Dear Friends of children,
Welcome to ChildHelp Sierra Leone.
The children …our future – My Child 2010 Campaign.
This moment, feel free to read and give your comment and what you feel should be done to meet the need of the children and have gender equality in our world. We are on 2015 Countdown campaign - as an action to move towards the Millennium Development Goals – MDGs. After several conferences including the 4th and 5th Pan Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning in Jamaica and UK, The Geneva Health Forum in Switzerland, and the Aid Effectiveness Forum recently in Ghana, we see the need to help our children live better lives.
The MDGs are accepted as the international framework for development until 2015. 8 (eight) of these MDGs have gender-quality dimensions. It is clear that at least 6 (six) of them cannot be achieved without integrating a gender perspective. ChildHelp is focusing more on girls than boys.
Girls face isolation and a sense of powerlessness all over the world today particularly in Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone economies, girls are physically isolated in their homes, by virtue of their role in domestic labour, and frequently emotionally isolated by silence – not just their own silence, but their communities' silence towards early marriage, early childbirth, sexual violence, HIV/AIDS and other results of girls' social and economic vulnerability. In the provinces in Sierra Leone girls are seriously affected.
Against these twin realities of isolation and silence, ChildHelp seeks to stimulate, fortify and ultimately combine two equally potent forces, providing supports and promotions, education and training, mentoring and financial assistance to build their critical social capital as they envision better futures and start down brave paths towards those new destinations.
ChildHelp believes the result will not only improve girls' lives, but could subtly undermine dominant power paradigms, creating an environment of combustion and social change. If girls are given the right tools, in the right way, they can unleash their own power.
ChildHelp Sierra Leone is implementing these projects as follows:
a) Child Sponsorship
b) Water and Sanitation
c) Information Communication and Technologies
d) Micro-Enterprise Facilities
e) Relief Assistance
f) Adolescent Girls 2009 Conference
PROJECT NEED AREAS
a. Child Sponsorship:
To sponsor 120 orphan and destitute girl-children who will be attending or entering primary school this in the next coming September 2009. Our rural children are suffering in their communities. Getting a meal per day is difficult. They go to school on barefoot without uniforms, writing materials and lunch. Some walk far away to school with hungry. The girl-children dropout of school, when their parents force them to early marriage, genital mutilation, street begging, forced sex, child labour and farming whilst the male-children continue their schooling.
This year over 2,000 girls would not attend primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the Bombali district of the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. This will be due to lack of poor parental background, families in problems, forced early marriages, harmful traditional practices, powerlessness, isolation, marginalizing, high social risks, commercial sex trade, etc. In this identified areas, many parents believes to give their girl-children as commodity, for early marriages which can benefit and profit them whiles some are used for trade purpose to upkeep the homes.
Investing in orphans and destitute are great. Sponsoring and caring for a child saves life. Your money will be used on school charges/fees, uniforms, books, backpacks, bicycle, Medicare, etc. Any amount of money can help a child get access to education, food and health. Sponsors will be sent a case history, a photo of the child, and needs.
In Canada, you can contact Theresa Black at or and in Sierra Leone
SPONSOR A CHILD – SAVE A LIFE TODAY!
b. Water and Sanitation
To repair 150 water wells than to construct new ones. Hundreds of water wells a with hand pumps are not functioning for over 3 – 8 years. It is better to repair which cost less than a thousand dollars than to construct new one. This money can be used to buy a hand pump or items needed to repair the hand pump and wells.
ChildHelp can drill a well using its manual drilling equipment for USD $ 2000 to drill a well in a village. Many villages suffering for water need a well. If there is good, clean and safe water, the community will live for more years. Each time each well is repaired or a well is drilled, the community and school within those environments get a 3 – 6 days training in Participatory Hygiene Education.
c. Information Communication and Technologies
500 young girls drop-out of school should be trained in Information Communication and Technologies to bridge the international digital divide and have more information needed to be agents of socio-economic change. ChildHelp will use ICT activity to help children gain access to education and communication. Through this ICT, children will be recruited and be given non-formal education on weekends or through the radio, mobile SMS service, and other related medium of training.
