Network for Africa

Helping women improve their lives: a photo essay

2012-01-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

The leadership team (above) of Aspire, the year-long educational training program for women that Network for Africa supports in Rwanda, has created "Aspire in Photos": a photographic essay of Aspire's activities from October 2010-December 2011. These photos were taken by Aspire leaders and participants. Please enjoy the images, knowing that your support has helped make these life-changing activities possible.

Breast cancer awareness

Education about breast cancer and self-checking is provided.

Community work
Participation in "umuganda" - a monthly clean-up done by all Rwandans - is coordinated.

Malaria prevention
Mosquito nets are distributed and their proper use is explained and demonstrated.

Solar lamps
Women living in houses without electricity receive solar lamps.

Literacy
Women learn to read and write in English, helping them succeed in business and increasing their self confidence.

Farming
Participants are trained in farming and using their crops to generate income.

NGOs exhibition
Aspire was featured as part of the Gasabo District NGOs Exhibition.

Nutrition

Participants learn to prepare balanced meals using local ingredients.

BMI testing
Before the nutrition training, Body Mass Index testing is used to help participants gauge their health.

Male sensitization
Husbands and partners of Aspire women participated in seminars on family welfare - or, in short, "just being good men!"

Wedding ceremony
Nineteen couples decided to legalize their marriages after the family law training. Aspire then hosted a party for them at the Aspire campus.

Red Cross first aid
Participants completed a first aid seminar hosted by the Red Cross. Their certificates indicate that they are now able to help with medical issues from labor and delivery to burns (which are a common problem, especially among children).

Family planning for couples
Couples receive information about family planning.

Small animal husbandry
Participants received chickens and goats for raising, to generate income.

Kigali City skills training
Participants learn basket-weaving and beadwork, as part of a project run by the local government.

HIV/AIDS testing & family planning for women
Participants were tested for HIV/AIDS in a private, respectful environment and were given lessons on family planning.

Childcare
A childcare program is created, providing a safe, fun place for children of participants to play, learn, and grow.

Family law seminar
Education is provided on issues such as child protection, inheritance and marital laws, and domestic violence.

Hygiene & nutrition
Issues of hygiene and nutrition are addressed.

Batik
Participants learn batik (tie-dye) as a means of generating income.

Twese Hamwe Centre culinary classes
Selected students were sponsored to complete classes through a local culinary program.

To support these and other sustainable projects in Rwanda and Uganda, visit the Give page on Network for Africa's website.

"Going to the chapel, and we're going to get married" at Aspire!

2012-01-11T11:13:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas, 19 Aspire brides & their grooms said “I do” in a service coordinated by Aspire staff. The marriages are a profound step forward for the women in protecting themselves and their families, and preparing for the future.

Aspire, the year-long educational training program that Network for Africa supports in Rwanda, teaches its students about their legal rights, including marital rights. Many Rwandan women have “traditional marriages” in which they live with their partners, but these informal arrangements are not legally recognized. This means that a woman and her children are vulnerable to the whims of the man. Since the marriage is not recognized by the government, the woman is unable to benefit from Rwanda’s progressive laws that empower and protect women in the event of divorce or a partner’s death. Without legalizing her marriage, a woman in Rwanda has little recourse in claiming spousal or child support if her partner leaves her, and she may even lose any money or property that she brought into the relationship.

In other words, she is powerless and at the whim of her partner.

If her partner dies, a woman may have difficulty ensuring that she and their children can keep his possessions, including the land and house where the family had been living.

Aspire has learnt that in order to empower women and strengthen families, men must be included in the discussion and learning process, too. To that end, Aspire brought in two Rwandan organizations for training seminars. HAGURUKA is an organization that educates people on their legal rights, particularly women and children’s rights, and on marital law. It also provides pro bono legal services for women and children. RWAMREC, the Rwanda Men’s Resource Center, is committed to creating more healthy attitudes towards women in personal relationships and society, including putting an end to gender-based violence.

In addition to making a financial grant to Aspire to enable it to host the mass wedding, RWAMREC returned to hold further discussions with the newly married men, as well as more than 20 other husbands or partners of Aspire beneficiaries. RWAMREC talked about different types of gender-based violence, its consequences, and how to prevent them. They encouraged the men to change their personal behaviour for the good of their families and for the whole community, not only by ending violence, but also generally treating women and children with respect.

The men responded very enthusiastically and have shown an interest in attending other seminars, in addition to requesting literacy lessons. One of the seminar participants was an elected village leader who has since been talking positively in the community about the RWAMREC/Aspire course, alerting local leaders to the training. It is through the education and support of such leaders that communities begin to change and women and children are given the respect they deserve.

This is one of the many ways in which Aspire is making a profound difference in Kigali. Present at the wedding were six village leaders, a district representative, and two Kigali City officials. The day’s events were covered by local radio and two local newspapers. Since the wedding many more Aspire women and their partners have expressed the desire to legalize their marriages – a wonderful achievement that will lead to long-term change.

Aspire Wedding Day 2011

Read more about:

RWAMREC

RWAMREC’s distinctive and innovative mission focuses on mobilizing Rwandan men to support women’s leadership; to contribute to the eradication of men’s violence against women; and to serve as role models for the promotion of positive masculine behaviors. Building alliances and partnership with women organizations to promote women’s rights and interests is central.

HAGURUKA

(The website is in French. Try the Babel Fish website translation service if needed.)

The Slow Food revolution: retro food is feeding Africa & saving the environment

2011-12-07T10:03:00.000-08:00

At first glance the scale of the poverty, disease and environmental issues affecting Africa can seem overwhelming. Yet, often the solutions aren’t that complicated. For instance, by rediscovering traditional methods of producing food, people have begun to grow local varieties in a more sustainable way. It’s good for the environment, and it provides abundant nutritious food - that’s the key to the success of the worldwide Slow Food movement.

Network for Africa works with Slow Food in northern Uganda, where 22 years of war disrupted a once proud and prosperous agricultural community. Farmers were forced to abandon their fields for decades, living in squalid refugee camps. Gradually, the traditional knowledge passed down to each generation through practical experience was lost.

In Patongo, a rural community in northern Uganda, we will be celebrating Terra Madre Day on December 10th, along with hundreds of other Slow Food groups across the globe.

Terra Madre Day is an opportunity to involve the community in learning about the importance of safeguarding food biodiversity, at the same time as bringing taste education to adults and children, and connecting local producers with consumers.

Around the world Terra Madre Day will feature celebratory picnics, dinners, film screenings and concerts. The events aim to raise the profile of healthy and fairly-produced food, with excursions to visit Terra Madre producers, food tastings, campaigns and petitions on related issues and gatherings of local producers, cooks, youth and others.

PATONGO’S TERRA MADRE DAY

''Carama Wit Cam Acoli' ('Celebration of a variety of Acoli dishes')

Our partners in Patongo will be celebrating Terra Madre day by inviting elders, cultural and traditional leaders and local people to a community food party. The event is a chance to show people the importance of local, traditional crops, rediscovering valuable agricultural practices.

A group of women volunteers, some from our projects (the Ribbe Aye Teko women’s group and the Patongo Counselling Community Outreach Centre), will use traditional recipes using local produce for the whole community to taste.

Girls, boys and men will be encouraged to watch and learn how to cook the Slow Food way. They will also learn about the benefits to the environment and to their personal well-being from growing local seeds and crop varieties, eating local food and using traditional recipes and methods. Awards will be given to the women who produce the most delicious dishes.

The day’s events also include introducing the community to five demonstration gardens supported by Network for Africa. People will be encouraged to learn about the crops and techniques used, thereby encouraging local pride and interest in their heritage of sustainable and traditional agriculture.

Watch this space for updates and photos of the day of celebrations!

World AIDS Day - how Network for Africa is fighting AIDS

2011-12-01T11:04:00.000-08:00

More than 33 million people worldwide are living with HIV. As we mark World AIDS Day, it is worth remembering the 25 million people who died as a result of the virus between 1981 and 2007. That’s twice the population of London.

Countries in Africa have particularly suffered from HIV/AIDS. Uganda is an example. Until recently northern Uganda was gripped by a brutal conflict between the Lords’ Resistance Army and the Ugandan Defence Forces, lasting more than two decades. The war decimated the healthcare system, and forced millions of people into extreme poverty, causing HIV to spread like wildfire, especially in the north. During the war it was estimated that 11.9% of the population were HIV+ in northern Uganda – almost double the already high national average.

In Patongo, a small town in northern Uganda where Network for Africa works, the effects of AIDS are hard to avoid. Young people in Patongo are especially at risk of contracting the virus, and the rates of infection show little sign of reducing. People in the community are finding HIV diagnosis hard to cope with, often becoming depressed. Many turn to alcohol, resulting in family conflict and even suicide. The situation has become desperate for many.

But change can happen in Patongo.

