Well, a different year indeed. As you any know, Pangea has made the very difficult decision to stay home this year – cancelling our programs in Africa and shelving plans to establish a presence in Asia. We hope to be back next year – but the future of travel seems uncertain and thus we have also embraced the now oft-repeated phrase “never waste a crisis”. This has been a three-pronged approach, the first, with the commencement of our fantastic new Project Officer Rebecca Roberts, has been to get our house in order, with all sorts of governance and organisational work going on in the background to ensure Pangea can function efficiently into the future. The second is to welcome two new Board Members and Directors, Tony Bongiorno and Anthony Curtin, who bring a wealth of financial and legal experience, as well as great fundraising ideas, a really important focus at the moment. The third is to explore on-line training options for seminar delivery when we can’t travel – particularly in environments where there is limited access to technology and reliable internet.

Our seminars in Malawi last year were our most successful yet, with great feedback from participants and teachers alike. But it is important that Pangea is both evidence-based and evidence-generating and thus we have a number of research projects underway. You can read below about Miki Novak’s fantastic project exploring the experience of teachers in Pangea’s programs. Teacher experience is an understudied area and this should lead to an important publication.

And last, but definitely not least, we farewell Georgia Ramsay. Georgia’s important work with SWB and then Pangea over more than 5 years has really brought us to where we are today. We could not have done it without her – and wish her every success in her new ventures.