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/