ABOUT US

-   Care Africa Network (CAN), is a small registered UK charity that works to improve the lives, health and education of orphans and children in need, particularly in Africa. It seeks to empower community-supported family care for this purpose. To date it has worked in Lesotho, Eswatini, Uganda and Kenya.

Africa has for generations had a well-developed and effective community-care system, which, despite the challenges of poverty, has strived to ensure the needs of all are met within the family and community. However, this caring system has been gradually undermined by pressures of westernisation and, with the magnitude of the recent AIDs orphan crisis, was threatened with total collapse. This could result in thousands of destitute children and vulnerable adults, and all development goals reversed.

CAN aims to help to reverse this destruction and empower communities to continue to meet the needs of all. CAN acts as a catalyst for improving the care of children in need by disseminating methods that have proven effective for community support and family empowerment. It works in partnership with governments, NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations), CBOs (Community-Based Organisations), local volunteers and partner organisations. It promotes ideas for psychosocial support and the protection of children from abuse, together with the prevention and treatment of mental health problems. It achieves this through publications, consultations and needs-led training. It has also provided funding for small income-generating projects that have helped communities to become self-sufficient in providing for the children for whom they care.

-   Specific training programmes have been developed. The main one is based on CAN's research in Lesotho, Eswatini, Uganda and Kenya and offers ideas for empowering good community-supported family care of orphans and children in need, especially when the economically active adult population has been lost. It can assist communities in rebuilding their community-care system where these communities are threatened with collapse. The second programme was developed in response to requests from the countries involved, due to their concern about the number of children traumatised, often because of family deaths. It teaches a very effective method for the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in children.

CAN has trained over 550 African CAN Extension Workers to treat children suffering from PTSD and to start projects to benefit children in need, reversing the destruction of the community-care system to empower the needs of all to be met in their communities. Feedback scores on all aspects of all the courses have consistently between good and excellent and it has been suggested that the main course has 'the power to free Africa from the bondage of poverty' and transform the lives of children in need in Africa. Students also reported that it transformed their lives by empowering them to improve the lives of children. CAN has now also capacitated the National Universities in Lesotho and Eswatini to continue to provide this training in the future.