Our network of Outreach Counsellors counsel and comfort vulnerable people who need HIV testing or who have already tested positive. If people are reluctant to visit the health clinic for testing, our Outreach Counsellors visit them in their villages. In some cases, their support has prevented suicide, and their involvement has strengthened community solidarity and reduced both the stigma and trauma associated with being diagnosed as HIV+. And most importantly, it encourages people to get tested, reassuring those who are HIV+ that they can live relatively normal lives.

Our Outreach Counsellors offer advice about hygiene so people can avoid opportunistic infections. They can provide treated mosquito nets and training, and reduce the incidence of malaria, which debilitates people weakened by HIV. They explain the importance of drinking clean water; they distribute condoms and talk about safe sex.

Our demonstration vegetable gardens will provide people with the skills and knowledge to grow the healthy food that is so badly needed by those taking anti-retroviral medication, and whose immune systems are depressed. It can halt the negative cycle caused by lack of nourishment that leaves people too weak to cultivate crops.

These small interventions are chipping away at HIV’s stronghold in Patongo. People in Patongo, even those living with HIV, now have hope.

You can make a difference, too. Please consider giving to help support Network for Africa's projects. For example:

£4 ($6.50) could pay for a treated mosquito net.
£55 ($88) could pay for a bicycle for an Outreach Counsellor.
£50 ($80) a month could pay for 100 people to have HIV counselling each month.

Please donate here.

Nursery keeps children safe, allows mothers to work

2011-11-10T10:37:00.000-08:00

Rwanda is the first and only country in the world where women are in the majority in parliament. Women are leading the social and economic recovery from genocide through co-operatives and self-educating groups like Aspire, Network for Africa’s yearlong educational and training program. Yet lack of infrastructure limits development. For example, the genocide removed a generation of grandmothers and aunts who minded children while mothers worked. Without these familiar social networks, mothers often have no choice but to leave children at home while they go to work. The children rarely eat until their mothers return. Older daughters may be forced to stay home from school to watch their younger siblings, meaning that they fall behind in their schoolwork and may even have to drop out of school. Even worse, predators are aware of children left home without supervision. We were recently horrified to learn that a 6 year old girl, left alone during the day while her mother worked, was raped in her own home in a local neighborhood.

Aspire women do have an advantage in being able to bring their young children with them to lessons and training. However, problems arise when toddlers are present, distracting their mothers from learning and working, while at the same time worrying the mothers that their children aren’t receiving the attention they need – a concern that working mothers all over the world can identify with.

A woman enrolled in Aspire, with her son

N4A is tackling this problem by building a workplace nursery and preschool. At the Aspire nursery, younger children will be safe and provided with two nutritionally balanced meals a day, and will be given a step-up in life by enhancing their cognitive and social development. In turn, mothers will be able to work uninterrupted, earning the funds necessary to feed and educate their children, thus breaking the cycle of poverty. After the mothers graduate from the Aspire program and are making money in cooperatives, they can keep their children in the nursery for a reasonable fee, which will help the program be self-sustaining.

Construction of the nursery is currently underway on the Aspire campus.

Catherine, a British volunteer who has served as the head teacher of a nursery school for over ten years, will be coming to Rwanda in Spring 2012 to train assistants; Aspire will hire a qualified Rwandan teacher who will work with Catherine in the training and will take over the school when she leaves. Assistants will be chosen from young mothers who are enrolled in Aspire, who are taking English classes and show an interest in working with children. The training they will have to complete will also make them qualified to gain employment at other nurseries in Rwanda in the future. Additionally, Catherine will begin twice-weekly meetings to talk with the Aspire women about parenting skills. Many of the Aspire women, themselves orphaned or widowed during the genocide, have expressed a desire for parenting classes, covering topics like nutrition and discipline alternatives to corporal punishment in the home.

$25 (£16) could pay for one month of nursery/preschool for a child. This includes two meals a day, five days a week. If you would like to donate, visit Network for Africa at http://network4africa.org/give.

Women enrolled in Aspire, with their children

Ugandan newspaper highlights plight of child sex slaves as they return home - and how Network for Africa is helping

2011-10-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

Nine-year-old Christine was on her way home from school when the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels abducted her in 1994. They marched her across valleys and forests, until she had no idea where she was. Her first “assignment” in the bush was to kill another abducted child, a boy who had been caught trying to escape. “I was forced to take a panga, cut off the boy’s head and hold it in my hand,” says Christine. The rebels awarded her to an officer as one of his wives. Everyday for ten years Christine wanted to return home to her village, but she feared what would happen if she was caught. She bore two children with the rebel officer before she got a chance to escape during a battle between the Ugandan army and the rebels. But even after she had returned home life was not easy: people often referred to her as ‘the mother of a rebel’s children’.

Sadly, Christine’s story is not unique in northern Uganda. In September, Uganda’s leading newspaper, the Sunday Vision, published an article about the plight of “child mothers”: women and girls who were used by rebels as “wives” – a misleading word that really means sex slaves. The UN estimates that between 1988 and 2004, about 10,000 young girls were kidnapped by the LRA, used as sex slaves, and subsequently bore rebels’ children. Even if these child mothers manage to escape from the LRA, when they return home, they are often rejected, as Christine was, even by close family members.

Christine has found practical help and support at the Patongo Youth Centre. The Centre offers skills training and mental health counseling to former child soldiers and young people who were abducted during the war. The Centre’s counselors are being trained by Network for Africa’s team of psychotherapists, who have been holding lay counselor training seminars in Africa for the past five years.

Other women like Christine are also being helped by the Patongo Counseling Community Outreach project, Network for Africa’s team of local lay Outreach Counselors. The counselors work in pairs – one woman and one man – making regular visits to 400 families in the Patongo area. Equipped with bikes, they can travel quickly and reach more people. In addition to providing much-needed counseling, including coping techniques for traumatized former child soldiers, the counselors offer advice to small village savings & loans groups. The project is also working with Slow Food International, to teach local people to create sustainable vegetable gardens.

Outreach counselors during a training session

The Sunday Vision points out that few charities work in rural Patongo and surrounding areas, leaving residents to fend for themselves amidst the ruins of a country that had been at war for 22 years.

By providing psychosocial support as well as practical tools to grow food and earn an income, Network for Africa is offering a bridge to a better life for rural northern Ugandans who survived the war.

An outreach counselor receiving her certificate of training course completion

Surviving Ugandans become trauma counselors

2011-09-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

(WOMENSENEWS)--Tragic events like terrorist attacks and natural disasters illustrate how strangers can come together selflessly and spontaneously, helping each other. For each moment of horror there is a corresponding act of beauty and kindness.

But what happens when the initial crisis is over, leaving people to adjust to a new reality? Around the world, it is often women who strive to make life as bearable as possible for those who survive.

A friend who worked in a Bosnia refugee camp told me, "The men rapidly fell apart, and the kids became silent; it was up to the women to get the family up every morning, feeding them and washing their clothes. If the women had let their feelings show, just for a moment, the whole edifice would have collapsed."

I interviewed a young mother in the West Bank's Ramallah who woke one day to find her apartment block encircled by tanks, their guns trained on her windows. "How could I explain it to my 7-year-old son? I baked him a cake shaped like a tank and used a chocolate bar as the gun. I had to normalize the situation for him."

In the case of northern Uganda it is hard to "normalize" the new reality. For 23 years unarmed civilians endured a war that shattered villages and families. Many who supported their families through unimaginable hardship now face a sense of anti-climax and depression. Anyone who has cared for someone during a terminal illness recognizes this feeling. Once the funeral is past, the bleakness of continuing life alone can be overwhelming.

Great Challenges

The challenges could not be greater than in northern Uganda. Thirty thousand children were forced to become soldiers, brutalized by the notoriously vicious Lord's Resistance Army. Kids were forced to kill or be killed.

As yesterday's Women's eNews story reported, girls were gang raped and bore children for the soldiers who abused them.

Thousands were abducted, often for years at a time, and at the height of the war nearly 2 million northern Ugandans were forced into refugee camps.

My charity, Network for Africa, works in a remote rural area called Patongo, a place without running water where people still die of easily preventable diseases. We are helping local women rebuild their devastated communities in this forgotten corner of Africa, setting up farming associations and training women in health, nutrition, women's empowerment, family planning and improving agricultural techniques.

But how can a woman concentrate on learning a skill and holding her family together when her surroundings provide triggers that daily plunge her into post-traumatic stress? Keeping calm and carrying on may have been an option during the war, but now unresolved trauma prevents people from starting over.

Network for Africa knows that shipping in experts cannot meet the massive need, nor is it culturally appropriate. Thankfully many Americans will never know what it is like to live in constant fear of attack by a rebel group. Nor are most of us haunted by recent memories of enslavement and rape.

One of the cornerstones of our psychiatric tradition is to assure the patient they are no longer at risk, and that their fear is irrational. But in northern Uganda there has been little justice and the perpetrators carry on with impunity. It is entirely rational to live in fear, expecting to have to suddenly run for your life–because that is how it has been for two decades.

Providing Trauma Counseling

Our approach is to train well-respected local people in basic trauma counseling. They in turn help their communities. Twice a year our team of professional counselors--three remarkable women from Missouri--go to northern Uganda to run intensive training courses.

