Music students get lunch and job skills

“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

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

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....

 .... 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 M*A*S*H), Father’s Day, and Network for Africa

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

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

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.