Our next visit to Sierra Leone

We are planning to visit Freetown in March, flying out on Sunday 13th March and returning overnight on Sunday 20th March. The main aim of the visit is to encourage and support the community groups that were set up last year with the aim of teaching simple community health care and bringing about change in their communities. We do not expect that much change will have happened as initially many unexpected hurdles are likely to have been met. The past experience of Linden Boothby from Links International, who led the teaching last time, is that the second visit will be much more focused and beneficial.

A basic plan from our last visit. As you can see, this is very simple and therefore to take part you do not need any previous health experience. You can learn as we go along - we have a manual and medical professionals on the team. Also we shall try to visit the Mercy Ship, Africa Mercy, which will be moored a short distance away during the time we are in Kissy, Freetown.

On this visit we are also intending to introduce micro-enterprise to the community. Linden has shared on this topic in conjunction with community health. With better health, families are able to engage in simple income generating activities. We believe, with Links, that sustainable freedom from poverty is about giving people a hand up not a hand out. Micro-enterprise is one way we give a hand up.  Those in the field have found that money can be a touchy subject as aid agencies have instilled an attitude of dependency and presumed entitlement. The incentive to make things work has been lost.

Making benches for the New Era Schools in Looking Town, Freetown

My own interest in development began with the "Leg-up Fund" which I started with Christians in Action after my visit to Sierra Leone in 1990. The aim was similar. To give young people who had some training, for example in carpentry or tailoring, a "Leg-up" into their own business by providing the basic equipment to get started. Now we work by giving a small loan.

If you have an interest in health care or micro-enterprise and would like to join us, or simply a heart for the people of Sierra Leone and wish to explore your interest, please contact me, Ted, on tswindaleuk@yahoo.co.uk  I would love to get in touch with you.

Looking back at 2010

Team Visit to Freetown

We started 2010 with a team taking shape to visit Freetown in the first week in March to teach Community Health Care in partnership with Links International. Linden Boothby from Links had spent an orientation day with potential team members in December '09, and given us an exciting taste of what to expect.  The big problem for some was how to find the money. My nephew, Sam, decided to raise funds by doing something that would cost him dearly. Lose his hair! This gave him a financial base from which to come!

A supporter signing up!

Nearly finished, and our friendly hairdresser had done a good job.

The team consisted of eleven people and looking back I am amazed at how the organisation went so smoothly. Hotel bookings, the ferry and our mini-bus connections all went to plan. No small feat when our principal hotel never replied to e-mails, because they assumed that if we had applied for rooms we would turn up.

My abiding memories are of dust, heat and noise. Also of friendly people making the most, as far as they could, of very difficult situations. Ignorance is not bliss when you are faced with problems with your health, or that of a loved one, and there are simple solutions of which you are unaware. Sharing some of these was a delight to the team, and we hoped that the groups we left would have seen some positive results from their initial enthusiasm. However I hear that much of this has ended in disappointment and discouragement.

One of our groups with great ideas which may not all have worked; but these can be rekindled when a team returns in March 2011. A rather messy situation is common after a first visit and the second visit is valuable as what went wrong is examined and solutions suggested for initial problems.

We are pleased to have contributed to building the walls of the new classroom block, which will also house a clinic to help raise the health of the community.


Visit of an old friend to Derby
For me personally it was great to be able to host an old friend, Siaka Charles, on his brief visit to Derby.

Siaka Charles examining a plant on a farm at Sembehun Kokofele near Bo that he was showing me around in 1992.    He was the Development Officer for Christians in Action Churches in Sierra Leone in my early involvement in Sierra Leone and we set up a "Leg-up" scheme to help young people into work after they had completed training. The aim was to buy a sewing materials for a tailor or basic tools for a carpenter. Soon this became a tailoring project to teach skills, and I had the pleasure of presenting certificates to the first graduates from the scheme in 1994. He retains his vision for improving the lives of his countrymen through increasing their skills and income generation. It was encouraging to know that some of those who passed through the tailoring project, which closed in the civil war years, are still benefiting from it today. 