Our graduates become outreach counselors; we provide bikes so they can reach distant villages. We know they are having a positive effect, because villagers report that they are better able to work, study and sleep. Our American team will keep returning to run courses because we have only just scraped the surface of local needs.

Network for Africa's outreach counselors have also become trusted messengers, passing on information about health, nutrition, family planning and women's rights. Civil society was destroyed during the decades of war, yet our outreach counselor team members are just the people who can help strengthen social networks and coping mechanisms.

The community's psychological well-being cannot be separated from their dire economic circumstances. Traditional farming skills were lost while people were in the camps, so we train women in sustainable agricultural techniques, enabling them to support their families. We raise funds to buy oxen, seeds and plows and teach environmentally responsible methods to grow traditional nutritious local crops, which then produce balanced meals for their children.

Sometimes we wonder how the women of Patongo find the emotional and physical strength, but as long as they do, we are honored to provide a helping hand.

This article was originally published at Womens eNews. It was written by Rebecca Tinsley, Network for Africa founder and author of the recently published When the Stars Fall to Earth.

Buy a copy of When the Stars Fall to Earth. 100% of Rebecca's profits are donated to Network for Africa, to help women and children who have survived genocide and war.

Investing in girls & women for long-term change

2011-09-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

What is the best way to help people lift themselves out of poverty? By investing in girls and women. This is Network for Africa’s vision. Through our work in Africa we know that when you give women training and a small amount of capital to start their own businesses, the whole community benefits. As a result, children are fed and sent to school, and women begin to gain respect, meaning that the path for the next generation will be easier. Our projects show that by investing in women, we unlock the potential of the unheard half of the population, allowing them to contribute fully to society and the economy.

A woman in Rwanda making beads from paper,

for necklaces that are sold through Network for Africa's Aspire program

As one of the women we work with put it:

Now that I am earning money even the shopkeepers have confidence in me. They will give me credit and know that I will pay it back because I am earning money. I have earned respect in the community. They say, “Those are the working women.”

Marking paper to cut and make into beads

Cut strips of paper ready to be rolled into beads

Nick Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, agree. Kristof and WuDunn were interviewed on the CNN show Global Public Square this past Sunday. They were also joined by Zainab Salbi, the founder of Women for Women International.

WuDunn pointed out that, when given microfinance loans, women have a higher repayment rate than men:

Microfinancing institutions like Grameen and BRAC, which basically started [microfinancing] in Bangladesh, they didn't want to be discriminatory, so they wanted to give to men and to women. But they found that women were just repaying at much higher rates than men. They were losing money by giving micro loans to men. So they've now switched to 97 percent of lending to women.

In addition to higher repayment rates, women are more likely to generate wider social benefits with their businesses. Salbi told a story about a woman who used her training and small loan to start a soap-making business. Salbi observed of the woman and her husband:

She changed the relationship from she gives him all the money and he spends it on his alcohol and cigarettes and prostitution or weapons. And now she reversed it. Now he goes and works and brings her the money and they manage it together to send their kids to school, get better housing and better life's conditions for both of them.

As Salbi pointed out, this is not just about making money, but also about changing social patterns. This is long-term change. And this is what Network for Africa is about.

Another Aspire woman rolling paper into beads.

The profit from the beaded necklaces gives the women and their children

a chance at a better life.

Click on the links below to read more about our work with women and income-generating projects.

In Rwanda:

Aspire

Wanda Bread

In Uganda:

Women’s Income Generating Groups

You can help support these projects by donating to Network for Africa. Thank you!

Read the full interview with Kristof, WuDunn and Salbi here.

Two days left to shop & support N4A at the same time

2011-08-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

Through August 31, 2011, Network for Africa supporters in the USA have a unique opportunity: when you order from Clever Container, 25% of your order total will be donated to N4A!

Want to know more about Clever Container? Below, N4A supporter and Clever Container consultant Debbie Davis discusses some of the most popular items from their catalog. Click here to download the catalog onto your computer.

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Clever Container has a lot of things to keep closets organized. Two of our most popular are the Belt Hanger and Scarf Hanger (pg 34 in the catalog). The scarf hanger can also be used to hold baseball caps. The belt hanger is great if you are short on closet space because you can use it to hold 12 tank tops or camisoles by putting both straps on one hook.

The Jewelry File (pg 34) is one of our bestsellers. You can hang it anywhere and it has 48 pockets to hold earrings, necklaces, etc. It keeps your jewelry organized and easily accessible. You don't have to go rummaging through a jewelry box to find a matching earring because each pair is together in its own little pocket.

The Handbag and Shoe Files (also on pg 34) can be used in a bunch of places in the home. The shoe file can obviously be used in a closet to hold shoes, but it is also great for the garage or mudroom to have a place to put your shoes when you walk in the house. The handbag file works great for kids’ clothes (to separate by day of the week...saves time in the morning when you are getting the kids ready for school because their clothes are ready to go).

The Card Cubby (pg 42) is another of my favorites. It is like a mini-rolodex that you keep in your purse at all times to hold any gift cards or valuable coupons so that you have them with you when you need them. This item will pay for itself because you will save money by having those coupons/gift cards with you.

The 3-Drawer Vanity (pg 20) is our #1 bestseller. It is advertised as a bathroom organizer but it also works great in kids’ rooms for hair accessories, or in an office for office supplies. The drawers are the perfect size for pens and other school supplies, and because it is clear, you know exactly where your office supplies are.

The Bin Coffee (pg 15) is meant to hold coffee stuff, but also works for office supplies and the back section of it fits girls' headbands perfectly, so it would also be great for a kids room or bathroom to hold hair accessories.

The Wraprack (pg 11) works in the kitchen to hold aluminum foil, Ziploc bags, etc, and also works on a bathroom cabinet door to hold straightening irons.

A great solution for back-to-school clutter is the Document Boxes (pg 28). It comes as a set of five. One way to use them is to have one box per child and that child can put all of their school papers in their box. This keeps the paper clutter to a minimum. Throughout a year of school, kids end up with a lot of artwork, and they usually don't want to throw any of it away. The document boxes can be used to store the artwork after it comes off the fridge, and at the end of the year parents can go through the box of artwork with the kids and pick out their favorite pieces to keep. The art won't be as special to the child after that much time and it would be easier to get rid of some of it. They can also be used to store homework supplies so anything a child needs for their homework is in one spot.

Lastly, the GripIt 3-Ring Binders (pg 24) are really cool. They come in all different sizes to fit a purse, iPad case, sun-visor in the car. The 3-ring binder Grip It is the special for the month of August ($15 when you buy $35). They have rubber on the back of the little strips so they hold things very securely.

The current bestsellers are:

1. 3-Drawer Vanity pg 20

2. Car Pocket (Black/Grey) pg 36

3. Jewelry File pg 34

4. H2O Pouch pg 39

5. Shoe File pg 35

6. Magnetic Clips (Set of 3) pg 44

7. Mop & Broom Organizer pg 27

8. Scarf Hanger pg 34

9. Cart 2 Car pg 36

10. Document Boxes (Fashion Colors) pg 28

To order from Clever Container and get credit for Network for Africa, go to www.CleverContainer.com/Debbie. When you are checking out, there will be an option to Select Your Party; choose Women Helping Women: Network for Africa Fundraiser, then complete your order as usual.

Click here for further step-by-step instructions and more info on how your purchase will benefit N4A.

Thank you for having a look at Clever Container’s products and for supporting Network for Africa!

Women on the go: get organized while supporting N4A

2011-08-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

Through August 31, 2011, Network for Africa supporters in the USA have a unique opportunity: when you order from Clever Container, 25% of your order total will be donated to N4A!

Want to know more about Clever Container? N4A director and work-from-home mom Christa Bennett shares some of her favorite Clever Container products….

(To view the links below, you may be asked to enter the Consultant ID and/or Consultant #. Enter “Debbie”.)

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Working from home means that in my office, there is always at least one pile of laundry that still hasn’t been put away from the weekend. My work uniform is yoga leggings and a t-shirt. The line between my family life and my work life isn’t always straight.

And I like this arrangement – but it also means I have to be careful to stay on top of keeping my work papers organized (I don’t want to lose a check from a donor in one of the aforementioned piles of laundry…). However, I also need my papers to be easily accessible and transportable, as I sometimes work away from home, as well.

The Clever Container file tote is a perfect solution. At 11½ x 14 x 6½, it is big enough to hold papers, folders, and even my laptop sleeve. The tote has file rods embedded in the purse, to hold hanging file folders. It’s great to take with me when I need to work away from home or to a meeting. Most importantly, because it looks as pretty as a purse and has pockets for my keys, phone, & the miscellany we women always seem to be sticking in our purses, it cuts down on the number of bags I have to carry.

Available in pink (always my pick!), jet black, and chocolate brown, $69.95.

Clever Container’s clipboard and file folders in outline bloom & French floral are practical yet chic accessories to the file tote.

