Women’s Council Fortifies Link to Africa : NCNW chapter’s latest plan will create a computer tie between local and Nigerian children

The San Fernando Valley is the site of a commendable effort to establish two links with people in Africa--one of them traditional and one of them wonderfully contemporary.

The Valley section of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) intends to send rudimentary medical supplies and explanatory pamphlets to three villages, in Zimbabwe, Senegal and Nigeria. Such aid is familiar but much-needed nonetheless.

The NCNW’s new idea is a computer link between up to 20 Valley children and the same number in a Nigerian village. Third- and fourth-graders would exchange stereotype-busting cultural information over donated computers.

It is an ambitious project for the 4-year-old local chapter and its 120 members. But it follows an impressive list of previous activities. The group has contributed volunteers to Meet Each Need with Dignity, a program for poor families, and it has used small local grants to stage a play explaining the 1992 riots to children, to take Black History Month programs to colleges and to bus Valley teen-agers to the UCLA/Armand Hammer art exhibit “Black Male.”

The African program grew out of the international activities of the parent group and two trips to Africa by Barbara Perkins, founding president of the local chapter. Before the second, she decided, “If I’m going to go, something locally is going to happen.” Thanks to Perkins, her colleagues and cooperating individuals here and abroad, it appears very likely that something will.

Budgets and fund-raising are being planned. The cost of the Valley computer setup probably won’t exceed $75,000.

Planners vow to raise enough money to keep medical supplies replenished, to avoid dashing recipients’ expectations with a sudden shut-off. That is typical of the thoughtfulness behind the projects, which richly deserve wide public support.