What a joy to be back in the remote Maharashtran village of Kahandol in time to celebrate the inauguration of their two new wells.  Just four months earlier I had been standing on a dried up riverbed with my Indian colleagues, Shilpa, Sam and Akshay and the head of the village, Patil Ramdas Warde.  Ramdas told us how the drought had brought great hardship to his village, with only 28 days of water, and he had asked us if there was anything we could do to help …

Picture this: a village with around 120 households; men, women, children and elderly all living together in conditions very few would dare to live. As the night falls the world beyond the village illuminates with lights glowing from house windows and on the streets. Cool air wafts from air conditioners and fans are blowing. But this village in KPK looks like a campsite with candle lights getting dimmer and dimmer as night get deeper.

Amplifying Voices partner station Amani FM in eastern Kenya’s Tana River County, has joined forces with another community station to promote peace in this conflict-affected region.  The project “Amani Mashinani,” which in Swahili means peace at the grassroots, involves young people in the design and creation of feature stories and talk-shows that promote peace, using the airwaves of Amani FM in Garsen and TBS (Tana Broadcasting Service), in Hola. 

These community volunteers in Majukay are amazing! Despite the intense summer heat and the fasting period, they got out and sprayed mosquito hotspots in their community to prevent Dengue fever infections. Has it made a difference? This year we heard people saying, more people are gathering together again in the places where community happens. In…

Umoja FM, HCR’s partner station in Nobili, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is supporting communities fleeing attacks by Islamist rebels. “Our team are doing all we can to provide essential information to displaced people as well as support to the wider population,” said Station Manager Baraka Bacweki.

Change is happening and its infectious! The development changes we have seen in the last few months in Majukay, a community in Charsadda, Pakistan, were almost unimaginable 4 years ago when the community members set ambitious goals for being a healthy thriving society. It feels like a corner has been turned, and the change is gaining momentum.

Empowering Yesterday Cyclone Kenneth made landfall near Pemba in Mozambique, the second cyclone to hit Mozambique this season. Only one month ago, Jon and I traveled to Beira in central Mozambique in response to Cyclone Idai. Damage to road infrastructure meant that Beira was cut off from many parts of the country for several days,…

Children in their thousands are suffering significant abuse and stigmatisation, or even being killed, due to accusations of witchcraft against them. There are tens of thousands of cases, in many nations worldwide.

‘I’m not a witch’ is a powerful, new short film produced by Congolese film maker, Tshoper Kabambi, designed to promote awareness of the problem.

Our partner, Seva, working among tribal people in Maharashtra had gone to distribute SD cards for latest audio programmes for the ‘speaker boxes’ when they discovered the community in Kahandol in great distress due to lack of water. They found people desperately trying to dig pits to find water, but with little effect. Seva’s Chief Executive, Shilpa Shinde said they had to do something to alleviate the community’s distress.

In Australia, 1 in 6 women have experienced physical or sexual violence and 1 in 5 have been sexually assaulted or threatened. These statistics are even more alarming at the local level. So in response to this, the Geraldton community joined together to make a stand together to say violence is never okay.