Clipboard in outline bloom or French floral, $9.95 for set of 9 folders.

File folders in outline bloom or French floral, $9.95 for set of 9 folders.

Click here for further step-by-step instructions and more info on how your purchase will benefit N4A.

Thank you for having a look at Clever Container’s products and for supporting Network for Africa!

Learn and Farm: The Peace Dividend in Africa

2011-08-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

Slow Food & Network for Africa in Uganda

For most of her life it has been too dangerous for Anna to visit her family’s fields, just four miles from their home. During twenty-three years of war, Anna and her family were confined to a squalid refugee camp in Patongo, in Northern Uganda. Going to cultivate their land would have been to risk kidnap, rape and murder at the hands of the vicious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) who lay in wait for civilians.

As parents were killed, agricultural skills were lost. Now that the LRA has moved elsewhere, a generation of survivors needs to learn from scratch how to grow their own food and rebuild their rural economy.

Network for Africa is working with partners in Patongo to create community vegetable gardens, as part of Slow Food International’s Thousand Gardens in Africa project. The gardens will provide a source of local, sustainable food in the midst of food shortages & skyrocketing food prices in the country. Additionally, they will recover & incorporate traditional farming techniques that were largely lost during the war. The community vegetable gardens will serve as a model, inspiring others to ‘learn and farm’.

Last week, representatives from our N4A partner organizations attended a Thousand Gardens in Africa workshop in Kampala, Uganda. The workshop, which was sponsored by the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, covered topics that will equip the community leaders to successfully implement the gardens, including:

Agricultural management
Education & economic management
Group dynamics in community gardening

There were representatives from the Patongo Youth Centre, Patongo Counseling Community Outreach, Gwokke Keni, Paorinher Orphanage, and Ribbe Aye Teko. We will keep you updated on the progress of the vegetable gardens in Patongo.

Slow Food & Network for Africa in Rwanda

Last month, Peace and Jean Paul – the Aspire Project’s CEO and project manager, respectively - met with Edie, the Ugandan Slow Food coordinator. They discussed Slow Food’s initiatives and talked about the promotion of local, traditional food in Rwanda. Peace and Jean Paul determined that Aspire will sponsor two demonstration gardens: the first at the Aspire compound in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, and the second in the more rural area of Rutunga, where Aspire is rolling-out a rural version of the successful Aspire project, tailored for the women and families of Rutunga.

Jean Paul also attended the Thousand Gardens workshop in Uganda this weekend. His presence will mark the first time someone from Rwanda has attended the workshop, and Aspire is Slow Food’s only active partner organization in Rwanda.

When you order from Clever Container, N4A gets 25% of proceeds

2011-08-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

Through August 31, 2011, Network for Africa supporters in the USA have a unique opportunity: when you order from Clever Container, 25% of your order total will be donated to N4A!

Want to know more about Clever Container? N4A director and work-from-home mom Christa Bennett shares some of her favorite Clever Container products….
(To view the links below, you may be asked to enter the Consultant ID and/or Consultant #. Enter “Debbie”.)

*****

In our family, there is a constant battle to keep our car looking less like an amusement park after-hours (think food wrappers and various sticky substances of unknown origin) and more like a respectable family’s transportation.

Clever Container to the rescue with a no-leak litterbag. My daughter can easily put her banana peel and empty juice box in the leak-proof bag, as opposed to dropping it beside her for us to discover, moldy, two weeks later. It can even hold yesterday’s half-empty coffee when I need to move it to make room for this morning’s cup of joe.
Available in pink (this girly mom’s favorite) or brown, $16.95.

A Clever Container car hook is another useful gadget to keep items in one place rather than getting lost or dirty on the car floor. Great for storing an extra change of clothes, backpacks, purses, and the like.
Set of two, $11.95.

For further step-by-step instructions and more info on how your purchase will benefit N4A, go to our website.
Thank you for having a look at Clever Container’s products and for supporting Network for Africa!

Childcare for working mothers in Rwanda

2011-08-11T14:35:00.000-07:00

While the women of Aspire, Network for Africa’s Rwandan partner organization, are hard-working and keen to learn, they are often distracted by their young children. Without other care options, the mothers have no choice but to try to manage working while watching their children. Of course, they often feel torn, as they know their children need attention and positive direction. However, their families also desperately need the income their work provides – and the women need the new-found confidence and self-respect that their work gives them.

N4A is addressing this need for childcare for the families of Aspire. We are currently fundraising to set up a multi-purpose nursery for the children of the Aspire women. In addition to childcare facilities, the program will include age-appropriate education and fun activities for the children and daily breakfast and lunch.

We are excited about this opportunity that so perfectly fits N4A’s goals of equipping individuals with education and an understanding of their inherent worth and rights.

An important aspect of this approach is providing safe spaces for children to play and explore. As N4A fundraises for the childcare program, we have already purchased playground equipment for the children.

Peace Ruzage, Aspire’s founder and CEO, emailed us this report when the swing arrived at the Aspire campus: “It is excitement and crying for who goes first! I think the mothers are more excited than the kids. Just wanted to make your day with these pictures.”

A merry-go-round has also been installed at Aspire.

We look forward to implementing the childcare program and seeing the children thrive as their mothers do, too.

You can donate here to support Network for Africa’s programs to provide education to women and children. Thank you for your help.

Sudanese women offer stories of resilience

2011-08-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

Novelist Rebecca Tinsley struggles with how to share Sudanese women's stories without spreading a sense of hopelessness. In the end she had their resilience to highlight, along with the transformational power of education.

(WOMENSENEWS)--Consider this dilemma – how do you accurately portray the lives of women in a place like Sudan without making their world seem so hopeless that most of us prefer to avert our eyes?

I faced this problem when writing my 2011 novel, "When the Stars Fall to Earth," about women and girls in Darfur who have survived their government's campaign of ethnic cleansing. I chose to write fiction so I could focus on individual stories rather than depressing statistics, and in the hopes of reaching a wider audience with these stories.

My intention was to show the resilience and resourcefulness of these African women who are facing enormous challenges. To bridge the cultural gap with female readers everywhere, I also wanted to show much we have in common, such as our discoveries of an inner strength we often don't realize we possess.

Women have such low status in Sudanese society that I could have filled a book with heartbreaking examples of discrimination. But there comes a point when even the most internationalist and sisterly reader wonders why millions of women in Sudan continue to submit to this treatment.

Many of us understand, on an intellectual level, that from the moment they are born many African girls are programmed to think they are worthless. Many of them are fed less than their brothers and they are kept home from school to work in the fields or assist their mothers with the chores.

In parts of Africa there is a 1-in-7 chance of dying in childbirth; the maternal mortality risk in a developed country like Ireland is one in 44,000. Traditional practices and village-level customs, such as forcing the widows of men who have died of AIDS to marry their brother-in-laws, often add to the spread of HIV and make a mockery of international conventions on the rights of women that may have been signed by the Sudanese government.

Discouraging Control

In Sudan traditional anti-female customs are reinforced by the local interpretation of Islam, while in other areas of Africa Christians who warn against birth control hinder women from taking control of their reproductive health.

The Sudanese government also plays a discouraging role. In 2008, for instance, in Khartoum state alone, 43,000 women and girls were charged with public indecency. The punishment for this is public flogging by a policeman or soldier who whips them, often with 100 lashes. Some of these floggings have popped up on YouTube.

The young woman's supposed crime is indecency, which often means wearing trousers. Local human rights groups say this standard is applied disproportionately to two groups: those who are ethnically black African, as opposed to Arab, and those who are on their way to or from college.

Despite this distressing backdrop, the women of Darfur display remarkable courage and determination against incredible odds to protect their children.

It never ceases to amaze me how women in a place like Sudan begin each day singing, laugh together as they walk to fetch water, find the time to braid each other's hair, care for old people with tenderness and listen to their stories. Despite a scarcity of water, and without our modern conveniences, they face the world in clean, well-maintained dresses, even when they only have two changes of clothes to their name.

Education Critical

If one theme emerges from my novel it is that educating women and girls is the key to a life free of negative traditional customs. Literacy is the best way to empower women, and we always underestimate both the need to educate women across the world and the immediate effect it has in improving lives. I have seen this for myself in the literacy project run by the charity I founded, Network for Africa, where Rwandan genocide survivors' lives are transformed when they can read and write.

The U.N. calculates that for every dollar you spend educating a girl you must spend $100 educating a boy to get the same positive effect. If we want smaller, healthier families and real economic development, our best investment is in female schooling.

For the female characters in "When the Stars Fall to Earth," and for the real women in Darfur and across Africa, the moment they access education is the point at which their lives change, their confidence grows and they take control of their future.

In refugee camps across the region, the women of Darfur are holding their families and societies together with slender arms. Their stories deserve to be told in a way that shows how much like us they are.

While we should certainly learn from the challenges they face and adapt any attempts to deliver development aid accordingly, we must not lose sight of their courageous female essence.

Buy a copy of When the Stars Fall to Earth: 100% of the author's profits are donated to Network for Africa, to help women and children who have survived genocide and war.

