A new 5th edition of Bryan Walker’s plain-speaking, straightforward guide to the world of online learning is now available for folder download from our Library.

This book will help you plan your own study programme. It provides strategies to overcome problems, techniques to reinforce the learning process, and support for those wishing to embark on a research project.

Opportunities for distance education are rapidly moving to a new level. In the last year, start-up ventures including several elite universities have released hundreds of quality, high-level courses online – for free.

Update September 2014: 4th edition now available for folder download includes Twelve Dozen Places To Educate Yourself Online For Free.

Good project management is essential for being an effective NGO. The Somali version of our PCM manual,   folder Maareynta Wareega Mashruuca is now available for download in the library. Thanks to Abdinasir for this translation.

Project Cycle Management (PCM) ensures that all aspects of a project are included in the management process.

Our newly revised short manual folder Managing the Project Cycle (21 pages) guides you clearly through the four phases of PCM.

Many die in their attempts to reach the West, but Geeldoon lived to tell the tale. Since his safe return to Somaliland, he has set up a local organization to warn others of the dangers of tahriib (unregulated emigration) and encourage young people to build their futures at home instead.

We Kissed the Ground | Carrada Ayaan Dhunkannay offers the most extensive available account of tahriib and the brutal world of people trafficking.

Networklearning’s newest manual aims to give carers – and their supervisors – greater insight into the work that they do for their older clients.

folder Caring for The Elderly: Best Practice in Person-centred Care includes examples from colleagues in the field and exercises for learning skills.

We appreciate it's not always easy to find everything on our site so here's a quick guidance:

• All our manuals (Word and PDF documents) can be found in the Library.

Tip: to find a particular title, instead of scrolling through the whole list you can use the 'Library Themes' menu which appears at the left of the library page.

• All our other resources (articles and links to information) are categorized into NGO Fields and NGO Skills.

To locate all the info on a specific keyword, it's quickest to use the searchbox (located at the right on every page).

Difficulty downloading from the Library?

Depending on your own browser settings, when you click on 'Download' the document may open in your browser window instead of being downloaded to your hard disc. If this happens, you can save the PDF to a location of your choice via the browser menu (File > Save As)

Does this solve your problems? If not, please contact us.

SWOT is a proven method for analysing your NGO’s Capacity and to successfully implement a strategic plan.

» folder Download from the Library

Understand the problem and how your NGO can offer a good package of help. Thanks to Abdinasir for this translation.

» folder Download from the Library

folder How to Run a Workshop is now available in Arabic. Thanks to Mubarak for this translation.

The Networklearning team is deeply concerned by this practice, which is more widespread than many realise. This short manual, with illustrations, gives a clear overview of what it is, when and why it happens – and what can be done to help.

Update August 2014:
Somali and Arabic editions also now available for download.

» folder Download from the Library

The Networklearning Group recently completed   folder Caring for people with Physical Disabilities: Best Practice in Person-centred Care . It was done with help from a number of co-authors - colleagues and friends in the field.

We are now finalising "Caring for the Elderly" and beginning with "Caring for Children". Could you help with this topic? > Contact Networklearning

  folder Caring for people with Physical Disabilities: Best Practice in Person-centred Care is now available in Arabic. Thanks to Mubarak for this translation.

We are delighted to offer a new edition of our popular guest publication about employment in the humanitarian sector. 'Better Ways to Succeed in Aid and Development Work' is a thoroughly informative guide to 'getting started, getting in and getting on'.
» folder Download directly from the Library

Also newly revised, including extra information and appendices:
»   folder Better Ways to Stay Healthy in Asian Tropics .

Thanks to Bryan Walker for providing these.

Networklearning's Key Information Sheet on Advocacy – what is it, why is it important and the 10 steps to success – is now available in Arabic (3-page PDF).
» folder Download directly from the Library

Simple Devices to Assist the Physically Disabled is a manual of drawings of simple aids for the physically handicapped that can be made anywhere. There is now a version with Arabic introduction and notes (59-page PDF). The pictures themselves are self-explanatory.
» folder Download directly from the Library

This expanded edition of Bryan Walker's manual is updated and restructured, and has a new section of games and learning activities.

» folder Download directly from the Library

This manual explains clearly the basic concepts around Financial Capacity, Plans and Budgets, and gives a detailed explanation of Financial Management. It includes a glossary and bookkeeping tools.

» folder Download directly from the Library

What causes organizational conflict – and how we can best respond to resolve and transform problems?

