CALD International

Relatives in shock, mourn accident victims in Kawethei, Kangundo Kenya   Residents of Kawethei village in Kangundo, Machakos County were still paralysed by the hard blow they received on Saturday night, after 23 members of the village, including six from one family, were killed in a road accident. By Monday, the atmosphere in the sun-baked village was still charged with gloom, shock and mourning as families and neighbours came to terms with the incident that also left many residents fighting for their lives in hospital Miriam Mutua is assisted by relatives as she mourns her mother, Rose Ndinda Homes of several families were scenes of mourning as neigbours and leaders converged to console and help them to handle the tragedy. "We have never seen a thing like this before. We have just lost so many people at once that we don’t know what to do. We are still in shock. But we pray for strength from God,” said Nicodemus Wambua, a resident. Huge crowds of villagers assemble...

Road accident claims 23 relatives and friends in my village Kawethei Writen by David Mutua. Kenyan Prime Minister visiting the survivors. It's a sad week in my village in Kawethei, Kangundo Kenya. 26 family and relatives, neighbors and friends died and many are going through a painfull and tough time due to injuries sustained over the weekend through the worst road accident of the year in Kenya. Thanks to the Kenyan Government for offering support for funeral and hospital expenses, we appreciate very much. We are requesting for prayers and soon CALD - http://www.thecald.com through our facebook group the Kawethei Community Development Network will be working with people on the ground, family members, friends and friends of Kawethei people to setup a mid term and probably long term support system to those families that were affected. I know what it feels like when government, friends and family support the shortterm and leave you, thats when r...

Diaspora Challenge For Burundians, Liberians, Kosovars, Palestinians and Rwandans abroad wanting to start an enterprise back home! * Benefit from BiD Network's online templates, feedback and coaching program * Be selected for IntEnt's program for starting entrepreneurs * Win a business trip for training, b2b and investor meetings * Get access to a network of more than 40,000 like-minded entrepreneurs, coaches and investors * Win a technical assistance prize worth €5,000 Participation Criteria for this competition Check the general participation criteria here You must be Kosovar, Palestinian, Rwandan, Liberian or Burundian living abroad. Your country of business must be: Palestine, Kosovo, Liberia, Rwanda, Burundi. How to Submit your Business Plan? 1. Become a member of the BiD Network. Register here . 2. Create a profile in the BiD Network. Log in with your email and password. 3. Fill in and submit an online business summary by clicking "+Add a business plan...

Memorial Honors Life of Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream has returned to Washington. The memorial honoring King’s legacy opened to the public for the first time August 22. Built on four acres of the National Mall, the memorial includes a 450-foot inscription wall with more than a dozen quotations selected by a council of historians from King’s writing, sermons and speeches. A “stone of hope,” separated from a “mountain of despair,” features a 30-foot (9-meter) sculpture of King. The memorial is reminiscent of a phrase in his speech in which King said his dream and his faith would allow civil rights marchers to go back to the South and “hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” The King Memorial is near the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, from the steps of which King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in the summer of 1963. At the time, African Americans in many places were segregated from whites in schools, shopping places and restauran...

Ethiopia gets a record US$1.5 billion from Diaspora Ethiopia received a record US$ 1.5 billion from its citizens abroad during the just ended 2010/11 fiscal year, data released by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has revealed. The figure, which represents money sent by Diasporans through banks, represents an 88 per cent growth from the previous year. ©Reuters But officials believe money running into millions of dollars is sent through illegal channels and cannot be accounted for. During the 2009/209 financial year, Ethiopia, home to over 80 million people, received about US$ 780 million from its citizens. Around one million Ethiopians are estimated to live in the United States of America, Europe and in other countries, mainly in the Middle East. The state owned NBE introduced new policies to encourage Diasporans to send and save money locally. For the first time the Diasporans were allowed to save money in foreign currency, a practice that was not allowed in the past. ...