Article originally published at Womens eNews: http://www.womensenews.org/story/the-world/110730/sudanese-women-offer-stories-resilience?page=0,0.

Music students get lunch and job skills

2011-07-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

“As soon as they got their food, silence descended - except for the scraping of plates. After they had taken a few mouthfuls of food, a gentle hum of chatter and laughter ensued.”

This observation is from Sophie, Network for Africa’s executive director who is currently visiting N4A’s projects in Rwanda and Uganda. While it may seem like an ordinary lunch, it isn’t for the people partaking. They are music students at the Rwanda Multi-Learning Centre. Every student eating lunch that day had had no breakfast. They reported to Sophie that they often go without eating for an entire day or even longer. Painting a bleak image of her hand-to-mouth existence, one student reflects: “I eat what I have when I have it. If I have no food, I don’t eat.”

With the help of N4A supporters, these students can now at least look forward to guaranteed meals on Mondays and Wednesdays. Importantly, the Learning Centre is equipping the students with longer-term solutions, as well, by teaching skills such as English literacy, IT, and music, that will help them get jobs. For example, singing and playing at weddings and other social events is a crucial part of Rwandan culture and offers employment opportunities for those trained in music. An instructor at the Learning Centre says that students concentrate better after they have been fed, instead of being sluggish and falling asleep in class due to hunger.

The music lessons also bring hope to the students’ lives. They told Sophie that they loved to dance and sing; it makes them – orphans struggling with poverty and the legacy of genocide – feel happy and relaxed.

“Once they finished their meals they all cleaned the plates themselves and put them back into the big box. They kept thanking Francoise and Alice, the cooks.”

The people we work with in Africa don’t want handouts. They are willing to work hard and take responsibility for themselves. They only need a chance.

N4A is happy to be working with our partners in Africa, providing education and skills training for genocide survivors, and the practical help that gives people enough of a boost to pull themselves out of the cycle of poverty.

You can give online to Network for Africa to help support students in Rwanda.

All photos by Melissa Musgrove.

Women's bakery receives cooperative status, praise from mayor

2011-07-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Members of the Wanda Bakery cooperative

Wanda Bakery has received full national cooperative status yesterday, under the name “Wanda Bakery Developing Lives.” Alice Gikundiro, President of Wanda Bakery, was given a signed and stamped copy of the registration from the mayor’s office. Alice says the Bakery has helped her and others “make a living and become an independent and successful woman.”

The mayor expressed his congratulations and support for Wanda Bakery. He was especially pleased that Wanda Bakery was offering the community a product – baked goods – that other cooperatives are not.

The sector level government offices also invited four of the Bakery’s staff for a training course last week, where they learned more about managing their cooperative.

The national cooperative status is good for two years. After one year, local government inspectors will visit the Bakery to observe its activities and ensure the Bakery is fulfilling its statutes.

Wanda Bakery grew from a women’s discussion group called Women Developing Rwanda, which was part of Network for Africa’s Rwanda Multi-Learning Centre. It has been operating has a bakery since 2009. The women of the Bakery re-invest a percentage of their profits back into their business, with some support from Network for Africa, as well. The Bakery business plan is to eventually open a small restaurant that will sell traditional Rwandese food, in addition to baked goods.

All photos by Melissa Musgrove. Click here to see more pictures of Wanda Bakery.

Burns, labour, & counselling training: practical tools for Rwandan women

2011-06-28T13:36:00.000-07:00

A generous donor recently made it possible for 52 women from the Aspire Rwanda programme to attend a training course led by the Rwandan Red Cross. The course gave the women practical tools that they could use to help others in their community and to gain employment.

Some of the Aspire women with their Red Cross course completion certificates

The Red Cross course provided specialised training in the following:

General first aid;
Burns prevention and care (burns are common in children, especially from paraffin lamps);
Problematic and emergency labour assistance;
Introduction to basic counselling skills.

The course was three days long, and the Red Cross was so impressed by the Aspire women that they gave Aspire an extra day of training pro bono to cover some additional topics.

Red Cross course completion ceremony

Importantly, the women took the course shortly before Genocide Memorial Day on 7^th April, commemorating the 1994 Rwanda genocide. This is an extremely difficult time for the people of Rwanda, many of whom experience re-traumatisation and depression during the month-long time of remembrance. The Aspire women reported that this year the Red Cross training in basic mental health made them feel better equipped to cope with their own trauma and that of their family and others.

Additionally, the training means the women are now eligible to be employed by the Rwandan Red Cross in cases of emergency in Kigali or surrounding areas.

Peace Ruzage, Aspire’s CEO, and Aspire participants have requested further Red Cross training.

If you are interested in helping support Aspire, please contact Network for Africa CEO Annabel Harris, at annabel@network4africa.org or donate online.

"For every act of barbarity in this world....

2011-06-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

.... there is a corresponding beautiful act of decency and courage."

Becky Tinsley on Let's Talk Live, May 26, 2011

This is the message that Becky Tinsley tells about genocide survivors. In a recent interview with Let's Talk Live, Becky said: "I'm fed up with the image we're given of Africans as pathetic, helpless people, when in my experience in working in twelve different African countries, the opposite is true. These are resilient, resourceful, courageous people, and I think that people in our society will be inspired by reading their stories of how they get up every morning and keep on."

Becky discussed her recently published book, When the Stars Fall to Earth, stating that she wrote about the genocide in Darfur "as a novel, because I want to humanize these people. I don't want you to think about how different they are from us. I want people to realize that Africans are ordinary people. Terrible things have happened to them. They have risen to that challenge; most of them didn't know they had the capacity to deal with this. People in our own society might identify: we're all facing challenges."

Becky also talked about Network for Africa's role in helping genocide survivors.

Mike Farrell (of MAS*H), Father’s Day, and Network for Africa

2011-06-08T06:39:00.000-07:00

Father’s Day is Sunday, June 19. Have you bought a gift for your father yet? Please consider making a donation in his name to Network for Africa.

Donating to N4A can give a hand up to young men in Africa as they seek to make better lives for their families and communities. For example, your donation may help fund the Rwanda Multi-Learning Centre, where students, most of whom were orphaned during the 1994 Rwanda genocide, can take literacy, business, and computer classes. M*A*S*H actor Mike Farrell has narrated a short video about the Multi-Learning Centre: watch the 3-minute video on YouTube here.

Actor Mike Farrell, who narrates a new Network for Africa video on YouTube.

Photo by David Shankbone.

One young Rwandan, Joseph, whose parents were murdered, quit school so that he could work and take care of younger relatives who had also been orphaned. The Multi-Learning Centre has given him a chance to restart his schooling. Joseph wrote on a recent exam: “I would like to carry on my studies in order to increase my skills. I would like to get more money so that I can help African children - to give them school fees, something to eat and other things they don’t have. As I don’t like injustice in our society, I would like to be a man of the people teaching them how to live in harmony.”

Students at the Rwanda Multi-Learning Centre.

Help men like Joseph help themselves & their families by making a donation to N4A.

N4A will even email you a special card that you can print and give to your father.

Here’s what you do:

1) Donate at http://www.network4africa.org/give/give-usa.html.

2) Email Christa at c_v_bennett@yahoo.com and tell her you want the Father’s Day card; give her your name, your dad’s name, and the amount of your donation if you want that included.

Thank you for your support!

N4A outreach counsellors in high demand in Uganda

2011-05-31T14:39:00.000-07:00

Today’s post is the final in a three-part series on Network for Africa in northern Uganda and reports the progress being made by our outreach counsellors who are part of the Patongo Counselling Community Outreach programme [PCCO].

PCCO’s progress

Psychotherapists Shelly Evans & Dr. Barbara Bauer and PCCO Coordinator Agnes Nyaga Nighty

lead a training session for PCCO outreach counsellors.

Network for Africa and our partners are tackling numerous threats to the well-being of individuals and families in Patongo. In addition to the trauma, depression and fear recorded in our community trauma survey, several other factors continue to challenge people in northern Uganda, who have survived more than two decades of violence:

· Marriage breakdown and shattering of families. Many wives want to leave their husbands because of their drinking, violent behaviour and inability to provide sufficiently to feed their children. The men often do not want to get divorced.

· Conflict arising from HIV-related problems: mainly, men refuse to get tested yet continue not have various sexual partners. Their wives/girlfriends want to leave them. Some husbands also steal their wives' ARV medication to treat their own HIV.

· In an effort to encourage men to get HIV tested, the local health clinic has not been testing pregnant mothers for HIV unless accompanied by their husbands or fathers. Thus many women go untested for HIV, and therefore untreated if they are positive.

· Alcoholism is still rife, as is, of course, poverty.

To respond to these challenges, our outreach counsellors provide basic counselling services and social support to local people. They also help local people who want to start income-generating activities.

The outreach counsellors’ work has been so successful that five more communities in the surrounding areas of Patongo have asked the counsellors to help them, too. This request indicates how badly the counsellors’ services are needed and speaks highly of their ability to help the communities in meaningful ways.