Networklearning's Key Information Sheet, Conflict Matters (3-page PDF), is now available in Arabic.
» folder Download directly from the Library

Managing the money is a subject that anyone starting an NGO needs to grasp well. You need to be comfortable with accounting terminology and have confidence in the bookkeeping system you use.

Networklearning's new Beginner’s Guide to NGO Financial Capacity (31-page PDF) aims to make the learning curve easier – for all of us who don't have a financial background or higher education. It bundles together best practices and explains the necessary jargon in simple language, with examples, from the perspective of an NGO. By reading it and discussing its content with other colleagues, non-technical staff will be able to learn and master essential functions in financial management, including planning, control and supervision – laying the groundwork for success and sustainability.

» folder Download directly from the Library

We recently made a manual folder Finding Mental Health after Conflict , which focused on Developing Countries. Then we were contacted by a new colleague originally from Sudan, who was interested in working with us. Mubarak has gone through thirty years of asylum-seeking, living in camps, then adapting to life in the Netherlands. In consequence, he had already started on a manual for asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Europe. It contains information about the legislation that affects them and the issues – practical, psychological and cultural – with which they may have to deal. Primarily intended for people like himself from MENA, it is hoped it will be useful for refugees from other areas.

Now in both English and Arabic: folder Refugees from MENA to Northern Europe: Pressures & Solutions

As a side-product, Mubarak would like to put together a list of doctors and psychologists in Northern Europe who have the skills and knowledge really to help refugees. Do you know anybody good? If so, let us know.

Networklearning invites all its friends and colleagues to take a little time to think about their country and its children under the age of five.

Why? Because these little kids are the future of the nation. If they are not reaching their full potential, the whole country loses out.

» Read Maeve Moynihan's article:
Early Childhood Development: the critical factors

What is Advocacy and why is it important for such issues?

» Find out the 10 steps to success – in just 3 handy pages. Download Nicolien Wassenaar's new Key Information Sheet, folder KIS 4: Advocacy

» Also new in the Library:

Finding Mental Health after Conflict: This useful manual for anyone planning to help people who have been displaced or repressed is now available folder in Arabic , thanks to Elmubarak Eldaw (47 pages).

» Plus two new guest publications:

• We have the newest edition for job-seekers of A Guide to Voluntary and Humanitarian Work (164 pages), generously donated by Bryan Walker.
• And Bryan has also made available the 271-page heavyweight folder Structures for the Displaced: Service and Identity in Refugee Settlements by James Kennedy.

At Networklearning we have been watching events in the Middle East unfold over the last six months – a sometimes uplifting, sometimes sad story, with its ending still unclear.

But what shines out is that our sisters and brothers in the region are fighting for more democratic governance and more ability at the grass roots to influence events.

Our small contribution:

» New Arabic language edition of folder Interviewing and Counselling at the Grass roots .

» We also have an updated edition of folder An Introduction to Human Rights in the Middle East & North Africa – a Guide for NGOs available in both English and Arabic.

» For more Arabic language manuals and resources, see our Arabic page

Conflict. We come across it all the time – because it can occur whenever people disagree over their values, motivations, perceptions, ideas, needs, desires…

The good news is that engaging with conflict in a healthy way can help resolve intractable issues and clear the air. Our handy 3-page Key Information Sheet, Conflict Matters, clearly explains.

Another Key Information Sheet – on 'Networking' – has recently been translated into Arabic by our colleague Asmaa Gillespie.

> Networklearning's folder Key Information Sheets

Homosexuality is an issue with the potential to confuse or even provoke irrational response. Basic, clear information can help here, too. So we have produced a no-frills 12-page publication to give the straight folder Facts about Homosexuality .

We also welcome to our library the guest publication folder Better Ways to Stay Healthy in Asian Tropics , by our experienced colleague Bryan Walker.

If you work in a region where there has been periods of warfare, major displacement and/or huge repression, your workers have surely met people suffering from mental stress and other problems. Is this a good time to think of actively helping them, in a systematic and informed way? Our new manual   folder Finding Mental Health after Conflict (28 pp. PDF) can guide you with this work.

Two new Arabic titles: We now have Arabic language versions of folder An Introduction to Human Rights in the Middle East & North Africa – a Guide for NGOs (49 pp. PDF) as well as our popular title,  folder A Guide to Fundraising (10 pp. PDF).

• For more, see our manuals and resources in Arabic

Since our last announcement, we have also added a guest publication, the illustrated folder We can play and move: ideas to help disabled children learn to move through play .

