Our blog from Sierra Leone – May 2014
With huge excitement we set off on our third family trip to Sierra Leone just over a week ago. As we came into land, I gazed over the lush green vegetation and iron ore rich red soil, feeling a bit like we were coming home and pleased to be back to see the work of Street Child and reconnect with our local friends.
Since we had only flown in to Freetown the night before the Sierra Leone Marathon 2014, it was a ‘quick’ 2.5hr dash to the mining town of Makeni, where Street Child first began in 2008. Most of Sierra Leone lives in conditions probably similar to those of the 14th Century; no electricity, no sanitation or running water. It was nevertheless remarkable to see how much new development and change we could see, new roads and construction projects were more abundant than ever before – a sure sign that this country is beginning to emerge out of one of the world’s most brutal civil wars.
The Investment Quorum Running team set off at 6 am, starting with our 2 marathon runners, Bart and Nick, followed up a little while later with myself, doing the 10km, and my two kids, Alec and Rosie doing 5km each.
The terrain was rough and the sun was coming up and, of course, it would be one of the hottest days of the year. Whilst there was thankfully no downpour, the humidity had reached 85% by 8 am. It was sticky and hot.
The kids managed to sprint the 5km distance with minimal effort and I went round one more time! We all finished at the Wusum Stadium in the heart of Makeni in front of a huge crowd of locals and Street Child staff. With the music booming in our ears, I finally limped over the finish line, into the elegant arms of Edward Creasy.
The coffee was flowing and it soon seemed appropriate for my first cold Star beer of the day. Come on – my hard work was done and all I had to do now was to wait for the boys to come home.
Finally, a couple of hours later, over the brow of the hill, into the stadium came Nick Rolf, shortly followed by Bart and of course, the Sierra Leone poster boy – Josh Ord-Hume! They collapsed over the finish line stating that it was the hardest race of their lives. They were literally pouring with sweat and we tipped bottles of cold water over their heads. What an achievement to run 42km in that heat and humidity.
The following day we started the first of our local project visits. I have been collecting goods from friends and family over the last 8 months and we tipped that pile of bags into the car of our trusted driver, Armani. First stop – Mugbaraka – a provincial town about 30 minutes from Makeni. This project is very special to me, particularly, as an independent working woman with a 10 year old daughter. When I came to see this project last year it broke my heart. There was a nervous speech given by a young girl no more than 14 or 15. It was really harrowing to hear that these young girls, from the age of 11 are being ejected from their family networks due to poverty and, unbelievably, ugliness, to fend for themselves. They needed basic toiletries, like soap and food to live and all they wanted was to stay in school. In these very poor communities, there is little else but turn to sex to make money. I was told that they sell their young, extremely vulnerable bodies for about 5,000 Leone – that’s 90p to you and me. Often they are pimped out of school during breaks to deliver a ‘favour’, it’s simply to horrendous to contemplate.
This year, with much help from my friends over Facebook we managed to take with us over 25kgs of miniature toiletries – shampoos, soaps, shower hats, creams – nothing that they had seen before. In fact, items some of them didn’t even know what they were. Quite funny explaining to a little girl that one of the little bottles in her hand was shaving cream! Didn’t matter – she wasn’t letting go of this precious little gift. Thanks again to my friends I also asked people to collect first bra tops, items that might give these girls a little bit of modesty under their scraps of clothes. The answer is not charity and gifts, I know that and you know that, but we can create awareness and maybe it’s possible that this story just might inspire more people to give more regularly to support these amazing projects. We need to get these girls and these kids into the Street Child programmes, back into their families and back into school so they can have the same independent lives as my daughter Rosie and I. We can give them hope and the start of a real future.
After a couple of days of rest on the beach, and following an arduous yoga session, given by a former child soldier, our second big project was to visit the two primary schools in Tokeh. Tokeh must be one of the most beautiful places in the world – it’s utterly breath-taking. With a new hotel recently built on the beach, the closest to five star luxury that Sierra Leone has ever seen, Tokeh village sits slightly behind, a small third world fishing community. It’s the most extreme of comparisons.
We have had two wonderful holidays here, playing football on the beach as the sun sets with tons of kids and this time we wanted to give something back. The saddest thing is that the football kits, boots, socks, gloves, pens etc. that we collected for this trip couldn’t always be donated directly to the schools. After all this is Africa, conditions are tough and if you want to reach certain individuals you have to go right in and get hot! It took some sorting on the beach to divide the goods between the two schools but by 10 am we were ready.
Bart, Alec, Rosie, Zoe, Nicole, Josh and myself ventured into the village to deliver our goods to the schools. We managed to give a pen, pencil and packet of biscuits to 800 primary school kids in 2 hours – in bright hot sunshine. It was hard work, sweat poured down our faces. We gave over 180 nursery age kids a little cuddly toy each. From each class 1 – 6 in both primary schools we gave out each of the top five boys and top 5 girls a piece of football kids, more pens and rulers, footballs, football boots, everything that was so kindly donated through friends. These kids hadn’t seen anything like it.
It was harrowing, fun, hot and hard work. What our kids have and these kids have cannot really be defined but we did make a small difference.
This is not the answer – giving makes us all feel that bit better about ourselves. We hate the waste of clothes, shoes and food in the UK – this was a chance for us to do something and they were so grateful for your generosity.
If you feel that you want to support Street Child more please visit our fund raising page. Street Child still has a precious few more days before UK Aid Match stops. Until next week £10 become £20 with UK Aid Match and Gift Aid – that sends a child to school for a year. That changes a life.
Are you ready to come on board on this amazing journey?
Uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/IQ
petronellawest.com 
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