Donations make counselling equipment possible

Simple items like Wellington boots help the counsellors travel even during the rainy season,

ensuring that the community has consistent support.

Generous donations from Network for Africa supporters have made it possible to buy each outreach counsellor a bicycle, a pair of Wellington boots, a messenger bag, an ID card, and a raincoat - all practical items that we might take for granted, but that help make the counsellors’ jobs easier and more effective. In particular, having a bicycle means the counsellors can cover more ground more quickly, greatly increasing their ability to offer services to the communities.

Please help support the services that we are able to offer traumatised survivors as they rebuild their lives: £55/$90 could pay for a bicycle for one outreach counsellor to support 160 people for a year. You can donate here.

Read about food sustainability in Patongo.

Read about malaria prevention in Patongo.

Stories from Darfur: When the Stars Fall to Earth

2011-05-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

N4A founder Becky Tinsley has written a novel, When the Stars Fall to Earth, about the ongoing genocide in Darfur. The novel follows five young Darfuri refugees on their journey of survival as the Sudanese regime tries to destroy them. Becky recently spoke with Psychology Today blogger Jennifer Haupt, about the book. Jennifer asked Becky the question that is bound to be on the minds of many of the novel’s readers: How closely are the five main characters based on real young people you met?

Read Becky’s answer here.

You can purchase a paperback copy of When the Stars Fall to Earth or order the ebook.

100% of Becky’s profits from the book will be donated to Network for Africa, to help support genocide survivors working to build better lives for themselves and their families.

If you are in the Washington, D.C., area, you can join a book discussion with Becky Tinsley tomorrow, Wednesday, May 24, from 12:30 - 2:00pm at the American Bar Association, 740 15th Street NW, John Marshall Conference Room, Washington, D.C. To RSVP, contact Rabiah Burks at 202-662-1002 or rabiah.burks@americanbar.org.

£3 to stop a killer: malaria nets in northern Uganda

2011-05-23T11:19:00.000-07:00

Today’s post is the second of a three-part series and features Network for Africa's plans for malaria prevention. The previous post demonstrated how N4A is working to address the problem of late rains, which threaten northern Uganda’s already unstable food supply. Please check back with us for the final article, about the progress being made by our outreach counselors who are part of the Patongo Counseling Community Outreach (PCCO) programme.

Malaria in northern Uganda

Causing over 70,000 deaths every year, malaria is Uganda’s biggest killer. In theory, Uganda has free malaria prevention programmes in public clinics. However, the northeast corner of Uganda is often forgotten, and its clinics are rarely properly stocked. Thus, Patongo and the surrounding areas have very high rates of malaria, with thousands of people dying from it each year.

Mosquito nets offer simple and effective protection against malaria, but there is an inadequate supply. Even the relatively small cost can be prohibitive for the vulnerable families that Network for Africa works with. Since there are not enough nets for everyone, families are forced to prioritize who uses them. While babies usually merit the nets, other vulnerable young children, especially ages 5-6 and upwards, suffer as they often go without.

Photo by Tjeerd Wiersma

Treated nets are only effective when properly used, and that requires training. For instance, some people mistakenly use mosquito nets as fishing nets, not realizing their importance in protecting against malaria.

Supplying mosquito nets to protect against malaria

A very generous corporate supporter recently gave a donation enabling us to supply more than 2,000 nets to people in Patongo. Crucially, our outreach counselors will distribute the nets, training each family in how to use them effectively – and in the importance of doing so.

Please help us to reach more families. Buying malaria nets is one of the simple “baby steps” that can transform an African child’s life chances. A donation of £3/$5 could pay for a mosquito net and training in how to use it correctly. Please donate here.

Late rains worsens precarious food supply in Uganda

2011-05-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

The people of Patongo in Northern Uganda where we work are being severely affected by drought. As if they don't have enough to cope with, rebuilding their lives after twenty years of conflict, now the seasonal rains are late. Below is the first of three updates from Patongo. This one features the late rains; the last two will feature our plans for malaria prevention and the progress being made by the lay counselors who are part of the Patongo Counselling Community Outreach [PCCO].

Late rains

The seasonal rains that usually arrive in Patongo by now have still not come, preventing farmers from planting any crops. People are becoming worried about the inevitable food shortages that will occur in a few months when there is nothing to harvest. Because of this unwelcome delay, farmers are not expecting their first harvest of groundnuts, a staple crop, until August or September, even though the groundnuts are usually harvested in July.

Unfortunately, northern Uganda has been experiencing erratic rain patterns for the last few years. Last year, unpredictable rain meant that most of Patongo’s groundnuts were ruined. This year’s delay further exacerbates the already precarious food supply.

How Network for Africa and its partners are helping

Water and food conservation

Network for Africa is working with local community leaders in Patongo to determine how to collect and save rainwater when it does eventually arrive, and the best way to disseminate that information to everyone in the community.

We also plan to experiment with ways of preserving fruit, such as drying mangoes, so that they can be saved to eat later.

Our Outreach Counselors, who provide counselling services in Patongo, have already gained the trust of the community and their advice is in high demand. They are well-placed to train others in the community in techniques like water and food conservation.

Community vegetable gardens

While we and our Patongo partners can’t make the rainy season start on time, we can help the community strategically use the land and water that is available, and to recover traditional techniques used to maximize the farming season. To this end, we are working with Slow Food to plant three vegetable gardens in Patongo. Slow Food is a global, grassroots organisation committed to supporting the local and sustainable production of food. Slow Food assigns an expert agronomist to work with a community to assess their food/farming needs and resources and to then create small-scale vegetable gardens specifically tailored to that community. We hope many more people in Patongo will follow suit and start to grow their own vegetables.

Women start bakery, use donations to enrol in school

2011-04-29T09:40:00.000-07:00

The hard-working team at Wanda Bakery in Kigali, Rwanda are now officially registered as a co-operative. Starting from literally nothing, the women, who are students at our Rwanda Multi Learning Centre, have created a bakery business. Their work is an inspiration to others in Rwanda, and a source of utterly delicious treats. Their customers include expats, hotels and embassies across the Rwandan capital, and they have plans to produce more traditional food to tempt local taste buds too. To sample their brownies and zucchini bread is to be transported to heaven. See what we mean by checking out Melissa Musgrove’s photos of the women and their baked goods: http://gallery.me.com/melissalmusgrove#100076.

Our thanks to Julian Roberts, who ran the Berlin Marathon in September 2010 on behalf of Wanda Bakery and Network for Africa. The team is using the money so kindly raised by Julian to invest in further culinary training.

Two of the Wanda Bakery women will take courses in food preparation and services, while another is enrolling in an accounting and business management program.

Julian's donation is also being used to allow two Wanda Bakers to enroll at the Kigali Institute of Health to study psychological counselling. This may seem unconnected to cupcakes, but as one of the students explains:

“We want to be trained in counselling so that we are able to create a good and peaceful atmosphere for the business, but also for the Rwanda Multi-Learning Centre. A lot of young orphans, especially young girls, come to us for advice and help, and we want to be better able to help them.”

The Wanda Bakery women's determination to offer help and support to everyone in the Rwanda Multi Learning Centre community is what underlies the success of Network for Africa's projects: previously vulnerable and isolated women are forging a strong social network, supporting each other both personally and professionally, with each participant gaining greater self-confidence as a result.

This is how lives are transformed. We thank Julian and Alison Roberts, who worked so hard to raise money to help these remarkable women in Kigali.

Rwanda: what it's all about. A message from N4A's new CEO.

2011-04-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

As Rwanda mourns the million people who were murdered in the 1994 genocide, I reflect on my recent visit there.

Rwanda, where at least half a million children were orphaned.

Rwanda, where the international community stood by as one by one, a tenth of the population was systematically hacked to death, often brutally raped or tortured first.

Rwanda, a country so beautiful it literally takes your breath away – avenues of eucalyptus trees, mountains whose pinnacles are shrouded in mist, banana plantations, hills chiselled by terracing, rice fields in the valleys, children running by the side of the road, goats, pigs, chickens, intense green.

As the new team member at Network for Africa, I was there to meet our project partners and see the good work that they are doing. And as CEO, I am always thinking about how we raise the money to fund the good work that is happening on the ground. Part of that process is being able to paint a picture of the difference we are making to people’s lives.

It’s about the 120 orphans of the genocide who had no education, grew up in child headed households in extreme poverty, but who are now learning English, IT and music at our Rwanda Multi Learning Centre. They are in with a fighting chance of going on to college and forging a career for themselves, because of what we’re doing.

It’s about the brave young women who formed their cooperative Wanda Bakery Restoring Lives, and work so hard baking and selling cakes to the expatriate and diplomatic communities in Kigali.

It’s about the determined young men and women who have formed their Heart of Africa choir, because they love music and because it helps them recover from their trauma. Heart of Africa, whose sound made my spine tingle.

It’s about the 350 women – orphans, widows, child mothers – who were destitute, but were gathered up by one of life’s visionaries, Peace Ruzage, and are now are learning to read and write, have a vocational and a marketable skill, know about their rights, and can now feed their children.

