My 8-day stay with Janice and Peter seemed a fitting culmination of my time in Edinburgh as it immediately preceded the start of my own 3-month training period as a mission partner with the Methodist Church. In time I will be serving in Fiji, thousands of miles away in the south Pacific, and quite distant from Sierra Leone in many respects, not just in terms of mileage.
My visit to this particular part of west Africa was a catch-up time with my hospitable hosts but it was also an excellent opportunity to see seasoned mission partners in-situ and ‘in action’. Inevitably Janice and Peter had arranged a full programme.
What follows are only a few of the many examples of projects and support groups that I was shown, where people, having seen a need, were responding whole-heartedly and in a positive and timely (sometimes far-sighted) way for the good of local communities. All the ventures aimed to provide participants with relevant skills and newfound confidence in their own self-worth.
HIV-AIDS Support Group, Wellington: I was fortunate to co-incide my visit with the once-a-month meeting of the HIV-AIDS support group, held in the nearby town of Wellington. Around 120 people were in attendance, drawn from both the Christian and Muslim communities of the wider Freetown area. The group had been in existence for some time, and Hawa, the project manager, took great delight in accounting how the group had visibly gelled and gained in confidence as a community over that time.
In recent months, Janice has been busy co-ordinating a two-week long adult-literacy programme to train suitably educated group members as teachers. The vast majority of attendees at the HIV-AIDS support group are not able to read and write and each month sign for travel expenses with a thumb print. The adult literacy training programme will be held during the latter half of July and letters offering a potential trainee placement on the programme were handed out at the meeting to those deemed suitably qualified. Recipients of these letters proudly read and re-read them, and stated that their potential acceptance on the course was ‘very good news’ indeed.
While Janice had secured money for the training programme, the ensuing three-year adult-literacy teaching programme still requires financial support. Unfortunately, while I was there, we heard that they had been unsuccessful in obtaining funding from Feed the Minds for the teaching stage. Janice, having ‘seen the need’, is determined to follow-up other funding opportunities.
Let’s pray that the necessary funding will be secured.
MC Women’s Skills Development Centre, Freetown: Freetown is the home of the women’s training and skills project of the MCSL. Over a two-year period, young women are trained in the art of gara (tie-dying) and taught other needle-craft skills. They are also given access to basic education. Our visit co-incided with a group of 15-year olds just completing their First Year exams. On the classroom board was information related to that day’s lesson: the methods of transmitting the HIV-AIDS virus.
Elizabeth, the co-ordinator, showed the types of products the girls made (bedspreads, table clothes, aprons etc.), and explained that when they arrived the girls often had behavioural problems, though she said that that ‘was to be expected’. The group we encountered were impeccably well behaved, though a little shy at having their photo taken.
The need for a Women’s Development Centre in Freetown is on-going, and the project continues to expand; across from our classroom, the walls of a new classroom were nearing completion.
Let’s pray for the successful expansion of the Centre’s facilities.
Craftshare Technical Vocational Centre, Bo: Craftshare is located on the outskirts of Bo, Sierra Leone’s second city. Rev. Patrick, the head of the Centre, showed us around the site in the pouring rain. The timetable in the staff room gave an indication of the subjects taught: numeracy; literacy; masonry practical and theory; carpentry theory and practical; business management; tailoring (cutting and sewing); designing; cloth weaving; soap making; counselling (HIV-AIDS) and catering. Unfortunately, our visit was too early in the morning for us to sample the bread rolls from their newly-constructed bakery.
Instead we were shown inside each of the classrooms. Most of the rooms were self-explanatory, though owing to the rain, some of them were being used as temporary dry stores for the Centre’s newly-produced bricks. Student numbers were fewer that morning than usual because of the difficulty in accessing the Centre in the wet weather. When we were shown the cloth weaving room only one lone student was skilfully working the loom; it had to be pointed out to us that she was blind.
It was still raining when we left the Centre, forcing us to hurriedly tip-toe our way around deep, muddy potholes to our car. At that moment another blind student arrived on-foot and unaccompanied. He was drenched to the skin and must have walked unaided a considerable distance, somehow negotiating the atrocious road conditions to get to his class.
Let’s pray for the continued commitment of both Craftshare staff and students.
Seeing a need… Julia Edwards
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