The Sierra Leone Association (Nottingham Branch)

I have known members of the Association for over 20 years, and attended meetings on a fairly irregular basis ever since. I have greatly enjoyed the friendship, advice and encouragement that I have received, not to mention the delicious food that is usually served at the end of the meetings.  This year the Association has been looking at its role in today's world and had a day in July to start to examine this, which I was privileged to attend.

As a result, the Association is reviewing its support of a number of projects in Sierra Leone, and examining its fund raising and publicity. A number of younger members, including Nigel Morgan (pictured), are taking the lead in looking at the use of the internet for communication and a new impetus has been generated. We are grateful to the Association for their support and encouragement of our work.

Nehemiah Project

In October the Association hosted an evening to meet two young men from the Nehemiah Project in Freetown, which seeks to help and rehabilitate boy who were recruited as child soldiers during the civil war.

Philemon (left) and William Philemon was 8 years old when taken away by the rebels. As a small boy he was often used as a look-out and saw many of the atrocities that were committed by the rebels. William was taken at a similar age after his Father had been shot by the rebels, as he worked for the government. Both had suffered injury and torture after their capture by ECOMOG troops at the end of the fighting.
The speakers had come through the recovery process and were now leaders in the project looking after 47 boys. It was wonderful to see how the grace of God was healing the lads after the terrible situations that they had been through.

The loss of Richard Hubbard

Rich Hubbard, the Chief Executive of our partner, Links International, died on the 25th August after a battle with cancer. I had only known him a short time and met him on just three occasions. I am grateful to him because he made the time to see me, to listen to my concerns and to give me advice from his fund of knowledge. He knew he was doing the job that God had called him to. I felt his vision was a larger version of mine. I had hoped to learn more from him in the future, but it was not to be. However the relationship birthed our present partnership with Links, and for that I am very grateful.

I did not know of his earlier ministry to children, his writing of songs or anything of his leadership role in his local church. Many others have benefitted from all that, but I am thankful to God for what I did receive. To read more about the richness of his life, and the impact he had on others, please go to
http://www.richhubbard.co.uk/



A Healthy and Prosperous 2011 to all our Readers.

In the UK we are looking forward to a film due to be released on the 7th January called "The King's Speech".   It is about King George VI who suddenly became King when his brother, Edward, abdicated the throne to marry a twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson, in December 1936. England was on the brink of war and the new King had to overcome his stammer to deliver a radio address to rally the nation.

                                                           Colin Firth as King George VI



King George VI in his Christmas Day broadcast in 1939, four months after the start of World War II, ended by quoting this poem by Minnie Haskins (1875-1957).

"I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown" and he replied "Go out into the darkness and put your hand in the hand of God. That shall be better to you than a light and safer than a known way."


At that time, Freetown was a major naval base and sent troops to fight for the Allied cause, but no-one knew what the outcome of the war would be.

I came across a blog setting out some New Year Wishes for "Mama Salone" from an author living in the country called "Edenliving".  Those of us who know the place would echo them, though not necessarily put them in the same order.
a)  Electricity on continuously all the time.
b)  Cleaner streets. In the area in Looking Town where we work, the rubbish lying around is appalling.
c)  Cleaner Lumley Beach. The article mentions needles and broken bottles, although this was not our experience on our visit. However the area should be a major tourist attraction.
d and e) Better roads and better health care. We hope we are doing a little bit towards the latter!
f) More professional businesses. We have been looking at setting up an Internet Cafe. Will it ever happen?

g) Last but not least - that all Sierra Leoneans here and abroad will rise up and be proud of their country.

 

But where do we fit in? What contribution can we make? Just over a week ago we were remembering the birth of Jesus Christ.   Jesus said, '...for this reason I was born...' (John 18:37 NIV).   My wish for all readers of this blog, as well as for those living in Sierra Leone or visiting, is that we all might know the reason for which we were born. That will be different for each of us, and we may have to overcome many obstacles, but the search will lead to safety, joy and the power to overcome as we find the will of God for our life. We must work with God to create a stable society or country, "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain." Psalm 127. v1.