The only way is up

We have eleven people in Sierra Leone during the first week in March to undertake Community Healthcare teaching. The first task will be to meet with the local community in Looking Town on the outskirts of Freetown.  What will their leaders and influential people in the area see as the most pressing health needs?  Linden Boothby, who is leading the training, was in Tanzania last December.  She described her first meeting there.    "We started this session carefully feeling our way, being very sensitive to local issues and local culture. “What makes you feel unhappy when you wake in the morning”, we asked and out it all poured! Relationship breakdown, wife beating, unfaithfulness, children dying, female circumcision, child marriages, HIV/AIDS, diarrhoea, alcoholism, malnutrition and so much more. When the group prioritised the issues, it clearly showed that they wanted us to start teaching on Family Matters, e.g. wife beating, unfaithfulness, HIV/AIDS."
 But it could be quite different in Sierra Leone. We must wait and see what issues we shall tackle together.



Did you note how this video ends?  What did the lady want? Good health, safe water, shelter, the right to life. "We are dying because of lack of knowledge, because we are poor and because no one is hearing our stories."
Together we can make a difference!

The world is currently concerned with the terrible situation in Haiti. Money is pouring into that nation. This follows a familiar pattern as the spotlight of publicity moves around the world from one disaster to another. At one time, just after the end of the civil war, it fell upon Sierra Leone. But it has covered famine in Ethiopia, the aftermath of the war in Bosnia, the plight of those areas affected by the 2004 Tsunami, the flooding in New Orleans, refugees in Rwanda and Burundi - the list goes on. This is much needed relief work and aid. At the same time there is work growing slowly over the years which escapes the spotlight, but over time can effect radical change. This is how we work with our Partners in Sierra Leone. We seek to care for the carers, the teachers, leaders and influencers who are making a real difference in their community. With better health they have more chance of making a sustainable living and a brighter future.  Please support us in prayer. If you wish to be considered to join a team in the future, or  you wish to support the work financially, please contact tswindaleuk@yahoo.co.uk for more details.