Alris - now fully qualified as a doctor.

One of the most touching moments of the trip was the meeting between Ruth McArthur and Alris. Ruth has spent many years supporting Alris through secondary school and then university, as he pursued his ambition to be a doctor. They had never met. Awaiting his final results he made the journey from his work in 91 Mile to Freetown to see her and arrived just as the groups were starting to present their plans. I felt heaven was coming to earth.

Alris and Ruth

Ruth received an e-mail from him today, 25 March, to say he had passed all his exams. and is now fully qualified.

The Community Healthcare Initiative

This is the road up to the Looking Town School where we were to have our first meeting with the leaders and influencers from local schools, churches and mosques, the community elders and healthcare professionals. Note the rubbish at the side of the road, a continual problem.

At the school we were welcomed by the children on our first day, Monday afternoon.

A Greeting from the children

The rest of the week the whole school was practicing at the Field where the Sports Day would be held on the Friday. The teaching and discussions on health lasted for three days after the first session.

After a brief introduction from Linden, charts were put up listing the various concerns of those present. They can be seen around the corner of the room in the photograph.

Linden addressing the delegates.

Participants were asked to put a dot in the section they wished to see discussed. Healthcare came top with 30 voting for it. In my group we started to discuss malaria, high blood pressure and anaemia. It was interesting to find that in a number of groups eating too many oranges was seen as a cause of malaria. Someone had presumeably caught malaria just after eating a lot of oranges, put 2 and 2 together and made 29. The word had spread.

High blood pressure was often seen as a result of stress, and poverty and the aftermath of the civil war had given many opportunities for stress to take over. Explaining to the imam of a local mosque how to overcome problems in his congregation using Christian principles was an unusual experience, and showed that in this area the two religions are able to work well together.

Anne-Marie Gunter handing out name labels in the group she lead with physcologist Richard Lansdall-Welfare and Ted Swindale

                              Dr. Margaret Lansdall-Welfare (R) and Grace Swindale lead a group

L to R, Susie Marshall, Ruth McArthur and Samuel Warwick with their group and below is a group photo.

This group, Action for Health, came up with a plan.

They all received a certificate for completing the course, and here their spokesman, Nabieu Sesay, is receiving his reward from Ted Swindale. He had made an excellent Presentation, and we look forward to seeing how the plan has progressed on our next visit.

The first presentation was by Alfred Fogbawa, who gave a confident report of the plans for the future that were decided by the group with Sarah Frost.

What really happened, "Cry Freetown"

I have hesitated a long time before publishing this item.  On our recent visit, one of our party who has visited many African countries, believed that Sierra Leone was different. She felt there was a spirit of anger just below the surface. This was confirmed by a man who runs a security company in the country. In seeking to minister to people, we couldn't escape the immense traumas they have gone through during the civil war, relatives killed or gone missing, homes and businesses destroyed. There is a film which tells of the days of the rebel attack on Freetown, called "Cry Freetown" by Sorious Samura. It is graphic. Maybe you should not watch it.

Sorious Samura was born in 1964 and is a Sierra Leonean journalist. He attended the Methodist Boys High School where we held the Sports Day, and self-funded the film "Cry Freetown", which depicts the most brutal period of the civil war in Sierra Leone when the RUF rebels captured much of the capital city on 6th January 1999. The film has won both Bafta and Emmy awards, and is credited with bringing the brutal nature of the war to world attention.

It was first shown on Channel 4 on 13th January 2000, a year after the events took place, under the title "Out of Africa", and showed graphic evidence of the atrocities being committed in Sierra Leone by both the rebels and  the Nigerian troops who, with the support of the West, were nominally acting as "peacekeepers". It was made before the decisive British intervention which brought the war to an end.

TV executives were concerned that the pictures - including executions of civilians, and soldiers beating a young boy - were "too shocking".

Ron McCullagh, who directed Samura's documentary, believes that television news treads a fine line between showing what is really going on and exposing its audience to unnecessary horrors. "It's reasonable to want to protect the audience but it can take us in a direction we don't want to go," he says, "Slowly, involuntarily, we'll end up with a sanitised version of history."

When it comes to Sierra Leone he argues that the barbarity there was "so extraordinary that people needed to see it to know what has been happening".

Martin Bell, who was a year ahead of me at the Leys School in Cambridge, had been a TV war reporter himself and  MP for Tatton when he wrote to Mr. McCullagh a fortnight after the film was shown.  "I wish to congratulate you on your film 'Out of Africa' and for your achievement in raising the important issue of truth in TV."

So watch it, if you think you should. Not comfortable, but it can help us to understand the trauma that so many still bear.

Part 1

 
Part 2


Part 3

Sports Day - the Marathon

Sports Day is one of the highlights of the school year, and was moved three weeks earlier than scheduled so that we could be present.

The marathon for us was to sit for six hours in the boiling sun. Overall though a great experience, much mingling with a crowd of parents, pupils and many local youths in the grounds of the Methodist Boys High School in Kissy.

