Change Lives in Sierra Leone!

April was a busy month for Sierra Cares Foundation.  We helped law enforcement track down and convict traffickers from the largest criminal sydicate in Sierra Leone!  This syndicate was primarly responsible for the recruitment and transport of women to the Middle East. They skirted the 2022 migrant refugee laws to help potential "buyers/employers" gain access to Sierrra Leonean women. We worked with law enforcement to convict the leaders of the syndicate to justice.  As part of their sentencing, the traffickers must pay restitution to the families of the victims and serve prison sentences in compliance with Sierra Leonean laws. 

This was a tremendous undertaking as SCF covered the costs for reunifying victims with their families.  SCF will also create and fund a universal training system for political leaders, law enforcement, judicial servants and the public.  This is a huge step forward to preventing and educating  all Sierra Leoneans on the realities of being recruited and what happens to victims.  We also had to ensure the safety of the victims who were brave enough to identify the traffickers and give us their whereabouts as well as the endure the safety of our staff involved.

 The SCF HOPE Community Center has been open since January, providing programs for our returning migrants by offering medical, job, housing and food support.  We have been able to expand our community well water and electricity to serve about 20 homes in the surrounding area. Migrants are truly grateful, as providing light at night makes them feel more secure.  The community center bathroom was also completed and now serves as a safe place to wash up with clean drinkng water and a flush toilet. 

We are actively working to breaking the cycle of child marriage by providing education. We are also providing tangible resources for our boys as a viable alternative to keep them from being recruited as child soldiers.  We are focused on breaking the generational trauma rooted in poverty and a lack of hope.  We are revolutionizing a mental health service program that is the first of its kind, not only in West Africa, but the entire continent. This program will serve as a model for other non-profit and governmental organizations to provide long-term, sustainable support for our migrants and their families as they navigate the trauma of being held in captivity overseas.  We promoted Samuella Isha Hamilton, who recently received her masters in clinical psychology, to lead mental health director.  She will work directly with the University of Makeni to establish a program to meet the needs of our returning migrants and their families.

 Sierra Cares Foundaton could not have done this work without the generous support of GlobalGiving donors. As always, we thank you sincerely for your support!

Kusheh usay Makeni, Sierra Leone!

2022 was a big year for Sierra Cares Foundation!  Since 2019, Sierra Cares Foundation has helped to recover and repatriate nearly 650 women who were trapped in the Middle East.  Together with our partner organizations around the world, we worked to bring them home and provide after care resources and support to help them reunify with their families and reintegrate back into their communities.  Our community center will provide wholistic mental health resources which are crucial to healing communities.

Sierra Cares Foundation currently has 258 women in our program whom we support with various resources from mental health, medical, job training, housing assistance, food security and many other needs.  We also have 69 Children in our Makeni school, many of whom are parentless and would not be able to attend school without you.

 In the past year, with your generous support, we have built a bakery to feed the 69 children in the Makeni School, to serve as a tangible way for our adult survivors of exploitation to learn a trade and earn gainful employment; and to nourish a community and provide food to the community. With the GlobalGiving funds, we were able to provide bags of rice, cooking oil, flour and other staples to many disabled and blind citizens of Makeni, who would not have had food otherwise for the Christmas season.  We strive not to turn anyone away who is hungry and this season, we do not have to. 

Our community center will open in January, that will serve as a central place for gatherings, community events for education and connection and for job training on various trades for long-term sustainability.  It will be used for mental health services and medical preventive care and assessments, from eye exams to maternity care, for family education, sustainable integration programs, orphan care and so much more. We at Sierra Cares Foundation believe preventative education is the best way to combat trauma and a lack of hope with the main goal of reducing reduce the vulnerabilities in this community that lead to human exploitation and abuse of children and women.  We are working to educate the community on breaking the cycle of child marriage and to educate and provide tangible resources for our boys, so they are not recruited into being child soldiers.  We are focused on breaking the generational trauma that lies within many communities that is rooted in poverty, trauma, and a lack of hope. 

We are revolutionizing how resources and collaboration are bridged to create a mental health service program that is the first of its kind, not only in West Africa, but the entire continent. Lastly, as we enter the rainy season in Sierra Leone, one of the greatest medical emergencies for our children is malaria.  We are shipping mosquito repellent to the community center and bracelets that the children can wear to repel malaria carrying mosquitos.  We are also shipping lemongrass, eucalyptus and citronella essential oils that can be used to resoak the bracelets in for continued protection.  This is an easy way to prevent malaria related medical emergencies and continue to provide protection for our children and participants in SCF. Thank you for all the support! We are looking forward to 2023 with Sierra Cares Foundation!

Links:

• website for Sierra Cares Foundation
• from the Idealist
• https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064329086249

Kusheh usay Makeni, Sierra Leone!