It’s about the 17,000 people who until two months ago, had to walk all day to see a doctor but now have the Ntarama Health Clinic and Hospital on their doorstep.

It’s about understanding the long-term psychological problems, left in the wake of genocide. It’s about seeing how our work brings a transformation to the lives of our beneficiaries and their extended families.

And being able to listen when people like Rose say:

Three years ago I couldn’t speak. It was hard to believe that I would ever smile again. The [Music Centre] choir is like my dream. I’m very, very happy.

I get it. I can paint the picture now.

~Annabel Harris

Network for Africa

Life-changing bikes

2011-03-08T13:04:00.000-08:00

In 2010, two donors – Liberty Wines and a private family – bought 40 bikes for a group of vulnerable women in Patongo, northern Uganda. These relatively inexpensive bikes are nevertheless tickets to greater freedom and better lives for the women, who work together in income-generating activities. In particular, the bikes have drastically helped women transport firewood; without the bikes, the women have to walk between 5-8 miles to collect wood.

Other important uses for the bikes include:

Quicker transportation to the hospital, especially important in emergences.
Increased efficiency and productivity in their fields.
Help with small businesses, as women can travel far to collect produce for selling.
Reduced time spent fetching water.

Here is what some of the women told me about how the bikes have changed their lives.

Julia: The bike has given me a great deal of help in my life. It saved my life. I live in a polygamous marriage and my husband abandoned me a few months ago, leaving me with nothing at all, no wealth or possessions and three children to feed and educate. I use my bike to collect firewood from far away, and then sell it in the market.

Kissa: I used my bike to fetch firewood and transport it back to Patongo to sell. It paid for my son's transport to go back to school. My son also uses my bike to go to school.

Sara: The bike saved my child's life. My baby had malaria and was sick. The health centre in Patongo had no treatment and so I had to cycle with my baby on my back to Kalongo hospital 22 miles away. It saved his life.

Elise: The bike saved my child's life. She needed treatment at hospital, and we used bike for transport. She is well now. I also use my bike to collect firewood to earn a living.

Margaret: I am thankful for the bike as I manage to collect building material from far away for my new house.

Jane: I used to have to walk to fetch water. I could only do this once a day because I have difficulty with chest pain, and the walk caused my chest to hurt too much. Now I can cycle more than one trip and collect more water. My health has also improved.

Abbo: I have been able to get to the market far away to buy food to eat for my family and also sell the rest at the local market.

news from Sophie in Northern Uganda

2011-02-26T12:23:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Patongo, in the north east corner of Uganda. Ninety degrees and rather sticky. However, no complaints from this end because the Network for Africa team is really seeing the results of our efforts. We started work here in 2008, and this week we are completing our fifth visit by our team of 2 wonderful volunteer psychologists. They have now trained over 300 local people, including elders community leaders, former child soldiers, and vulnerable young people, in basic trauma counselling skills allowing people to learn to cope with the widespread trauma they have experienced.

Our psychologists have also trained a smaller group of smart, motivated local community members to be volunteer outreach counsellors (VOCs). We have trained the VOCs to help survivors of the brutal war identify their trauma, understand it and then manage it.

Thanks to the Warham family in London, the VOCs have bikes so they can provide counselling to ten communities in outlying rural villages - and their fame has spread. Now we've had requests for the VOCs to offer psychosocial help to people living with HIV.

Twenty three years of a vicious and devastating war left huge scars on this remote area of Uganda - emotional, economic and social scars - but we are encouraged to see such immediate progress. We thinl the main reason for our success is that we asked local people what they thought their biggest challenges were, and what their priorities are. And we keep asking them.

Here is what our partners say is most important:

1) The need to get people farming efficiently, especially the returning abducted child soldiers who need to provide for themselves. That means we need agricultural tools and training.

2) Health care. There are very few drugs avalaible, and two nurses struggle to see 100 patients a day.

3) Family planning. Unfortunately there is stigma attached, and we are working with local groups to provide education to younger people and to distribute condoms to more obscure areas.

4) Counselling services and health kits for people living with HIV. The rate of HIV here is almost three times the Ugandan average because of systematic rape during the conflict. For about £35 or $56 per kit we want to be able to provide condoms, a blanket, medicated soap, a jerry can, etc, for the very poor people living with HIV.

More from me soon. The VOCs say thank you to all who have so generously helped Network for Africa's work in their community.

Sophie McCann.

a very basic right

2011-02-18T10:53:00.000-08:00

How to battle against the spread of HIV? Sadly it turns out that just teaching people about how HIV spreads is not enough. Why? Because it assumes that the women involved in any relationship have the power to say 'no.' Here is an example of how HIV spreads: a wife may be aware that her husband is infected, yet she will agree to dangerous sex with him because she fears he will deny her access to her own children. This happens all the time because in many societies a mother does not have the right to her own offspring. As soon as she gives birth, her child 'belongs' to her husband and his family. If she wants to keep seeing and being with her child, she is effectively at the mercy of the child's father. She has almost no power with which to negotiate. Hence the futility of telling people to abstain, when the woman has almost no rights whatsoever. There is a very fundamental problem underlying the social symptoms of powerlessness such as HIV and domestic abuse, etc. Women's status is very low, even in countries that pay lip service to women's rights, and where the government has enshrined women's rights within its constitution. The reality at village level among uneducated people is that women are unaware of their rights. Yet another reason to bring women one of the greatest gifts - literacy. That's why we are so proud of the partners with whom we work in Africa. They are providing women with the building blocks to realise their own potential and to take control of their lives.

a sobering thought at Christmas

2010-12-22T06:45:00.000-08:00

Most of us think of Christmas meals as a time when we give in to temptation and eat too much. But spare a thought for too many people in Africa for whom Christmas is the one day of the year when they splash out and eat meat. The rest of the year they consume cheap, tasteless, starchy foods lacking in protein. They fill their stomachs, but there isn't much more to be said in their favour/favor. That is why we are keen to give chickens to the Rwandan women in our projects. Not only can the women sell the eggs produced and use the income to feed and educate their children; but they can also feed their chidlren eggs, improving their chances of developing into strong, bright teenagers. A chicken costs about £5 or $8, and it transforms a family's life chances.

statistics that matter

2010-12-14T04:00:00.000-08:00

Save the Children, describing their work in South Sudan, report that a girl there has more chance of dying in childbirth than finishing primary/elementary school. They also conclude that only a quarter of people have access to healthcare, which no doubt contributes to the incredibly high rate of death in childbirth.

Looking at the rate at which young women die in pregnancy and childbirth is much more useful than using the UN's 'life expectancy' rates. They give only a national average, rather than an accurate picture of when the greatest risks occur. If a child makes it to 10 years of age, they'll probably make it to old age. Those first years are when malnutrition, lack of access to healthcare and malaria take the greatest toll. The chance of surviving childhood is also massively influenced by how much education the mother has had. All the more reason to be focusing on educating girls and young women.

Good news about landmines

2010-11-25T09:26:00.000-08:00

In 2009, fewer than 4,000 people were killed or injured by landmines and other unexploded war weapons, like submunitions or grenades – a drastic drop compared with the estimated 26,000 annual deaths in the 1990s. This is according to a report by Human Rights Watch and other members of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).

Here is proof that campaigns to try to pressure the military-industrial complex (as President Eisenhower called it) are worth the effort. Anyone working in the developing world, or as we do, wth survivors of genocide and war, can be forgiven for having their low moments. The progress made on landmines and more recently cluster bombs is a reminder that positive change is possible. Soemtimes the good guys do win.

Women are the answer

2010-09-20T01:29:00.000-07:00

At the annual United Nations summit in New York delegates are discussing the eight millenium development goals, set ten years ago. There will be a lot of hot air about putting women at the centre of attaining these goals.

It is undoubtedly true: none of the goals can be achieved without the involvement of women in the developing world, because women generally do most fo the work and raise the children.

However, many of the nations swapping platitudes about improving the position of women remain fundamentally opposed to genuine and meaningful female empowerment. In their societies, where men take the decisions and women labour in the fields, women continue to have very low status. They are denied the right to the money they earn in agriculture, they cannot own or inherit land, and they do not even have the right to the chidlren they have brought into the world.

Human Rights Watch found that one of the reasons HIV spreads in some countries is that infected husbands threaten to torture their own children unless their wives will have sex with them. Their wives have to stay within such abusive relationships because they have no legal rights to their own children. If they want to escape from their husbands, they have to also leave their children behind. As long as this situation persists in so many develooping countries, lip service to women's rights is hypocritical nonsense.

I AM SLAVE

2010-09-08T04:25:00.000-07:00

Channel 4 screened an important drama recently about a young Sudanese woman taken into slavery, who ended up as a domestic servant in London. Her story reflects the vile experiences of thousands of young women. Sadly, the slave trade never went away.
Click on the link below to hear an interview with the woman on whom the drama is based. Essential listening for those interested in the continuing slave trade in Africa.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/2010/09/100907_outlook_slave.shtml

Welcome Penny Marshall to N4A

2010-09-02T02:27:00.000-07:00

Network for Africa is delighted that the distinguished journalist Penny Marshall has become our patron. She is a particular hero of mine because she uncovered the death camps run by the Serbs in Bosnia. Her reports finally prompted President Clinton to act, which in turn caused the Serbs to run away.

