A N4A supporter who has been selling Aspire's beautiful handmade recycled paper necklaces at her school. Fourteen-year-old Phoebe has raised nearly £1200 in the past six months and has a huge amount of support and encouragement from her family and friends. She is working on further ideas for helping Network for Africa in the future, including encouraging local shopkeepers to sell our products.

Phoebe says it is important to make people aware of what happens to communities after war and genocide. She also feels that young people have the potential to make a positive difference to the loves of others, and that it's important for more young people become involved in raising both funds and awareness. Phoebe hopes to visit Rwanda one day, and would like to teach English at our Rwanda Multi Learning Centre.

“The training the Network for Africa team has delivered in Patongo has been unprecedented and so important for our people. NGOs are leaving this area even though there are still huge needs. We need to be empowered so that we can live peacefully and continue to sensitise the population on crucial issues like trauma and HIV. Your team and the training it has done has been immensely appreciated immensely by the community. You have trained so many people at grassroots level and empowered them to take positive action within their communities. Thank you for your amazing  work.”

Jennifer Haupt, a journalist and commentator writing in the reputable Psychology Today publication wrote about meeting N4A's founder, Rebecca Tinsely:

'She opened my eyes to the needs of women and children in Rwanda who are still suffering more than ten years after the country's infamous genocide. Rebecca took me to a co-op of women artists who are genocide survivors, and to a farming co-op that teaches women heads of households about agriculture and nutrition.

She told me about workshops her group was sponsoring to train survivors of rape so they can go into their communities and work with women who, for the first time, can tell their stories and begin to heal. This organization is the real deal, and the good news is that it only takes a small donation to make a huge difference.'

Carolyn Branch and her daughter Kate visited Rwanda with a Network for Africa team in 2005.

Congratulations to Kate and her husband Mike who, since then, have brought Carolyn Junior into the world. Carolyn Senior has kindly made a generous donation to our orphans' project to mark this important occasion.

 

The lovely staff at Liberty Wines have been raising money for Network for Africa's work in Patongo, northern Uganda by having a charity lunch at the end of each month - a delicious and fun way of raising money!

Organised and cooked by Di McCann and other 'guest' cooks of different nationalities in the office, they have already had two delicious 'Italian' Fridays with home-made vegetable lasagne, pizza, calzone and pizza fritta, spiced carrot cake and caprese chocolate tart. May's lunch is being prepared by guest cook from New Zealand, the winemaker Quintin Quider of Wild Earth, part of Liberty Wines' portfolio. Quintin is bringing fish from Australia to make Thai red curry or Laksa and Di is making Eton Mess for pudding. Spanish and French dishes will be on the menu over the next few months.

All proceeds from 'Lunch of the Month' go towards buying 55 bikes, 20 oxen and 10 ploughs for the Women's cooperative Ribbe Aye Teko in Patongo. The two lunches to date, plus staff donations for bottles of wine being given away, have raised just over £300. Liberty Wines have also donated computers for our Learning Centre in Kigali, Rwanda, which means more students will be able to access the internet and learn IT skills.

We would like to thank all the staff at Liberty for their generous contributions and interest in our projects. The N4A staff are waiting for their invite to lunch!

The beautiful handcrafted cards that you receive in the mail are born of simple office waste. At Cards from Africa, we make all of our handmade papers from discarded scraps that would otherwise be destined to burn. Not only is this environmentally friendly, it also ensures that we have a large range of base colors and textures of paper to work with.

Without chemicals and using the traditional African method of making paper, we create various textures using natural products found in the wide open spaces surrounding our workspace.

Bougainvillea petals, Umunyinya (similar to pine needles), reflective mica rock flakes, and the imprint of woven grass mats are just a few things that we incorporate into our process of making unique paper with which to make unique greeting cards.

CardsFromAfrica.com

Nia's grandparents have dedicated a donation to benefit Rwandan orphans in her name.

Stuart and Pauline Hemington of Lincolnshire in the UK are kindly supporting the school with an annual pledge in the name of their new granddaughter, Nia.

"Our granddaughter's name is Nia which is Welsh and meaning 'radiance and brightness'! I believe it is also an African name meaning 'purpose'."

 

At Christmas, Betsy and David Kain turned down the offer of presents and instead asked for a donation to the school to commemmorate their eighteen month old granddaughter, Amelia. If you wish to dedicate a classroom, a chair, a blackboard etc to someone special, please let us know.

INSPIRE!africa is providing an opportunity for Canadians to make a profound difference in the lives of others by giving some of what we have, whether it is our time, money or skills. Our focus is on supporting community-based initiatives in areas where help is most needed and where it will make the most difference in moving communities out of poverty and into self-sufficiency. Education is an underlying theme as education is a powerful tool for creating a world where anything is possible. www.inspireafrica.org

“First of all let me thank Roz with her team who established this LC here in Rwanda, I want to also thank Network For Africa who teach us and give us materials like computers, text books, etc. After finishing secondary school it was difficult for me to afford to study English and computer skills. All of this was a dream but it became true because of Network for Africa. Now,I am able to speak and write English ,use a computer, and have friendships with people who live abroad. So for this reason I would like to be a volunteer here at the Learning Centre, to help to teach English.”