Ntarama Community Center, Rwanda

Orphans in Rwanda are enthusiastic about going to school – they’ll walk miles every morning to get there. But electricity is a luxury in Africa, so children cannot do homework or take extra classes to help them stay in school. Rwanda is on the equator so it is dark by 6pm each night. Yet the sun shines on its beautiful volcanic mountains and lakes every day.

Network For Africa is working with Rwandan genocide survivors to create a safe, secure learning space, with solar panels.

The Ntarama Community Center will also have a health clinic with doctors, nurses and trauma counsellors, serving genocide 3,000 orphans and widows. At the moment they have to walk five miles for so much as an aspirin.

The center will offer courses in literacy, health, hygiene, nutrition, sexual/reproductive health, vocational skills, micro-finance and gender empowerment.

There will also be an Internet café, and rooms will be rented to local groups for meetings, generating income.