghana, we were faced with a little setback in that we lost our fifteen acre plot of land in Techiman—where a group of District Assembly men and women decided to usurp our land. We hope that we could get this track of land back to be used for its originally intended purpose. However, at the moment, plans are under way to locate another landed property for the project. We now have people on the grounds in Ghana that are currently searching for land for the project. I am, therefore glad to report to you that our hopes in regard to the establishment of the HFA are still high.
During the year 2003, some of our members, who began scholarship programs on behalf of the IIHFD, made good on their promises and provided more funding from their own pockets to keep these valuable scholarship programs alive. Gifts in kind have also been shipped to Ghana, Ethiopia, and Togo, in various forms. Of particular note are the following:
1. Scholarship Scheme I: The HF Award (Obrapa Award) that Dr. Kofi Bismarck Effah and Dr. Francis Adu-Febiri began to finance since 1997 continues to grow strong. To date, they have donated approximately $1,500.00. Through these financial resources, eighteen students have received scholarship awards. The focus of the award goes beyond academic performance to incorporate qualities such as respect, service, responsibility, loving-kindness, and others like these. We have a questionnaire that applicants complete and members of a Committee of Leaders in the community evaluate the applications and select the winner. So far, the Award has been established in three different towns in the Berekum District of the Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana. The towns are Jinijini, Fetentaa, and Anyimom.
2. Scholarship Scheme II: Mr. Salomon Agbenya and his wife, Ms. Kathy-Anne Daniel-Gittens, have also provided tremendous financial resources of $900.00 to the IIHFD scholarship fund in 2003. Through their financial gift, we gave scholarships to thirty elementary school students in Govie, a village in the Kloto Region of Togo. Eighteen girls and twelve boys were the recipients of the scholarships. Plans are under way to expand the reach of these scholarship programs in 2004. We also awarded a $200.00 scholarship to a college student in San Diego in 2003.
3. Books for University of Ghana (Legon) and the University of Science and Technology (Kumasi): On behalf of the IIHFD, Dr. Francis Adu-Febiri shipped a collection of relevant books to the Sociology Department at Legon. Francis still has about six big boxes of books in storage waiting to be shipped to Legon this year. If you are interested in contributing financial resources toward this shipment, please forward your check to us at the IIHFD. Many of us have, however, concluded that though it is an excellent idea to send books to the universities, our focus must shift to elementary and secondary schools in rural areas.
4. Books and Medical Supplies for Hohoe District Library in Ghana: On behalf of the IIHFD, Mr. Salomon Agbenya and his wife, Ms. Kathy-Anne Daniel-Gittens, have also shipped many boxes of books to the Hohoe District Library in the Volta Region, Ghana. They have also shipped some medical supplies to the district hospital in Hohoe. Plans are under way to ship computers, printers, and a photocopier to the Hohoe District Library in 2004.
5. Books for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: On behalf of the IIHFD, Senyo Adjibolosoo shipped approximately thirty volumes of brand new economic and accounting textbooks to one of the best Girls’ High Schools in Ethiopia. This school is located in Addis Ababa—nationally recognized as an excellent school. Most of the graduates from this school gain admission to the national universities in Ethiopia.
Plans for 2004
In the year 2004, we plan to pursue the following objectives:
1. Continue on with the scholarship programs and expand them as financial resources become available.
2. Publish a special issue of the journal. This issue will focus on critical reviews of the human factor concept and theory. Many of us have come to believe that though a decade is too short for such a project, it is still important that we do so to set a brand new agenda for research for the next ten years. In light of this, I take this opportunity to invite you to participate in this landmark project. Your contribution does not necessarily have to be lengthy. We will accept relevant submissions that are as brief as one page and as long as twenty or more pages. Please don’t leave yourself out. Stand and be counted.
3. We will continue to explore the possibility of setting up the Human Factor Academy in Ghana. We are also working on gaining an official registration status for the IIHFD in Ghana. Once this goes through, we’ll let everyone of you know. Our primary goal now is to fundraise toward the establishment of the Academy.
4. This year, we are working with the leaders of the Southern Sudanese Community Center in San Diego to develop further a viable Tutorial Service Program (TSP) they already have in progress for immigrant children—especially immigrants who come to San Diego from Southern Sudan as a result of the many years of civil war. I will keep you posted as to the progress we make here in San Diego. I believe many of you know the story of the lost boys of Sudan. We have five of these boys in my university. Some of them were in my classes and others are currently in my classes this semester. You need to meet these boys, who were among the children separated from their parents when they were between ages six through to ten. They struggled for months and finally reached surrounding countries—where through the efforts of the leaders of the UN and American politicians, many of them were brought to the US to make a new life. You need to meet them to hear their stories. Not only will these stories put tears into your eyes, but also warm your hearts to the power and strength in what both the positive and negative aspects of the HF can accomplish. Truly, I am convinced that we have a noble task to accomplish—and we must not fail to do so.
Conclusion: Personal Musings
I cannot truly and successfully explain to you the extent to which I believe in the human factor agenda. I, however, know that many of you are aware of the significance of the task we have to carry out. When I review the various international development efforts and programs aimed at helping people in the developing countries—especially those in Africa, I feel really happy that there are many people today who are interested in helping others to improve their quality of life. And indeed, there is no lack of these kinds of help.
Unfortunately, however, I continue to ask myself the basic question: "Will any of these programs actually improve the quality of life for the people who are always on the receiving end of international development assistance without having assisted the people to develop the positive HF so they too can help themselves over the long-term? It grieves my heart to inform you that every time this question floods my mind, I become completely trapped and paralyzed. This is because I do not seem to believe that programs that do not develop the positive HF in people can lead to any long-term transformation in their social, economic, political, etc. life—no matter their short-term impact. Though I may be out to lunch in the minds of many, I continue to ask myself about what we at the IIHFD can do to make authentic and lasting differences in people’s lives. Ultimately, however, if we too do international development programming in the same way as people did and failed in the past, we will also fail in the long-term. But this is not the direction we want to go. We must do it in different ways that can lead to positive transformation in the people’s lives. Yet, until the quality of the HF improves over time, most international development programs and relief work will not achieve their intended objectives.
Can we make a difference? Of course yes! However, those who don’t think we can make any long-term positive differences as members of an international development research organization must try sleeping in the same room with an actively furious and hungry mosquito! Truly, the only thing that has ever changed the world is a small group of highly committed and dedicated individuals who believe in an idea and used it to change lives. With this, may I ask all of you to place your hands on the deck of the IIHFD so we too can move together in unison—doing our best to make a positive and long-lasting difference in the lives of those who are not able to help themselves.
Yours sincerely,
Senyo Adjibolosoo President, IIHFD Editor-in Chief, Review of Human Factor Studies
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