Past Achievements

The Network for Africa Story So Far

How can you not want to offer a helping hand to a survivor of conflict who is already trying so hard to overcome the challenges they face?

Network for Africa was the answer to this simple question. In 2022 we mark our 15th year as a registered charity. Along the way we have tried to have the humility to understand that survivors usually know what they need to prosper. What they lack are the tools to break the cycle of poverty, and the practical mental health techniques to manage the psychological trauma left by war and genocide.

Please click the link below to follow our progress in addressing these needs in Rwanda, Uganda and Sierra Leone. None of this would be possible without the help and encouragement of our friends and supporters who have donated their time, resources and faith. And we have only just started …

View Our History At A Glance

2007-2017

Before refocusing our strategy on mental health programmes in 2017, Network for Africa was involved in a wide variety of projects in Rwanda and Uganda. We are proud of the achievements associated with these projects. Since 2007:

In Uganda we have:

• Supported 28 community groups of 30 members each, with training in Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA).
• Trained 8 counsellors in the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Farmer Field School method (proven to be most appropriate for northern Uganda) where people learn as they work. These counsellors are now able to support their community groups with agricultural income generating activities.
• Trained 24 community counsellors in HIV counselling to support HIV+ people, helping them adhere to the right medical protocol (e.g. antiretroviral drugs).
• Trained and supported a collective of 47 vulnerable women, some of whom are HIV+, child mothers, former child soldiers and widows. They are trained in setting up and running a successful small business; have formed a cooperative; have a piggery, and grow vegetables for consumption and to sell. The profits are reinvested in their business, and used to support their families and educate their children.
• Facilitated the educational sponsorship of 11 former abductees, child soldiers and child mothers who were kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army, thereby missing out on school.

In Rwanda we have:

• Provided 620 vulnerable women in Kigali with education in literacy, numeracy, legal rights, health and vocational training.
• Set up a child-care centre, providing a safe environment, healthy food and early learning for hundreds of toddlers while their mothers study and work.
• Replicated these Kigali programmes (above) in rural Rutunga, providing 450 vulnerable women with education in literacy, numeracy, legal rights, health and training in agriculture. We provided land so that they could put their training to use with crop farming. We also set up a child-care centre for hundreds of their children.
• Provided 154 women with the resources to set up two fruit farms where they grow bananas and tamarillos which they sell. This enables them to boost their family income and send their children to school. They are also able to reinvest some of their profits in their agricultural cooperatives.
• Provided 782 vulnerable young people (85% of whom are orphans) a year with English and IT education. Some are now being sponsored through university, others are working, and a group of young women have set up a baking cooperative.
• Built and supported a hospital, maternity unit, and walk-in health centre in Ntarama, serving 17,000 people in a district where previously there was no health provision.
• Facilitated the sponsorship of 14 genocide orphans through university.