NUJ Freelance Directory

Apart from a love of writing, interest in people and what they do I am also interested in the equal rights (or the lack of them) for people in third world countries. Thus I travelled to Rwanda for a month in 2007 where I taught at a school for orphans, and returned in 2011 for six weeks. I learnt a great deal about the genocide of 1994 and the aftermath that has so affected this country. I was appalled at the poverty I saw but impressed by the spirit of the people. Therefore, I am interested in anything that affects Rwanda, and the bordering countries of Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya. I support a young man and his family in Rwanda where I can, and also have helped a young woman with stunted legs who needs surgery and protheses. I also keep in touch with many pupils, some teachers, missionaries, and an English woman who runs a baby orphanage in Ruhengeri, Rwanda. I am also the publicity officer for the Shyira Trust - a trust that my local church runs that has helped re-build the delapidated maternity hospital, schools and also helped build a new counselling centre and hospice in this remote, but beautiful hilltop region.