Project SIerra: a Family and a Future
Crosby’s Soroptimists were delighted to welcome Myra Woodcock to talk about “Project SIerra: a Family and a Future“. This project is the focus for Soroptimist International for the quadrennial 2007-2011, and is a partnership with the charity Hope and Homes for Children.
Sierra Leone, where the project is based, is recovering from a long and bitter civil war. As a contribution towards community reconstruction, “Project SIerra” is concentrating on alienated and marginalised children and families. It supports young mothers, many of whom were trafficked into sex slavery during the conflict, and were then estranged from their communities because of the stigma of having an illegitimate child. The project also works with street children in towns; and is setting up integrated child/family support for vulnerable families. The target to be raised by Soroptimists over the four years of “Project SIerra” is £1 million.
Myra is the project’s ‘Ambassador’ in South Lancashire Region, and has first-hand experience of life in Sierra Leone. She spoke about the conditions in which many people live, about their struggle to bring up their families, and about the long-term effects of the conflict on individuals and their communities. Basic equipment in schools - paper and pencils, for example - is in short supply, if available at all. Myra never dreamed that plastic tubs (in which she packed fragile items in her suitcase) would be admired as a potential resource by one headteacher. What else could she do, but hand them over?
SI Crosby members valued the opportunity to find out more about “Project SIerra” - and the partnership with Hope and Homes for Children that ensures effective use of funds. In turn, members showed Myra the Club’s Baggatelles bag-making project. Income from the sale of bags this year is, at the request of President Pat Williams, bringing in money for “Project SIerra“. Thanks to Myra’s presentation, members are now reassured that their efforts will really ‘make a difference’, far away in Sierra Leone.