• We are excited to share our progress in creating a one of a kind program that holistically serves the women and children of Makeni. It's the first of it's kind in Africa offering traditional schooling, Trade School, job training,  and business micro-loans!  We're happy to announce that our bakery is nearly complete, and every week participants are supplying enough bread for each school child. We recognize that a hungry child cannot concentrate, so this will help them focus on their education.

• Second, we have partnered with Operation Underground Railroad, DomesticWorker’s Advocacy Network (DWAN) and the University of Makeni’s Psychology Department to create and address the social, physical, medical, and mental health needs of the Sierra Cares Participants.  We are working to educate and prevent trauma from starting in the communities, an approach that will also reduce the number of women and girls we are repatriating from the Middle East. Part of this education focuses on teaching parents that sending their daughters to locations here is DANGEROUS.  

• Since 2020, Sierra Cares Foundation has served to repatriate women and children back from the Middle East and support students in our Makeni Schools who are also susceptible to poverty andexploitation. Without YOU, our valued donor, none of this would be possible. Thank YOU!.  

• Now to the DIRE NEED. 
  Two of our precious participants have a critical need for medical care.  While we have some Emergency Medical Funds, their needs far exceed our ability to help. Here are their stories and we truly hope you will be moved to help them be able to heal and have a productive life. 

• Emergency #1: Fourteen year old Osman S.was in our school program until 2021 when his uncle came to take him to his home a few hours away, ... with the promise of a better life and education. Unfortunately, within days, Osman was forced to labor for his uncle  with no pay and no education.  When his uncle no longer needed Osman's slave labor, the uncle left Osman homeless and living on the streets.  Eventually, Osman made his way back to Makeni and lived with his elderly grandmother. He was re-admitted to Makeni school and sold food at market to help feed his grandmother and himself.  One evening while walking home, Osman was struck by a car and left in the street to DIE. Luckily he recieved medical care  but suffered extensive spinal damage, which has left him unable to walk, to stand or use  restroom facilities. Osman has been laying on a cement floor in his grandmother’s house, unable to sit up or care for himself.  THE PAIN HAS BEEN UNBEARABLE.Osman and his grandmother have NO income or food and were truly struggling to survive.  Beyond that, Osman needed surgery to correct the damage AND to prolong his life as, left untreated, his injuries could  lead to sepsis and death.
• SCF was able to get Osman to Freetown, Sierra Leone, a grueling 3-hour trek for Osman on dirt roads to get examined by the doctors there. They determined that they could correct his spine, but the surgery is costly, and the recovery is long. Sierra Cares Foundation was given all the paperwork from surgeons at the hospital and we need to raise  $9,000 USD to help Osman have any chance at a sustainable life and not be forever crippled by the accident. Hospitals in most developing nations do not provide after care or food to patients, so we need to have his nurse there to support him during the recovery and provide wound care and nourishment. Currently, SCF is providing food and a nurse for Osman and his grandmother, but this is only temporary until other arrangements can be made. Please consider donating to our emergency fund so that Osman can heal and return to school, like all young boys his age.
• 
  Emergency #2: Kadie F. is a 28-year-old survivor of human trafficking who was repatriated back from Oman.  She has extensive hip damage from her horrific abuse while in captivity in Oman. She has been living in excruciating pain and was diagnosed with Advanced Left Hip Avascular Necrosis. The reports from the orthopedic surgeon in Freetown, as well as one in India, both said Kadie has onset with a traumatic left hip and groin pain because of abuse 2 years ago. Her pain has significantly worsened over time, and she cannot work or be in social situations without a great deal of anguish and pain. She has expressed thoughts of suicide because she no longer wishes to deal with the bodily trauma and sees no hope of being able to afford the surgery she needs. Doctors' recommend a full hip replacement.  The best option for the surgery is for Kadie to travel to India, as there are no medical options in Sierra Leone or most of Africa for the surgery she needs.Previously, Kadie was a graduate student in Finance and Accounting. She was sent to work in Oman, under the promise of a stable job in her degree. Once there, her passport, necessary documents, phone, and money were taken from her,and she was forced to work long hours at the hands of a man who assaulted and frequently beat her in a country whose language she did not know. Coming home to Makeni for Kadie, has beena long and arduous road, sometimes filled with more pain than when she was in captivity.

We love Kadie and Osman and with your help can give them the gift of hope and medical treatment they need.  

Please, Please help them!  Your continued generosity is life-saving and truly appreciated. 

Tax Deducble EIN is 85-2963683 ©2020
www.SierraCaresFoundaon.org

Kusheh usay Makeni, Sierra Leone! 

