The tight economic climate effects us all. Here in America, lack of jobs and stable housing has delayed the work on this side of the project. However, things are starting to bear fruit. We have added several people to the growing list of interested and involved people, and are getting closer to solidifying the legal capacity to submit our incorporation and tax exempt paperwork. This process has and will prove to be long and tedious, but there are intermittent steps between now and then that will alleviate some of the bureaucratic hoops that must be navigated. We have identified August as our timeline for a trip to Sierra Leone to implement the first part of the project: the internet and business facility.
We also may have another possible project that could come online over the next year. We have established several relationships here in Brooklyn with facilitators of a hospital in Nigeria, three hours outside of Lagos. This hospital has been in service for fifty years and is in dire need of repairs and upgrades. We are of course in the infant stages of assessing this possibility, but it is worth looking into. As we attempt to grow our own concept and our projects, which are smaller and more difficult to fund, than healthcare in one of Africa's most important countries through an institution with fifty years of history. What aibia can provide to them is knowledge and expertise in the funding process for this type of institution.
At the same time though, this is not to confuse our focus on our own project. They are not mutually exclusive, and require very different levels of attention. We are planning and implementing our own work on the ground, the hospital work would require a different level of commitment. most likely as more of a consultancy that would allow aibia to establish the beginnings of a track record that would strengthen our own prospects for work. In short, getting funding for a fifty year old hospital is easier than starting your own project from scratch and looking for funding. It will be worth looking into, while we drive towards our August goal of getting our project up and running.
All told, we are moving forward. Adding people and possibilities. I would imagine that within the next two weeks we will solidify legal representation, and hopefully file our paperwork shortly thereafter and establish the necessary relationships to start launching our project proposal and fundraising efforts. Six months. We can do it.
