Ulric and Annabel Gerry - Nigeria |
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email:
uagerry[at]crosslinks.org
c/o FCO (Abuja),
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Ulric and Annabel Gerry are living in Abuja, the Federal Capital of Nigeria with their three children; Meriel, Caitlin (three) and Iona (two). Nigeria is an extraordinary country of great extremes. It is one of the largest and the most populous country of Africa. It has great oil wealth whilst most Nigerian experience great poverty. After long years of military dictatorship, democracy has been established since 1999. Nigeria is a very religious country, with enthusiastic churches of all denominations mainly in the South, whilst the North is mainly Islamic. Government meetings often start with a pray to Jesus Christ, and end with a prayer to Allah.
Ulric's vision is to work with expats in Abuja who tend to find it difficult to integrate into the local churches for a number of reasons. He is also looking into the possibility of doing some teaching among Nigerian churches. There are a number of Christian ex- patriates here who have not found a local church they feel comfortable in, as well as many nominal Christians. We are currently running an ex- patriates fellowship group, we have run the Alpha Course and will do so again, and are currently exploring how best to establish a church for expatriates in the future.
Annabel is working as the Senior Governance Advisor for DFID. DFID are working in Nigeria to alleviate poverty, by doing projects and providing advice in non-oil sector growth, health, water, education and governance. It is challenging work, as the main problem is not money (the government has large oil revenues), but governance; how the money is spent, and what it is spent on. Thus the main role of the donors here is not to give money but work with and help the Nigerians in Government who want to see the country developed to spend their resources more effectively.
