Team bios

Roland Musi

Roland is the founder and CEO of the LINK-UP Development group, an organization engaged in social entrepreneurship to provide direct assistance to orphans and vulnerable children. LINK-UP provides capacity building and micro-credit through its small enterprise development program. It is equally working toward bridging the digital divide through its ICT programs in the community. In his spare time, Roland enjoys playing chess and Scrabble.

Roland is the founder and vision holder of the Village Diary. He is active in evangelizing the project to local and international partners. Follow Roland’s updates on Twitter.

Bill Zimmerman

Bill has worked for LINK-UP since September 2006 as a technology advisor and member of the Board of Directors. Prior to coming to Cameroon, he worked for over a decade as a software engineer for companies in the greater Seattle area, including Visio, Microsoft and others. He later founded his own startup and partnered with AT&T/Cingular Wireless to deliver location-based content to 40+ million mobile customers. His favorite traditional dish is ndolé with white yam.

Bill is the co-founder and platform architect of the Village Diary. His is also working on project coordination, software development, fundraising and outreach. He writes at the Village Diary Blog and on his personal blog, 27months.com. Follow Bill’s updates on Twitter.

Mambe Nanje Churchill

Churchill is a Cameroonian software entrepreneur based in Buea. He is the founder and president of AfroVisioN Group, a software company which provides domestic and outsourced solutions to a broad range of customers. When he is not writing software or doing some form of related business, you might find Churchill watching MTV or shooting and editing music videos.

Churchill is the lead developer of the Village Diary platform. In his spare time, he likes to update his personal blog. Follow Churchill’s updates on Twitter.

Fon Christopher Achobang

Christopher is a PhD candidate at the University of Buea who currently holds a Master's degree in translation from ASTI. He served as the administrator of the VHF Medical Center, Limbe from 2007 to 2008. He has also worked as the Public Relations Officer for the Destitute Children's Home in Batoke since 2002. Christopher was Editor-in-Chief of the Cosmos Educational Press for 14 months, and edited the Eden Newspaper for 16 months.

Christopher will lend his extensive media and PR experience to Village Diary by focusing on public relations, fundraising strategy, and also by contributing updates to the Village Diary Blog.

Viola Allo

Viola is a writer who divides her time between Cameroon and California. She grew up in Cameroon and is a graduate of Our Lady of Lourdes College Mankon and GBHS Bamenda. She has a BA in psychology from the University of California and an MA in cultural anthropology from the University of Michigan. She has done ethnographic fieldwork in Ibadan, Nigeria and Buea, Cameroon. She is currently working on a collection of essays that celebrates her passion for Africa and storytelling. Her favorite dish is groundnut stew with boiled plantains. She likes guavas but will do perfect cartwheels for ripe mangoes.

Viola is the ethnographic advisor for the Village Diary. Drawing on her background in Africanist anthropology, she will assist with our project's use of ethnographic methods that are sensitive to the needs of women and children in Cameroon. She writes at the Village Diary Blog. Follow Viola's updates on Twitter.