Connecting girls in Sierra Leone, outside the confines of their homes and community norms gives them power and give girls places to express their concerns and aspirations. Adolescent girls can be consistently early adopters and (as their parents would say) obsessively users of on-line tools. ChildHelp believe there is an underlying truth: girls want to connect with each other, and when they do, their lives are transformed. ChildHelp believes the result will not only improve girls' lives, but could subtly undermine dominant power paradigms, creating an environment of combustion and social change. If girls are given the right tools, in the right way, they can unleash their own power.
d. Micro-Enterprise Facilities
250 registered adolescent girl's drop-outs out of school need training and Micro-Enterprise facility. Among a new wave of approaches to reducing poverty are economic solutions that value people, their skills and roles, in different ways. This will be done through micro-credit, helping to build a case for commercial application and large-scale investment that can bring about lasting change. ChildHelp believes credit facilities can help contribute to a broader reduction in poverty by addressing the specific risks and vulnerability faced by those who are disadvantaged. Although they are in great need of affordable micro-credit supports, the lack of training facility and business skills to undertake such activity. In this rural zone, typical risks that deepen or cause poverty include disease and disability, crop failure, funeral expenses, loss of property during these 11 years of war, and premature death of the household income earner. Absent other alternatives, girls themselves become the default credit policy for the household. With limited other means of reducing risks, many families resort to pulling girls out of school when crisis arise to supplement household income or to care for family members. Filling this role places a disproportionate burden on girls, limiting their opportunities and ultimately reducing their prospects of fulfilling their potential.
We believe the impact of this disproportionate burden can change by making micro-enterprise accessible and affordable. Through such facility, families will have the possibility to better manage emergencies and cope with frequent and costly economic shocks. ChildHelp acknowledge that this not easy. Developing market-based, sustainable credit facilities for the poor is challenging. Barriers include difficulties in obtaining information related to eligibility and appropriate use of services, high transaction and administrative costs, low illiteracy levels, the need for intense, complex marketing and communication strategies, and difficulties in enforcing policy regulations and paying out benefits efficiently. Despite these challenges, the micro-credit activity within this UPAG project will deliver a number of innovative solutions, offering an array of services to the disadvantaged. While promising, few of these ventures are actively targeting girls or measuring the reach and impact of micro-credit effects on girls.
e. Relief Assistance
Below is need items/things for orphan and destitute children in the rural Bombali district.
Orphanage, School,
Feeding programs for neighbourhood children,
Educational program for neighbourhood children.
Food – rice, bulgur, CSB, vegetable oil, protein etc
Clothing - New or Used Clothing (must be in good condition!)
•Infant's, children's and youth's work clothes are needed most
•Shoes & shoestrings (especially children's and shoes for youths)
•Undergarments and socks for children and youths
•Winter clothing (caps, coats, gloves, mittens, scarves, sweaters, etc.)
•Towels and blankets and bed sheets
Drug Store items (almost any non-prescription item you can buy)
•Hygiene kits, shampoo, sanitary products for women
•Medicine cabinet supplies, toothbrushes & toothpaste
•Aspirin, acetaminophen (especially children's strength), Ibuprofen
•Children's vitamins, liquid or chewable
•Cough & cold preparations & over-the-counter medicine
Medical Equipment and Supplies
•Bandages, tapes, sponges, & thermometers
•Bed and bath linens, sheets (adult and crib sizes)
•Blankets and quilts (all sizes)
•Disinfectants (Lysol, etc.)
•Disposable gowns, gloves, & syringes with needles
•Hospital beds (hand-crank type, with vinyl mattresses only)
•"I. V." Systems and catheters
•Prostheses, especially legs
•Walkers, wheel chairs, crutches and canes
Infant supplies
•Baby formula (powdered, especially soybean)
•Cloth diapers, Layettes & Soft toys
Study books
Stationary
Arts supplies
School Supplies
•Backpacks (New or used, student sizes) and Soccer Balls
•Balloons, coloring books, crayons, chalk, watercolors and brushes
•Ball-point pens, new pencils, writing paper & notebooks
Bicycles- for those far away from school areas
f. Adolescent Conference 2009
This conference is one in a series of activities that ChildHelp Sierra Leone has undertaken in an effort to safeguard the rights of adolescent girls and move the issue up the political agenda. Sierra Leone recently passed the 3 Gender Acts into law that targets all forms of violence against women. ChildHelp is inviting interested people to take part in debates and discussions for concrete recommendations that will breed widespread follow-up that would enable girls to be powerful agents of change in society. Presenters, Panelists, Key note speakers are welcome. Sponsors are needed to bring the aims of this AG 2009 to past. Visit the site http://www.helpachildinafrica.org/events.hmt for more information.
What we make available to people who donate to our organization:
Audit Report
Monthly Newsletter
Children's Pictures
Children's Stories
Tours
Receipts
Tracing of gifts (showing a gift given and the expense made of this money)
Correspondence with child
TAKE ACTION AND HELP TODAY
To save a life and Make a great difference in the world of orphans and the destitute
And stimulate greater concern for the children as their right.
Your support would mainly address the need of rural children with a long lasting impact in their lives.
Thank you for taking action today. Let us know how you would help sponsor a child today or any of the above activities to enable ChildHelp achieve its mission for children in Sierra Leone.
Wishing to hear from you.
Thanks for your usual cooperation,
Yours Sincerely,
Kevin F.W. Thoronka
ChildHelp Sierra Leone
