Network for Africa is taking part in the Big Give Winter Challenge 2020 to continue supporting and raising funds for our mental health project in Rwanda. We have been able to secure £5,000 in pledges. Thank you for your support. In September, we will hear whether Network for Africa has been chosen by a Big Give Champion to match these funds.
How the Big Give Winter Challenge works
The Big Give Winter Challenge is an annual match funding campaign that Network for Africa has taken part in since 2012.
The initial match funds come from two sources –
- Network for Africa needs to secure promises of funding (also known as pledges) over the summer (which are then collected in the winter); and
- A Big Give Champion who contributes to the match fund.
This collective pot is used to double donations from online supporters when the campaign is live (from 1-8 December 2020).
From 2017 to 2019
You helped Network for Africa to raise over £72,000 for our SURF project in Rwanda. While the 1994 Rwandan genocide is well known, less understood is the conflict’s lingering impact on survivors’ mental health and therefore their ability to lead normal lives and support themselves. Many orphans had to raise their siblings, some are single mothers, and others have been cheated out of their inherited property by distant relatives and strangers.
Since Rwandan mental health services are woefully under-resourced, many face long-lasting trauma, anxiety or depression.
The funds have helped to train Rwandan counsellors and lay counsellors so they can provide counselling to genocide orphans, in fortnightly group therapy sessions and one-to-one counselling.
In the years 2012 – 2016
You helped Network for Africa to raise over £70,000 for our Patongo Counselling Community Outreach (PCCO) programme in northern Uganda, where the recent civil war left many people traumatised.
The PCCO transformed people’s lives by alleviating the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and its associated social and economic problems.
Our Big Give Champions
Network for Africa is grateful to our Big Give Champions who have helped us to raise large sums of money over the years through their donations:
The Coles-Medlock Foundation | Friends of the Reed Foundation | Human Rights Fund | Reed Foundation – International