Fantsuam Foundation (www.fantsuam.org) was founded in 1996 to empower community members, particularly women, to find means of employment and income and meet their own development needs. Working in 53 communities across 7 Local Government areas in Kaduna State, close to 15,000 individuals benefit from Fantsuam’s services every year and it was estimated that by 2018 over 400,000 people have benefited either directly or indirectly from Fantsuam Foundation’s activities.
Our Mission is to eliminate poverty and disadvantage in Kaduna State through integrated development programs.
Vision: To be the most effective model of integrated rural development in West Africa.
Fantsuam's integrated suite of programs is crucial to its effectiveness in eliminating poverty and disadvantage in its host communities. Its combined focus on Sustainable Livelihoods, Health, Education and capacity building in non-violent conflict resolution, with emphasis on women and older people's roles, has evolved from Fantsuam Foundation’s ability to recognize and respond to the needs of its beneficiary communities.
The organization was constituted on 02nd April, 1996
Legal status: NGO
Reg Number: Kaduna State Reg #KDS/YC/99/2897, 24th August, 1999
UK Charity Commission #1078142, 10th Nov, 1999
Corporate Affairs Commission #RC495066, 08th Oct, 2003
Communities served: The following local Government are being served by Fantsuam Foundation: Jaba, Jema’a, Zangon Kataf, Kachia, Kaura, Lere and Sanga
Board structure
Fantsuam Foundation is led by a Board of Directors, which has representatives from the host communities. The Board determines the policy direction of the organization, which is implemented by a Management Team made up of the heads of programs. Membership of the Board is voluntary and has no remuneration attached to it. Each member is required to serve a term of 4 years, renewable at expiry. The Board meets annually to receive program and financial reports, approve budget and annual program plans. The Board can also be summoned anytime if situation demands it.
Management structure
The project management team comprises the CEO, Director of Operations, Director of Administration, Director of Finance and all heads of the departments: ZittNet, HIV/AIDS and Clinic and Gaiya (National volunteering), and Microfinance. This team meets weekly to review ongoing projects, accept progress reports and provide solutions to new challenges in the implementation of the various projects. This team also participates in resource mobilization and grants proposal development.
Each departmental head works with their team to develop their annual work plans, and annual budgets. The departmental head undertakes annual Individual Performance Plan, IPP, for their team members to support their career development
Scope of activities
Fantsuam programs have evolved in response to community needs and serve a wide range of beneficiaries including women engaged in micro-businesses, people living with HIV/AIDS, youths seeking career opportunities, those wanting to acquire ICT skills for employment or business, promoting community civic duties and demanding transparency and accountability of elected officials and providing social protection for vulnerable members of the society especially children and older persons. These activities are done in the context of building peace across communities of tribes, religious and sexual orientation Through its experience with the local communities, Fantsuam has defined three priority areas in which it focuses its efforts: sustainable livelihoods, health and education. Cutting across all priority areas, our programs mainstreams HIV/AIDS, promotion of volunteering and gender. The gender component is strategic because of the underlying inequity in most Nigerian communities, and Fantsuam’s experience has proved that women’s partnership has a multiplier effect and is cost-effective in addressing poverty at the family level. Women and children make up the larger proportion of people living in rural communities.
The flagship of our sustainable livelihood service is microfinance which targets smallholder women farmers, petty traders and farmers with disabilities. A growing area of service are smallholder farmers who are developing their organic farming footprints.
Services
- Business Development Services
- Rural Microfinance for smallholder farmers and petty traders
- Epilepsy and Sickle Cell support
- HIV/AIDS Peer Education, skills acquisition
- Digital skills, IT Essentials, Computer maintenance training,
- Community Networks
- Home-based Care for people with disabilities
- Psycho-social and financial support for Older Citizens
- Social Protection for vulnerable adults and children
- National Volunteering
- Continuing Professional Development for Teachers
- Support for internally displaced teachers and pupils
- Building strategic partnerships (public and private) for rural community initiatives
- Renewable energy for rural communities: solar power for laptops and rural wireless networks, fuel-efficient stoves for domestic cooking
- Free Lunch, school fees and medical care for vulnerable children including children from child-headed households
Human / Material resources
- Board: 7- Person Board of Trustees
- Number of employees: 32 full time staff
- Volunteers: 15-80 national volunteers depending on ongoing projects
- Infrastructure: Suite of offices, 10Ha farm land, 2 motor vehicles, one motor cycle, over 250
- Computers in the Computer-Based Test Center, Solar back-up power for 24/7 wireless internet service provision, Staff accommodation
- Operators of Government-funded Community Communication Centre.