Until the Covid-19 pandemic, it was difficult to explain the enduring power of superstition in traditional societies to people who live in the so-called developed world. Now, as North Americans and Europeans decline the chance to be vaccinated, we are reminded that people make choices based on misinformation in all parts of the world. In Sierra […]

The pandemic is tightening its grip on many parts of Africa, and we fear it will be devastating to people’s health and welfare. For this reason, Network for Africa has a simple new project training our clients to start their own vegetable gardens. For £17.00 or $23.23 we can provide seeds and prepare a family […]

Working from home during the pandemic has been a challenge for many people with children, or well-meaning friends and partners who don’t recognise that a closed door is a boundary. Some of us find it hard to concentrate when there are distractions, large or small. The same applies for the Rwandan genocide survivors who attend […]

Thankfully, most of us don’t know. However, many of us have woken from a nightmare at two in the morning and then tried to stay awake for a while, clearing our minds, rather than plunging back to sleep where the nightmare resumes. Yet, this doesn’t come close to capturing the awfulness of repeated flashbacks to […]

Shortly after the devastating civil war in Liberia, I accompanied the inexhaustible President and Mrs Carter (then in their 80s) on an election monitoring mission. I was dispatched to Lower Bong County with a local driver called David. On the way out of bustling Monrovia, we passed hundreds of buildings, schools, homes and offices that […]

My first encounter with Rwanda, back in 2004, would change my life, and it was thanks to the Survivors Fund, known as SURF. When I met the founder, Mary Kayitesi Blewitt, I knew I had found a charity with a clear-sighted, no-frills vision: helping the survivors of the 1994 Rwanda genocide rebuild their lives. There […]

Today, on International Women’s Day, we salute African women who have overcome the challenges they faced growing up, and continue to face. Despite this, or maybe because of it, they play a crucial role in lending a helping hand to people in need. Some of those inspiring women work at Network for Africa’s projects. Florence, Counsellor, Port […]

Something remarkable has been happening at our counselling sessions in Uganda: people who attend are spontaneously forming their own self-help groups. When they meet at our sessions, they find they have much in common, and they are creating a whole new network of people who support each other, sharing experiences and discussing future plans. Aid […]

“There is something underneath” is a comment heard too often in Sierra Leone, when people encounter someone with epilepsy or mental health issues or an Ebola survivor. What they mean is that there must be a demon or witch causing the affliction; a curse rather than a medical condition. Not that the rest of the […]