I turned 25 on April 23. This was a particularly important day for me for many reasons. By the United Nations Standards, I was not any more going to be youth, it was also an important opportunity for me to reflect on all my work over the last few years and try to find the best way ahead that will reflect the ideals of my organisation- Development Partnership International. It turns out that during this period, I was away to Toronto attending the IAC preparatory meeting. It feels not very good that I was not at home during such an important date, however, whichever way it goes, I would have been somewhere outside home. I was invited at the same period for a Microbicides Conference in Cape Town, so I had some course to say "it was not absolutely outrageous."

It was also good time to catch up with friends at TIG; Jeniffer, Mike, Nick, Franziska and the rest of the team. I gathered alot of inspiration from all the discussions we had there. Perhaps, this is what I would have been doing if I was at home, trying to inspire myself. I learnt alot from the way TIG is organised and hope to see how to reflect same structure at DPI back at home. During the 23, Dr. Viola, one of the key people in IAS organised a small get together for me. I was never there, I was hiding but my Birthday was announced in Plenary. I have never had such a treat.

Having returned back home, I am working on how to ensure that I put into practice what I saw at TIG. We are trying to be more project based and proactive with our programmes at DPI, we are updating our website and discussing new structures for our initiatives. We have recently put up a bulletin board and we are finalising setting-up a blog on our site. We are updating information in our resource center and we are working towards improving the ICT access at our office.

So much to have learnt for my 25th birthday!