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 […]

We are all in need of some positive news at the moment. Please read the following for a little uplift, and thank you to those who have helped us along the way: The UN agency UNICEF once called Sierra Leone the second most dangerous place in the world to be a child (the most dangerous was Angola […]

On July 4th two countries – the USA and Rwanda – celebrate their independence. On the face of it, that is where the similarities end. Rwanda is a landlocked country about the size of Maryland or Wales with 13 million inhabitants; the USA has a population of 332 million, and its landmass is twice the size of the […]

The answer is epilepsy. The roll call of famous people with epilepsy includes the actor Danny Glover, and musicians Lindsay Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac), Martin Kemp (Spandau Ballet), Prince, Ian Curtis (Joy Division), Susan Boyle and the rapper Lil Wayne. Worldwide, 50 million people have epilepsy (3.4 million in the USA and 600,000 in the UK). […]

In several economically developed nations, governments have realized it makes financial sense to compensate relatives or friends who provide care for loved ones. This enlightened policy enables vulnerable people to stay at home through their illness, rather than going into hospital (costly and never a pleasant option) or a care home. It also maintains the […]

The outpouring of concern for the people of Ukraine has surprised world-weary observers who talk of “compassion fatigue”. Yet, the survivors of other conflicts question what they see as double standards. In the words of a Yezidi friend, “We suffered the same thing in 2014-2017 at the hands of Islamic State. Are we less human […]

As anyone who follows the news knows, the world is facing dark and frightening times. Only the hardest and most cynical hearts have not been touched by the suffering of the people of Ukraine. We all need some hope at the moment. Here is a ray of sunshine from Network for Africa: we recently asked […]

Some years ago, I was an election monitor in a West African nation just emerging from a devastating civil war. President Carter, then a hyper-active 82, was leading the team of international observers. He asked me to spend several days interviewing war lords about the peace process and the election campaign. I protested that I […]

Until recently, it was difficult to explain to people in high-income countries why superstition has such power in low-income societies. “Why do they still believe these things, despite all the evidence to the contrary?” some of our supporters would ask, both mystified and concerned. Now, the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the divide within comparatively wealthy countries between people […]

Since the pandemic began, alcohol abuse in the US and UK has risen dramatically. Several recent surveys show one in five Americans are consuming an unhealthy amount of alcohol. The UK mirrors these findings, with an increased rate of alcohol-related deaths. Both countries are also acknowledging upticks in domestic violence. Now, imagine facing the equivalent […]