What some of the team thought of their visit!

A team of ten from the Derby and Nottingham area met Linden Boothby at Heathrow for a visit to Sierra Leone from 28th February to 7th March 2010.

The English Group was varied, four different denominations, ages from 18 to 70, medical and non-medical backgrounds. None had visited Sierra Leone before except team leader, Ted Swindale, who had known Alpha Kargbo in Freetown for 22 years and worked with the New Era Evangelism and Development Programme since 1999.

The Sierra Leone Group who took part were from a wide section of society - Male and Female, Christian and Muslim, Pastor and Imam, Western influenced health workers and Traditional Healers.

This made for an interesting time in Looking Town, a deprived area of Freetown in a country which is currently 180 out of 182 on the UN Human Development Index, just ahead of Afghanistan and Niger. Not a good place to be and still suffering from the effects of the civil war, which devastated this area.


After Linden had explained the aims of our time together and those taking part had identified their most pressing health problems, we split into four groups - sharing the health professionals (three doctors and two nurses) among them. Feed back from the those who went has been encouraging.

What did they most enjoy about the trip?

Two Doctors: “Being in small groups, getting to know people. Team
discussions. Watching Linden at work - very inspiring lady.”

“Meeting the Sierra Leoneans in the groups. Seeing all the children at the Sports Day”

Former Teacher “Visiting Africa for the first time. The work the team did - the stance that was taken i.e. local people to take ownership. The people I met”

Nurse “Meeting the locals. The satisfaction of seeing the action plans - they actually learnt from us.”

Psychiatrist “Meeting the people. Their local situation. Making relationships. Support of whole group.”

Business analyst: “Exposure to vastly different culture”.

Young Man 18yrs “The food was delicious. I enjoyed meeting locals and the teaching itself. Visiting the beach was very good.”

In Freetown the four groups are now meeting together and number about 40 in total. Their enthusiasm is keeping up and we look to see results on our next visit.

Since returning to the UK the group have kept in touch and further links with medical workers in Sierra Leone are being forged. Margaret Abbott, a GP and aided by her son who is doing a Graphic Design
degree, is creating a small colourful stand-alone flipchart (small enough to go in a suitcase) with basic healthcare messages.

Out of the ten who went, eight want to go back and the other two “might”. Something has started that is continuing with enthusiasm.

Thank you Linden and Links!