 It is a pleasure to write an update on behalf of the Sierra Cares Foundation in Makeni, Sierra Leone. Our children in the Makeni School were happy to get back to school and get back to normalcy.  They are still finishing their courses for the 2021-2022 school year and doing well!  Please check out our sponsor page to learn about the kids that need monthly sponsors to help with nutrition and educational needs.  School Sponsorships | Sierra Cares Foundation 

 Since 2020, Sierra Cares Foundation has served to repatriate women back from the Middle East and support students in our Makeni School.  We are working hard to partner with sister organizations to provide complex and complete resources, mental health, education and job training and opportunities for sustainable healing and communities.

SCF Staff

 We started our business micro loan program for eligible women to continue to help them have a sustainable living and reduce their vulnerability to human trafficking and poverty.  Since February, we have provided 12 women with business loans to help them provide for their families and stay in their communities free from exploitation.  We are so proud of the women who have been enrolled in trade schools to learn trades such as sewing, tie dying garments, shoe repair, baking and other endeavors to help them create a business.  In turn, they help each other with the goal of supporting each other to have a sustainable business and make a living.  We are looking to purchase sewing machines to have in our community center for merchants to use so they do not have to travel as far.  

We have begun to build the SCF Community Center, and it is slated for completion in August/September.  The community center is greatly needed to run our educational and therapeutic programs for the survivors of human trafficking that have been repatriated back to Makeni and surrounding areas.  We will offer space for education, such as our literacy program which will help participants learn to read, write, and even understand business documents.  This is a crucial component to our programs and will allow our women to stand on their own and succeed.  We hired a new teacher who will devote full time attention to our participants.  We also will offer other educational courses such as hygiene, making sanitary pads, body health and other facets that contribute to improved medical and physical health. We will also be able to have a medical practitioner there monthly to assist in medical needs, medications, and maternity needs.  In addition, the community center will offer refuge for mental health counseling and a safe space for women and children to come together to celebrate life experiences.  

In addition to the Community Center, we are excited to announce that we are also constructing a bakery for women in our program to learn a baking and culinary skills, to sell goods for their businesses and also teach health and nutritional courses.  This is something that is also needed in the Makeni Community, as they do not have a commercial bakery, and will also allow for our repatriated women to feel a sense of worth and community as they integrate back from their exploitative experiences.  This is also a critical step to ending the potential for other vulnerable women to be sent to work in situations of exploitation.  The bakery is set to open at the end of the summer as well. 

None of this is possible without the support of donors and partnerships with other organizations.  We are excited to continue to build a strong program in Makeni that focuses on strengthening vulnerable populations and allowing them to thrive through education, mental and physical health support, and job training.

As always, Sierra Cares Foundation does not take any donor fees to cover costs and all work is done by volunteers, so that donor money can go directly to staff and on the ground services in Sierra Leone.  Please visit our website for more information and sign up for our mailing list to follow what we are doing!  We are so thankful for what God and our supporters are helping to realize.  We are in deep gratitude for our partners and the prayers we continually receive to all this work to be done.  We are well on our way to supporting our precious women and children to feel seen and loved!  Home | Sierra Cares Foundation 

Links:

• Sierra Cares Foundation website

Kusheh usay Makeni, Sierra Leone!

It is a pleasure to write an update on behalf of the Sierra Cares Foundation in Makeni, Sierra Leone. It has been nearly 2 years since Covid hit and some of the strategy and resources have shifted to meet basic needs, but we are slowly moving forward with incremental and crucial projects, including having our kids back at school fulltime!  

Since 2020, Sierra Cares Foundation has served to repatriate over 511 women back from the Middle East and has 69 students in our Makeni School.  With the Christmas season passed, we were able to provide all the students and some of the women in our program with a Christmas gift, clothing, and food for their families, which was an incredible blessing.

We also rolling out our business micro loan program for eligible women to continue to help them have a sustainable living and reduce their vulnerability to human trafficking and poverty.  The first of 3 monthly loans will be disbursed in February, which we will continue to award three a month with a scaled repayment plan (at zero interest) to be collected and distributed onto future applicants, spurring a community program in a pay-it-forward style.

In addition to continuing to cover educational expenses for students, we also are working to get our staff educated and reduce the barriers of poverty though a University Education.  We sent funding to help staff with their entrance exams and are waiting for the results mid-March.

Lastly, we purchased land to build the SCF Community Center on, slated for summer 2022.  The community center is greatly needed to run our educational and therapeutic programs for the survivors of human trafficking that have been repatriated back to Makeni and surrounding areas.  None of this is possible without the support of donors and partnerships with other organizations.  We are excited to continue to build a strong program in Makeni that focuses on strengthening vulnerable populations and allowing them to thrive through education, mental and physical health support, and job training.

As always, Sierra Cares Foundation does not take any donor fees to cover costs and all work is done by volunteers, so that donor money can go directly to staff and on the ground services in Sierra Leone.