YOU can make a difference for women and children in Africa, without even donating a penny: please go to Love a Local Business and vote for Network for Africa. Your vote will be used as a ticket in a raffle in which N4A could win up to $50,000.
You can vote once every quarter until March 31, 2012. We will send you another email when you are eligible to vote again. Please do so, to increase our chance to win!
The 60 seconds it will take you to vote could help sponsor a woman in Kigali through Aspire, a year-long program where she will learn to read and write, gain marketable skills, and develop a valuable social network. A recent Aspire graduate said:
My life before becoming part of Aspire was hard. Then I joined the group and my life became easier. Coming here eases my troubles. I have worked through these hard times - it has taught me patience, but also has given me the heart to help others. I am also proud of myself - there is now always food on the table and I have managed to provide for my children. My biggest wish is for the group to continue. 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.
Or, 60 seconds might help purchase more bikes for women in northern Uganda. One recipient of a bike donated through N4A recently reported:
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.
Please help us help hard-working women like these we’ve mentioned. 60 seconds could change a life. Vote now at Love a Local Business. Once you vote, you will have an option to share your vote via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. Please share it so that your friends will vote, too.
Thank you from all of us at Network for Africa.
For every copy of "When The Stars Fall To Earth ; a novel of Africa" you buy, the author's profits go to support our work in Africa. 
atongo was regularly raided and was the site of one of the refugee camps in which over a million civilians were forced to live in fear and abject poverty while their abducted relatives were forced to commit atrocities by the LRA, leaving behind deep trauma and social breakdown.
