Why did we take our children back to Sierra Leone Post-Ebola?

It was a huge decision to go as a family to Sierra Leone this year – we have two kids Alec (13) and Rosie (11).  This is not our first trip to this country with the charity Street Child, but the recent Ebola epidemic has made transport and the logistics associated with coming here so much more complex .

I am pleased that we were not afraid to come.  The very bloody civil war followed by the virus have left a legacy of despair that charities such as Street Child are addressing and helping to resolve and fix for the longer term. Taking our kids here has given them a life-changing experience.

I thought you might like to read about one of our most recent project visits.

Meet Abdul. He is 14 – the same age as my son, Alec. Abdul’s father recently died of Ebola and no one takes care of him.

And this Saidu: he is 10 and he grew up here.

This is their home and they sustain themselves from one day to the next by collecting tin cans.  They get paid 20p if they can find 1kg of tin cans. Amassing the quantities they need to get their 20p takes some time: it’s pretty busy here with thousands of families making a living off this rubbish dump, one of two in Freetown. They live amongst the pigs and the fires, the broken glass and rotting household waste.

Water is sold in plastic bags in Sierra Leone and they are indiscriminately discarded all over the country. But the families here can make money from them. If they can collect one of these huge 50k bags, they can sell it for 70,000 leone (£10).

Street Child is working to help kids who live on and alongside the tip and its reunifucation programme is lifting them out of poverty and getting them back in to school.

Bringing our children here was a good idea. Hopefully they will grow up and take on board some of the responsibility we all have to eradicate this sort of life for children like Abdul and Saidu across the world.

We pray that Ebola has gone and that the world will know that Sierra Leone is getting back on its feet.  Can you help us do more?

Visit our fund raising page www.ukvirginmoneygiving.com/bartvandervliet