Grace and I were supporting Swindale House (Red), and were joined in this by Sarah Frost and Andy Meek. Swindale House came third out of four in the overall results. Alpha House (Yellow) came last. No fixing of the result by the establishment on this occasion!

Lined up to sing the Sierra Leone National Anthem. A stirring tune, listen here:

The opening march past was very impressive and several people on the team commented that it was amazing that one Derby Church was contributing to the education of so many youngsters. Actually we were not, but we did not know this at the time!

Swindale House (Red), motto "We lead others follow" is leading the procession, followed by Valcacell

(Blue) "Victory is our aim" and Alpha House (Yellow) "With God all things are possible". Bringing up the rear, but out of the photo is Miezal House (Green) "In God we trust". They were the winners on the day!

Sarah Frost talking to some competitors.

We started off with seats in the shade, but later moved to the other end of the field to watch the ceremony of the African Queens. Each house was judged on how well they presented an 'African Queen' and her attendants in traditional dress.

If you favoured a particular 'Queen' you could put money in her bowl!

At the end of the day came the presentation of prizes. As the distinguished guest who had consented to distribute the trophies, Councilor Abdul Salam Kanu, was unable to be present - a substitute had to be found.

Fond memories of Swindale House. Hope you all do better next year!

Lumley Beach

5 kms of beach on the West side of Freetown. Almost deserted, with a road running along its length and several restaurants and bars. After looking at the centre of Freetown, some of us had a paddle, a stroll on the beach and an enjoyable meal - which came to over one million Leones for 14 people! Le1million is around £172.  This is what it looks like!

For some of the food we had, see next blog.

The beach

Looking towards Cape Sierra

Favourite memories and impressions

This is the end of what I was wanting to say, so if you are reading from the top, it should be in the right order.

Favourite memory is the culmination of the healthcare teaching, when the groups were about to start their presentations. They were all enthusiastic and this made it very exciting and worthwhile. Just at this moment there was a cry of, "there's someone from 91 Mile". I just knew it must be Alris. I had last seen him as a small boy coming in from school about twenty years ago. Didn't have much to do with him since, but Ruth had. She had supported him through school and university, but they had never met. She wasn't sure if they were going to meet this time, and there had been rumours that he had not spent the money on medical education but on a drug fuelled lifestyle. But here he was, and just about to qualify as a doctor. I began to see that heaven really was coming to earth.

Alris and Ruth

A great team. When you advertise a trip like this, you don't know who will come. We had a great combination of people, who got on very well and went out of their way to help each other. There were people with strong medical knowledge and experience sharing with those of us who were limited in our understanding.

Linden. Even with this group, she managed to look calm and collected at all times and was the inspiration behind all we were doing. Her insights as to the way forward have already been invaluable to myself as well as the leaders out there.

Linden sharing her observations with (R to L) Samuel, Alpha and Ted

Family.  Great to have my daughter, Grace, and nephew, Samuel with me. Even better that they both loved it and want to come back as soon as practicable. Both have skills and personalities that God will use in the future. So proud of the pair of them.

Grace, with Sarah Frost behind her, wearing Swindale House colours (red) and surrounded by children. In her element! Has a lot she can share with the young girls.

Sam enjoying his first lobster at restaurant on Lumley Beach. It was on 6th March, camera date is wrong.

Sam had a great time, and contributed leadership, enthusiasm and a measure of understanding to the team. He was asking the right questions and picked up important points!

Which brings me on to another memory - Food.  The sea food we had was fantastic. The tourist trade could be built on this!

Also at Lumley Beach I had this great prawns in garlic sauce dish. Maybe not everyone's taste, but I loved it. Also liked the local soft drink, Maltina, but failed to make any converts.

Finally I was pleased to see how the leadership and the people were very happy to accept practical teaching with outcomes that they could continue to work on. This will become the norm in the future I am sure.

Home - Safe and Sound!

It's all over until the next time! Eleven tired team members arrived back at Heathrow last Monday morning 8th March. It had been a great experience for all of us. Ten had been to Sierra Leone for the first time, many will want to go back.

This is a good time to meet them.

Front. L to R.  Sarah Frost (Paediatrician), Ruth McArthur (former teacher),Anne-Marie Gunter (Civil Servant), Grace Swindale (Health & Social Care Student, UCLAN), Linden Boothby (Healthcare Leader from Links International), Margaret Lansdall-Welfare (G.P. in Nottingham), Richard Lansdall-Welfare (Psychologist in Nottingham) Pastor Samuel Kargbo (NEEDEP P:rogramme Director)

Back: L to R: Albert Lebbie (NEEDEP Treasurer), Ted Swindale (NEEDEP Co-ordinator UK),

Alpha Kargbo (NEEDEP Development and Education Director), Andy Meek (Systems Analyst RR)

Suzie Marshall (Nurse, Derby Royal Hospital), Samuel Warwick (Healthcare Assistant DRH).