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The Foundation is readying the launch of HealthAfrica, an ambitious project to provide current news, extensive databases, educational materials, institutional linkages and a forum for discussing African health issues, especially HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. "HealthAfrica will use the reach and influence of allAfrica.com to force attention to naughty castles Africa's health emergency," says Tamela Hultman, AllAfrica's chief strategy and content officer, who is directing the initiative. "Policy makers everywhere need a constant stream of current information, and people across Africa - from HIV-positive widows in Swaziland to doctors in Nigeria - have told us that this effort is a missing piece of the puzzle for making their work successful. C. Payne, with his commitment to reversing the Aids pandemic, will be an incomparable ally for HealthAfrica."

Lucas, who was born in 1933 in Spring Hope, North Carolina, spent four years in the Air Force before earning a B.A. in history from the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore and a master's degree in government from the American University cultured freshwater pearl School for International Studies. He joined the staff of the Peace Corps in 1962, just after its creation by President John F. Kennedy and served successively as assistant country director in Togo, country director in Niger, Africa Regional Director and director of the Office of Returned Volunteers. For his work in the Peace Corps, Lucas received the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service in 1967.

Lucas became Africare president in 1971, succeeding the founding president, William O. Kirker, M.D. Under Lucas' direction, Africare operated wholesale pearl jewelry more than 150 programs in 26 nations, including civil-society development and governance, food security and agriculture, health and HIV/Aids, and emergency humanitarian response. In 2001, Lucas launched the HIV/Aids Service Corps to provide support for indigenous volunteers working on locally identified needs in the battle against the Aids epidemic.

AllAfrica Global Media, a multi-media content service provider and the largest electronic distributor of African news and information worldwide, operates the most popular Africa destination on the Internet, allAfrica.com, serving over 11 million monthly page views (over 65 million 'hits' a month). In 2003, the site was nominated for the second year in a cultured pearl jewelry row as Best News Site of the year by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, alongside the news sites of the BBC, MSNBC and Google. AllAfrica operates from offices in Lagos, Johannesburg and Washington, DC.

In three years of operation, AllAfrica has become widely regarded as the source-of-record for news and information about Africa. It has created a global swing machines voice and a revenue stream for over 100 African news organizations and developed a pioneering technology system to democratize access to sophisticated tools and unlock the power of the Internet for development.

The AllAfrica Foundation, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization registered in Mauritius and the District of Columbia, was founded for three purposes: to focus global public and policy attention on critical issues for African development; to support the growth akoya pearl jewelry of independent African media; and to provide skills and training for African journalists. The Foundation maintains SustainableAfrica.org and PeaceAfrica.net as "digital commons" on development and peace issues, providing information and connecting groups and individuals with shared concerns and activities.

Washington, DC — C. Payne Lucas, who for three decades spearheaded the growth of the aid and development organization Africare, has become senior advisor to AllAfrica Global Media and the AllAfrica Foundation.

Lucas, who retired as Africare president in freshwater pearl 2002, is working with AllAfrica's senior management on a series of strategic initiatives to maximize the impact and ensure the sustainability of both the media company and the foundation. "C. Payne brings exceptional assets to our team," says Reed Kramer, AllAfrica's chief executive. "Despite AllAfrica's remarkable growth in audience and impact, we are far from achieving our goals. C. Payne will help us get there."

During a 40-year career, including ten years pearl jewelry wholesale at the Peace Corps during the 1960s, Lucas has been recognized for outstanding work by successive American presidents and heads of state throughout Africa. His honors include the National Orders of Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger, Senegal and Zambia and the 1984 U.S. Presidential End Hunger Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement "in the effort to achieve a world without hunger."

"The work AllAfrica is doing is vital for Africa, " Lucas says, adding that he had decided to become involved "after serious discussions with inflatable bouncers many people" following his retirement from Africare. "The free flow of information and the sharing of knowledge is critical for economic development, the growth of democracy and transparency," he says. "Africa urgently needs what AllAfrica can provide - and AllAfrica needs resources to reach its potential."

AllAfrica is a small organization with a big job to do," says Chief Strategy Officer, Tamela Hultman, noting that the other Best News nominees enjoy the backing of organizations with substantial resources. Poynter, whose news site is the smallest wholesale pearl jewelry of the five, has a modest endowment that underpins its basic operations. NBC is owned by General Electric, and MicroSoft's pockets are famously deep. The BBC's news operation is funded from the public purse and employs 2000 journalists in the UK and 42 international bureaus. Market analysts estimate Google's revenues for 2003 as high as $400 million.

AllAfrica Global Media, which is registered in Mauritius, is the successor to the non-profit Africa News Online and was founded to carry on that pearl jewelry wholesale work when the site was unexpectedly popular and grants proved insufficient to support its growth. AllAfrica has expanded rapidly over the past two years, sustained by small "angel" investments and a growing revenue stream from advertisements, information sales and web services. The company expects to become cash positive during 2004, which will enable it to continue to increase its earnings while supporting the work of the AllAfrica Foundation. To bridge the interim gap between income and costs, AllAfrica's executives hope to find additional investors who want to "do well while doing good."

"It has been a daily struggle, although the challenges have been largely invisible to others," Hultman says. "We tell investors that we are all working wholesale pearl jewelry hard to make sure they don't lose their money. We say we expect they will make money, though there are, of course, no guarantees. But what we can assure them is that their funds will be effectively and efficiently used to help bridge the digital divide and to keep Africa and its issues in front of the people around the world, including decision makers, who can make a difference to Africa's future."

The web site itself, which has grown without benefit of marketing, serves more than 11 million monthly page views and has a searchable archive that surpasses 600,000 articles and documents. Over 14,000 other web sites carry AllAfrica's constantly updating headline modules or otherwise link to the site. In addition, AllAfrica hosts SustainableAfrica freshwater pearl.org, a site funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation to provide a digital commons for issues of development and the environment.

AllAfrica has pioneered web services technology and applications, which the company says hold the promise of democratizing access to sophisticated technology tools and unlocking the power of the Internet for development. The AllAfrica technology team, through the non-profit AllAfrica Foundation, is working with African and international organizations and governments on a variety of initiatives, such as delivering health information through  pearl jewelry wholesale community-based centers in rural areas, supporting the growth of small and medium-sized technology industries to create jobs and build local capacity, and, in collaboration with the Ford Foundation, providing an interactive communications platform for an African network of conflict prevention groups.

The AllAfrica Foundation plans to launch, later this year, the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Fellowship. The program, which will provide opportunities pearl strand wholesale for African reporters to increase their skills and their networks of support, will honor the work of Hunter-Gault, an American journalist whose prize-laden career has included a strong commitment to the professional development of younger reporters, particularly women and Africans.