Dear Supporters

As we come to another year end I am very conscious that next year will be the twentieth year of working for children in Sierra Leone. That alone is a testament to the commitment you have all shown as supporters and a real achievement to still be there and still helping children. Thank you for all your support in 2023.

Even though it may seem as though it’s been a quiet year, we have had ongoing success in areas with steady support over the year for about 45 children at any one time, we have got an office built at Grafton, we have started work on a new access road to the home (a post purchase rearrangement).  Thanks to a supporter’s generosity we are now building a new toilet block for the boys which was urgently needed after we realised the original one had structural issues.  In the last few weeks we have been informed that the national water company is laying pipes very close to our property so we can finally access a permanent water supply. 

Justina has recently married and is now Mrs Sheriff.  He is the IT and communications manager for the government education department. He is very impressed by St George and already introducing a communications systems for the staff to use, plus planning to launch a campaign for support in the USA where he has spent much of his life.  So that is very exciting on more than the personal level, but we wish Justina and Ibrahim every happiness.

Unfortunately all the good things have been overshadowed though. The tragic and unnecessary death of one of our young boys a few weeks ago upset everyone… Idrissa:

Some of you may be aware that there was an attempted coup in Freetown with gunfire across parts of the city in the early hours of November 26th.  It failed, but the government announced an immediate national curfew while they dealt with the incident.  By terrible bad luck, Idrissa was taken ill the same weekend and the curfew delayed his journey to hospital by over 24 hours.  By the time the staff was able to get him admitted he had seriously deteriorated and died the following day from infection.  Understandably shaken staff took no chances when other children started feeling unwell and the following week we took 12 children to hospital for check-ups - two were in fact admitted briefly but now all have recovered and all back at the centre.  A very sad thing made worse by the fact that it may well have been so different had we been able to move him when he needed it.

On to formalities.

The AGM this year will be held on Zoom again at 10.00am on Saturday 20th January. Holding online will mean Justina and the children at the Centre should be able to join us.  We will report in more detail at the AGM, but just to let you know now, we will look at work that has been carried out in 2023 at the Centre including, fencing the land, providing security,repairing and maintaining the solar power, building new guest accommodation and building the much more robust toilet block.

Funds have been severely depleted in recent months, so any contribution would be most gratefully received.

The trustees join me in wishing you a very happy Christmas and New Year.

Philip