Trying to quantify emotions can be a tricky business, like nailing an omelette to a wall. How do you measure happiness or gloom? Doctors ask us to choose a number between one and ten to express our physical pain. But how do you calculate fear or anxiety? For this reason, Network for Africa is always […]

In the global north, amputation is usually a result of accidents or diabetes. But in Sierra Leone, rebel soldiers used it as a weapon of terror, punishing the civilian population during the country’s civil war. It left an estimated 27,000 people (out of a population of 5.1 million) as amputees. Even twenty years later, victims […]

You might curse those emails and texts that pile up like dirty dishes when you are trying to focus on something else. Zoom meetings may feel as intimate as chatting with aliens in a distant galaxy. But during the pandemic, when travel to Africa was impossible, Network for Africa’s team was grateful it could stay in daily contact […]

During the pandemic, our Network for Africa team kept in daily contact with our African partners by zoom, text and email. But it was only in October 2022 that our CEO, Annabel Harris, was able to pay in in-person visit to see our project in northern Uganda. Mental health issues can affect anyone, anywhere, no matter their […]

On one of my early trips to Rwanda, in 2006, I took a group of friends to see our projects, hoping they would support our work. We visited a remote rural village in the company of our long-time local partners, SURF. We were introduced to a middle-aged woman who had horrific scars on her neck and face from […]

It has been an eventful year, with conflict, inflation and climate change affecting the lives of people around the globe. We are especially grateful to our friends and supporters for sticking with us despite these challenges. Our life-changing mental health projects are needed more than ever in the world’s forgotten places. Thank you for helping us through these […]

While Covid was roaring through the Global North, pushing advanced medical systems to the brink, the infection had a different impact in the Global South. For instance, in Rwanda the government acted swiftly to lockdown the population, and it provided reliable public health education. As a result, an impressive 60% of Rwandans have had at least […]

The global south is littered with what the British might call “dead parrots,” (referring to the Monty Python sketch about the Norwegian Blue parrot that was “an ex-parrot”). These dead parrots are the shells of half-built or crumbling edifices that were planned as schools, clinics or the headquarters of charities. Someone, somewhere in the global north once […]

The death of Queen Elizabeth II had a global impact, and for many people it marked the end of an era. In this troubled and changing world, it was important to witness continuity, while all else is unsettled. The perfectly choreographed military processions and the ritual were comforting, as well as visually impressive. Millions around the world tuned into […]

A sixteen-year-old girl named Veronique is the reason why I started Network for Africa. I met her on the first afternoon of my first trip to Rwanda in 2004. My colleagues and I were visiting an orphanage for children who had lost their families in the genocide, ten years before. The man running the orphanage […]