Penny has had an unrivalled career. She was the first woman in Britain to be appointed as a foreign correspondent based abroad for the national TV news. She has won an EMMY, a BAFTA and an RTS award for her work in Eastern Europe and Russia in the 1990s. For three decades she was one of the key faces of ITN’s news coverage: from the revolution in Romania to the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.

Her exclusive reports revealing the Serb-run detention camps of Northern Bosnia in 1992 had an impact across the world and remain one of the most important TV exclusives of this era.

Her work on the Sudan border in 2005 was the first to highlight the refugee crisis in Eastern Chad. Her reporting has been recognised by Amnesty International for its insight and courage. She has lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in Moscow and South Africa. Penny now works as a freelance broadcaster and reporter appearing regularly on ITN and Radio 4. She also teaches TV reporting to professional journalists in emerging democracies.

We are honoured to have her on our team.

Kudos to Moses and his team

2010-08-31T04:19:00.000-07:00

Last week we heard that a senior member of the international diplomatic community in Kigali had been in touch with our English language centre, the Rwanda Multi Learning Centre. They told us we have the reputation of being the best placein Rwanda tp study the English language. Consequently one of our (paying)students will be an ambassador's son. All credit goes to our director Moses and his hard working team of teachers and students. They deserve this recognition.

monitoring human rights is a good investment

2010-08-24T03:19:00.000-07:00

The UK government has announced it is to stop monitoring human rights abuses around the globe. Previously the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) produced an annual summary that was used within government and beyond, as an invaluable guide to which countries were oppressing their own citizens. Initiated by the much missed Robin Cook, it was a good investment for two reasons:

1) So long as the UK continues to preach to other nations the virtues of accountability, transparency, democracy and human rights, it needs to ensure Britain is not propping up repressive or corrupt governments by selling them things, especially weapons or torture equipment, or laundering their dirty money. Ifall the UK cares about is trade, then we should have the honest to admit as much. If, however, we continue to lecture other countries, we should keep our own exporters in order. We should also be wary of selling arms and cosying up to the kind of regimes that may one day turn against us, as we've seen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2) The FCO review was useful in stopping the UK government itself propping up appalling regimes through its generous foriegn aid programme, in the form of donations from the Department for International Development (DFID). In some regrettable cases DFID supports dictatorships with donations, for either geopolitical or other\reasons (too tedious to go into here - but email me if you are interested). We have a much better chance of restraining the UK's misguided generosity if we can produce its own FCO data indicating the disappointing human rights record of the kleptomaniacs we are propping up.

The cost of the FCO annual human rights review was tiny compared to the sums handed out under the guise of international development aid.

Girls and Women - A great investment

2010-08-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

If the world's wealthy nations were serious about encouraging development in poor countries, they could achieve an excellent return on their investment by prioritising the education of girls and women. Nothing offers a greater guarantee of transforming the lives of individuals involved, their families, the economy of their countries and their society.
The UK Department for International Development recently released its 2010-15 education strategy, and it contained the following important statistics:
1) Every additional year of education for girls can cut infant mortality by 5-10%
2) Every additonal year of education can raise lifetime earnings in poor countries by 10%.
Taken with UN research on the impact of education on girls, it is clear that educated girls are more likely to have healthier children, too.
Put simply, education is the way to break the cycle of poverty into which poor families become trapped. This is hardly rocket science, but it seems we all need to be reminded that more complicated and expensive 'fixes' don't always achieve as much.
There is now extensive evidence from countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua and Cambodia that programmes that offer cash to parents who keep their children in school reaps massive benefits. This is especially helpful to girls, who are the ifrst to be kept home from school to do domestic and agricultural work or to care for unwell family members. (World Bank, "Conditional Cash Transfers: Reducing Present and Future Poverty")

aid and the UN

2010-08-01T02:37:00.000-07:00

Linda Polman's new book, War Games, is a must read for those who are not convinced that development aid is achieving all we wish. She also looks at situations where aid organisations keep people alive, without protecting them (Bosnia, Darfur) or disarming the people who are trying to kill them. Her chapters on Rwanda are devastating, describing how the international community rushed to help the people who committed the genocide, but not the victims. Polman's previous book, We Did Nothing, is about the uselessness of UN peacekeeping forces (Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur, again) when there is no political will behind peacekeeping missions. She describes how most peacekeepers are recruited from bangladesh and pakistan, and aren't even soldiers. They are unemployed boys collected from villages, put in uniforms and sent off to war zones with no training. The government who supplies them gets $1000 a month from the UN. Romeo Dallaire (Rwanda) describes how the first time he issued orders to a company of these UN peacekeepers, they wet their pants in terror.

Where is the trickle down?

2010-07-28T23:12:00.000-07:00

For those interested in Africa's economic future, and the growing influence of China on the continent, I recommend "Untapped: The scramble for Africa's oil," by John Ghazvinian. His research shows it is naive to assume that the citizens, as opposed to the ruling elite, will see any benefit whatsoever from finding oil in their country. Only five per cent of all spending on developing a local oil industry occurs within the country in question, and African governments almost always negotiate a terrible deal for themselves. Sadly the vast majority of rulers seem concerned only with their own personal slice of the revenues, and Ghazvinian's book has plenty of depressing stories about their greed, corruption and vanity. Yet more proof that the tragedy of Africa is the ghastly people holding all the power, so often propped up by Western governments for our own geo-political reasons.

Beating poverty one cupcake at a time

2010-07-11T07:02:00.000-07:00

Our Wanda Bakery project in Kigali, Rwanda has had an order for 250 cupcakes from the Dutch Embassy. The cupcakes will be iced in orange, and they will be consumed at a party to celebrate the World Cup final. Our thanks to the Dutch Embassy, and our congratulations to the Wanda bakery team for getting such a significant order. Wanda Bakery is a project of Women Developing Rwanda, which is in turn part of our Rwanda Multi Learning Centre. It is run by genocide survivors who are rebuilding their lives. Our thanks to those who have helped make this project a reality.

Who We Are - Network4Africa.org

2010-07-02T05:50:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Network for Africa. We're a London-based charity that helps to rebuild lives and communities destroyed by war and genocide.

We train people with skills that will help them get a job.
We equip poor and vulnerable people with the skills to help themselves.
We partner with small local African projects, producing tangible results.
We respond to what locals tell us they need to break the cycle of poverty.
We tackle the long-term consequences of war and genocide that remain after the emergency aid agencies have moved on.

Our Approach:Network for Africa has projects in Rwanda, Northern Uganda and Eastern Chad. Our aim is to benefit all people in the communities where we work, regardless of race or religion. We work with small projects, started by local people responding to local needs.

Network for Africa

Helping women improve their lives: a photo essay

"Going to the chapel, and we're going to get married" at Aspire!

The Slow Food revolution: retro food is feeding Africa & saving the environment

World AIDS Day - how Network for Africa is fighting AIDS

Nursery keeps children safe, allows mothers to work

Ugandan newspaper highlights plight of child sex slaves as they return home - and how Network for Africa is helping

Surviving Ugandans become trauma counselors

Great Challenges

Investing in girls & women for long-term change

Two days left to shop & support N4A at the same time

Women on the go: get organized while supporting N4A

Learn and Farm: The Peace Dividend in Africa

When you order from Clever Container, N4A gets 25% of proceeds

Childcare for working mothers in Rwanda

Sudanese women offer stories of resilience

Novelist Rebecca Tinsley struggles with how to share Sudanese women's stories without spreading a sense of hopelessness. In the end she had their resilience to highlight, along with the transformational power of education.

Discouraging Control

Education Critical

Music students get lunch and job skills

Women's bakery receives cooperative status, praise from mayor

Burns, labour, & counselling training: practical tools for Rwandan women

"For every act of barbarity in this world....

Mike Farrell (of M*A*S*H), Father’s Day, and Network for Africa

N4A outreach counsellors in high demand in Uganda

Stories from Darfur: When the Stars Fall to Earth

£3 to stop a killer: malaria nets in northern Uganda

Late rains worsens precarious food supply in Uganda

Women start bakery, use donations to enrol in school

Rwanda: what it's all about. A message from N4A's new CEO.

Life-changing bikes

news from Sophie in Northern Uganda

a very basic right

a sobering thought at Christmas

statistics that matter

Good news about landmines

Women are the answer

I AM SLAVE

Welcome Penny Marshall to N4A

Kudos to Moses and his team

monitoring human rights is a good investment

Girls and Women - A great investment

aid and the UN

Where is the trickle down?

Beating poverty one cupcake at a time

Who We Are - Network4Africa.org

Mike Farrell (of MAS*H), Father’s Day, and Network for Africa