‘Komera’ is the Rwandan word for courage; these words were spoken by a genocide survivor who has seen her share of catastrophes. She doesn’t underestimate the challenge posed by the coronavirus, but she has a sense of perspective that not all of us share at the moment. Many people in Africa are not surprised when […]

Anyone who has raised a child or provided care for a loved one knows that being a care giver can be exhausting, both mentally and physically. It is doubly challenging if you live in a society that sees women as servants rather than citizens: there is little support or sympathy for women who have to […]

“Familiarity breeds contempt” is an idiom attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer. Yet sadly, it is just as relevant – and painfully true – today as it was when Chaucer wrote it in 1386. Most of us have been guilty of it: not showing enough sympathy when our partner has a cold; glazing over when a friend […]

In 2020, Network for Africa would like you to hear from some of the amazing team of people who have worked with us on many of our projects, beginning with Dr. Barbara Bauer. Why do you do this? I wanted to do humanitarian work from the age of 14 when I read The Other Side […]

Not many charities say their aim is to close down. But Network for Africa’s vision is making a world where we are no longer needed. That is why we focus on training local people to run our projects. We don’t use our resources to send a non-African to do the job that an African could […]

The first time I met Theresa was in March this year. I was visiting Network for Africa’s trauma counselling project in Rwanda, preparing for a more in-depth trip in June. I wanted to see how Network for Africa and its local partners were reaching survivors who remain deeply affected by the 1994 genocide. Back in […]

“The saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it is like to feel absolutely worthless, and they don’t want anyone else to feel like that.” Robin Williams. Thankfully, in the five years since the comedian Robin Williams took his own life, there has been more attention paid to mental […]

The answer is epilepsy. Other famous people with the condition include Alexander the Great, Handel, Byron and Gershwin. But that wasn’t much comfort to Peter. Until our community counsellors heard about him, he spent most of his days tied up with rope and locked in his parents’ house in rural Uganda. Peter’s mother has 11 […]

When Winston Churchill stood waiting for a train, he tried to make sure there was a pillar between him and the platform edge. He also hated being at the rail of a ship or on a balcony. Yet, he wasn’t afraid of heights: he suffered from bouts of crippling depression, and was terrified of the […]

When I think of Abdoul, I think of peace. He speaks softly, in English and in Kinyarwanda, and listens loudly, eyes wide, leaning forward to hear you better. He feels like the friend you can sit in silence with for hours doing nothing. But Abdoul is far from a man who does nothing. 34 years […]