We are pleased to announce the release of a new manual specifically designed to plug a gap – by helping NGOs in the Middle East and North Africa who want to do more in the field of Human Rights. A lot of consideration and cross-cultural consultation has gone into the making of folder An Introduction to Human Rights in the Middle East & North Africa – a Guide for NGOs .

Note, for slow internet connections, we recommend to download the smaller (1Mb) PDF rather than the Word doc. We're now have an Arabic language version of this title to join our growing list of manuals and resources in Arabic.

Games are a great way to get behaviour change. So we thought we'd breathe new life into an old favourite – folder Having Healthy Babies: an Educational "Snakes and Ladders" Game gets across the key messages via a colourful game board and question cards. Full supporting information and instructions included!

Finally, in case you didn't notice it slip into our library in the summer: we have a handy 17-page guide to folder Managing the Project Cycle .

Our brand new Organizational Management skills section gives the lowdown on all you need to know about running a good ship. Strategic planning… Human resource management… Office management… Financial management…

Our comprehensive manual for startups, How to Build a Good Small NGO, is now available in French ( folder Comment Construire une Bonne Petite ONG ).

Colleagues in the Arab world have carried out a study into issues and useful approaches in the field of Domestic Violence. You can read their report, folder Arabic domestic violence .

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The Networklearning website has been updated after a long period of behind-the-scenes redevelopment.

It is now in a new format, Joomla!. This will allow us to be more up-to-date and interact better. (On the other hand if you find any problems using the new site let us know!)

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Networklearning recently took the step to become a stichting – that is an officially registered body (in the Netherlands, where our core team is based) – with a written constitution: setting out our fundamental goals, the means we'll use to achieve them, and how our organisation will be managed.

We recently offered some printed materials to our registered users (the OXFAM Gender Training manual, Stepping Stones training package on HIV/AIDS, and a set of French flannelgraphs for health education). The three NGOs who received them were:

• CISS in Kisumu, Kenya, an NGO that works with communities, increasing their participation in the democratic process, in community-managed development etc.
• People in Need, An NGO in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka funded by the Czech Republic, working to rebuild physical and social structures after the Tsunami.
• The Pemba Island Relief Organisation (PIRO) Tanzania which has a small resource centre for local NGOs and supports CBOs working to strengthen Sexual Reproductive Health Information & Services.

Does your own NGO have materials that you really do not use? You could circulate a list to the members of NGO groups to which you belong, offering a loan or a swop. Unused Manuals and other materials are wasted resources.

We have created a single-page PDF to explain what we offer in a nutshell – feel free to pass on to colleagues or to print out and stick on a suitable noticeboard.
> Download from our networklearning profile page (the link to the PDF is in the panel on the right).

For organisations in the North with money who make good use of our publications, do consider making a donation via our new neat-looking 'widget', courtesy of Ammado. The donation widget appears on the license page when you click to download a manual from our library (or you can pay a visit to our Ammado profile page). We have tested the system thoroughly and it works really simply and correctly, with a wide range of payment methods from just 4 euros. We do rely entirely on donations to cover the costs involved in our work and will appreciate every one, however small.

Your NGO's website is the most important vehicle for presenting your work, not least to donors. It needs to do the job properly. For NGOs in the South who need help upgrading an existing website, we at networklearning now offer a Free Website Critique – in addition to Low-cost Website upgrade & Editing Services. For NGOs who have no budget for a site we also inform you how you can have a good, small website developed completely free of charge (via a partner organization), providing you can meet certain conditions.

» Networklearning Services

» Also see our short online guide to 'Setting up a website for your NGO'.

We are developing a new NGO field resource on our site, intended to help you consider how to make your NGO more 'environmentally friendly' – and get involved in areas of rapidly growing importance: tackling desertification, growing food organically, solar energy, bee-keeping…

We have already gathered some inspiring resources and you are invited to add your knowledge to this list.

» Our environment

We have received a paper on silicosis from Aung Ko Ko, now with UNDP in Myanmar (Burma) and with a background in Public Health. He reminds us of all the occupational diseases which continue to cripple and kill in the Developing Countries. The West had silicosis and other killers of the Industrial Revolution, illnesses like mill fever and phossy jaw that went away with Trades Unions and forward-thinking legislation, with laws and inspections and owners (occasionally) imprisoned. But for the workers of Myanmar still it goes on.

> Poverty & occupational health: Silicosis