Bringing Africa to West Suffolk
Consciousness of Africa and its problems has probably never been so high. Many British people try to buy fair trade goods or give money to good causes in the developing world.
In 1992, following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy was founded to assist the fledgling democracies of Eastern Europe. Since then it has tried to assist in democracy building in Africa and elsewhere. It is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
In the past two years, as a WFD governor, I have done political development work in Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique. Last summer in Mozambique, I spent time in the central Zambezia constituency of Manuel de Araujo MP. There are huge problems there, all expressed very clearly by the many people we talked to. Mozambique’s economy is doing well, but there are massive difficulties flowing from malaria, HIV/AIDS, on top of poor education and health care facilities.
Manuel is now doing a Ph.D. at the University of East Anglia but this weekend will be in my constituency meeting school pupils and many others. It will be illuminating to hear at first hand what the role is of a politician whose constituents have in many instances such limited opportunities in life, and how he tries to represent their interests.