On Wednesday, June 18, 2008, IRC Director Aissatou Bah paid visit to the Mano River Network. The objective of the visit was to renew contact with this NGO and explain to its members about the various resources available in the IRC. This meeting gathered more than 12 people including Dr. Sara Daraba, President of the Network, Dr. Diliman Ousman Kouyaté, Consular of the Network and former US grantee, Mamadi Kaba, Administrative and Budget Specialist and other important members of the Network.

Thanking them for the warm welcome, IRC Director expressed once again the Office of Public Affairs’ willingness to reinforce collaboration under which it’s Resource Center would provide  info packages based on a variety of topics such as Conflict resolution, Democracy and Good Governance, HIV/AID, Food Security, Environment, Trafficking in Person, Women Leadership, Micro Enterprise and etc. Aissatou Bah also encouraged these females to make more efforts to take advantage of the enormous resources in the IRC including the traditional lending library, the Internet links with US Department of State free web sites, and the well equipped English language laboratory. Moreover, she mentioned the importance of e-journals from the IIP website and handed to them some printed copies of “La Democratie et Droits de l’Homme; “Les Adolescence Américains”, “Combattre la Corruption”; “L’Abolition des Pires Formes du Travail des Enfants” and “La Securité Alimentaire”. A copy of the recent Country Report on Human Rights Practice in Guinea and other IRC promotional materials were also given to them.

Dr. Saran Daraba talked about the role that her institution is playing in peace keeping, conflict resolution, women promotion and emancipation, and fight against child trafficking in the West African Region. She thanked the US Embassy in Guinea for this collaboration which to her view will help the Network get adequate information to build up peace and regional stability within the Mano River Confederation. Saran Daraba also said that these IRC products will help build up their abilities in sensitizing the population on current social and political unrest undermining the democratization process in Guinea.

She also requested that IRC do a PowerPoint presentation to show members of the Network how to do research and to introduce them to the States websites.