Brain drain hits US as immigrants head home to start businesses In 1980, immigrant entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa came to the United States and stayed, starting two companies that created more than 1,000 American jobs. Now an academic, Wadhwa sees first hand that today’s immigrants are not following his lead. Every year he asks foreign students in his classes at Duke University how many intend to stay permanently in the United States. “It used to be that everyone raised their hand,” Wadhwa says. “Now they look at you funny. They say, ‘What does that mean?’” For a majority of highly skilled immigrants who want to start companies, the promised land is no longer the United States, writes Wadhwa and four co-authors in a recent report from the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, Mo based non-profit that supports research on entrepreneurship. In The Grass Is Indeed Greener in India and China for Returnee Entrepreneurs, the researchers surveyed 153 professionals who returned from the US to Indi...

Africa: Investors Report Improved Business Climate in 29 Countries Sudanese-born billionaire entrepreneur, Mo Ibrahim once said that the perception of Africa's business climate is much worse than the reality and that whenever there is a gap between perception and reality, there is a fantastic business opportunity. In the 1990s, he struggled to build his mobile phone company, Celtel, because banks wouldn't lend him money to invest in a 'lost' continent. Ibrahim later sold Celtel for $3.4bn. Not all investors know that many African countries are making notable progress in removing barriers to doing business. As Neville Isdell writes, it will take the continued commitment and conversion of goodwill into practical action in order to achieve the reforms needed to enable businesses to thrive. Democracy and a vibrant free enterprise are growing, making Africa a promising emerging market. Governments are shifting the negative international perception by improving the busine...

Commentary on Remittances for June 2011 Mr. Charles Gitari Koori, Director Research Department The Central Bank of Kenya conducts a survey on remittance inflows every month from the formal channels that include commercial banks and other permitted international remittances service providers in Kenya. The monthly remittance flows have remained strong in 2011. In June 2011, remittances to Kenya amounted to US$ 71.9 million, which was 37 percent higher than the level in June 2010 and marginally higher than US$ 68.1 million recorded in May 2011. In the first half of 2011 remittance inflows amounted to US$ 406.5 million, and were 35.4 percent above US$ 300.2 million recorded over a similar period in 2010 (Table 1). The average flow therefore rose to US$ 68 million from US$ 50 million in a similar period in 2010. The 12 month cumulative average also shows that remittance flows have kept pace and sustained an upward trend from the second half of 2010 (Chart 1). Ta...

The landscape for business in Africa is changing. Are you ready for it? 2001-2010 proved to be a transitional decade for Africa, ushering in a new image and status for the continent. Africa began to show it was truly shaking the shackles of its colonial and chaotic past. Now that the New Africa has arrived, what does that mean? And, what does it mean for business? On almost every issue that has been pegged a negative for Africa – population boom, poverty, disease, governance, economic instability, and conflicts – there is evidence of a growing shift in the other direction. Businesses need to wake up and proactively shift to this new reality, or paradigm. While business principles apply across any market, businesses need to adapt their strategies to the context of Africa to be successful and understand that Africa is one of the key regional markets in the next generation of business. Redefining Business in the New Africa sets out to establish a new baseline and framework for engag...

Want to do successful business with Africa? Here are some tips to help you do just that... F inding the right customers in the African market can be a time-consuming process. Being such a large continent, with as many as 53 countries, marketing one's products and services in African markets is indeed a challenging task. However, for a successful marketing effort, it is imperative to identify and associate with reliable and efficient business partners in key African countries. There are a number of ways to go about identifying potential trade partners. A good starting point is via an organisation that specialises in marketing and business promotion in the African markets. Such organsations have not only the necessary experience and expertise, but also the right contacts to help you in your marketing efforts. Another useful tool to search for business associates in African countries is the Internet. Although the internet is not as widely used in many African countries as it...

People may acknowledge that Africa has certainly made great strides in its most recent history. However, the bigger question is whether these changes will continue. This piece looks at likely scenarios for Africa into the future based on existing and emerging patterns.Thank goodness as I was getting ready to co-write this book, I ran across a monograph being done by the Institute for Security Studies¹ in South Africa called African Futures 2050. I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Dr. Barry Hughes, Director of the Pardee Center of International Futures at the University of Denver in the United States and a partner on the ISS project. This sub-section reflects our discussion.² > Population Boom It has already been established that Africa has the fastest growing population. This boom will cause Africa to surpass both China's and India's population in 2025, less than 15 years away. The combined populations of Asia, including China and India, will still exceed Africa...