Ever since the novels Vanity Fair (1847) and Jane Eyre (1848), the orphan has been a standard fixture in literature. From Oliver Twist to Harry Potter, via Tom Sawyer and David Copperfield, readers have followed the difficult lives of vulnerable young people as they are forced to make their way in the world. Over the […]

Covid-19 is a new experience for most of us, but for Sierra Leone, it is a recurring nightmare. First, the small West African nation endured a long, vicious, devastating civil war, in which rebels amputated people’s hands as punishment. Then in 2014 came Ebola. Now, it is Covid-19. It’s hard to get a clear picture […]

These are challenging times, right across the globe. A suicide help-line in southern California reports that in March it had 21 phone calls, while in April, after a few weeks of lockdown, it had 1,800. Even without a pandemic, our trauma counsellors in northern Uganda cope with difficult circumstances in the aftermath of a devastating […]