Many thanks from the Trustees to Jamie for achieving his goal and climbing the Kilimanjaro mountain and thereby raising the grand sum of just over £2.000 for the Fund

Please sponsor Jeremy Hopkins who will be running in the London Marathon  on Sunday 25th April

See the link to Bmycharity lower down on this page

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Final thoughts from the trip…… The task of rebuilding Liberia never seems to diminish – the needs of the people are still huge but to use an old analogy they need a “hand up” not a “hand out”. The vast majority of the local people we met still exist on one meal a day with the children invariably going to school hungry and having a small meal at midday if they are lucky. They share accommodation with friends and family and invariably a complete family will sleep in one small room. Luxuries such as running water and electricity are non-existent – the students have to do their homework by candlelight once they have finished all their chores. It is a hot, sweaty, dirty, place and yet one of the most vibrant places I have ever been to with a population who just want to find a way out of their poverty and who want their children to be educated – not a big “ask” really. The equivalent of about £120 (£10 per month) pays for a child to be educated for a year – what can you get for a tenner these days in the UK? Liberia has an illiteracy rate of 80%.

One of the saddest things I heard during this trip was Wogbeh saying that Liberia had fought a 15 year civil war in which over 1/6th of its population (250,000 people) were killed but nobody really understood why. A country that is rich in natural resources such as wood, rubber, iron ore, gold and diamonds is now one of the poorest countries on earth. We all need to help Liberia get back on her feet, to help educate people so that they can run their country and become self sufficient again and to keep on talking about human rights and peace and reconciliation. Those of us who live in countries that export weapons to Africa have to bear some responsibility and accountability for the destruction of these societies. It sometimes becomes disheartening that nothing changes very quickly but it is important to remember that it took 15 years to destroy the infrastructure and, as they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Sean was, and continues to be, an inspiration for the young people in Liberia. This visit made me realise just how little it takes to make a difference and we can all do something – from the ladies who knit the teddy bears we send, to Revive n Thrive who help us with tools and other equipment, to the school kids who cycle Coast to Coast, to all the marathon runners and Kilimanjaro climbers, to the volunteers and team at Feed the Children, to the people who support all our fundraising activities and to those of you just reading this blog for interest. You can and do make a difference by raising funds and awareness.

To use Sean’s motto….. “While my heart beats I must do what I think I can do to help those less fortunate”. His message is still loud and strong in Liberia.

On behalf of all the Trustees of the Sean Devereux Children’s Fund … thank you for helping to make a difference.

Thursday 18th March Our last day in Liberia – where has the week gone! Anna, Fr Joe and I headed off out with VOS to Samuel K Doe Elementary school and left Iain to sort out paying the bills and writing up a report – not sure who got the short straw… we thought it would be Iain but that was before we realised how hard we were going to work today! We were the first organisation to have ever visited this school which was located down near the Port area. It was situated in an area which floods every year and is just a sea of mud. They were so excited to be given text books, tennis balls, knitted teddies and an Aqua box. I never fail to feel completely humbled by these experiences – their gratitude is overwhelming.

Our next stop was the lock-up where VOS store all the container items. We loaded box after box after box of books onto the roof of the jeep and these were tied down with a flimsy strip of rubber and rope – true African style. We had to stop and put extra air in the tyres due to the load but Schumacher Brown stopped a bit abruptly and one of the boxes went flying off the roof onto the bonnet of the jeep – luckily nothing was broken or dented! We were soon on our way to the Matadi Community School. This is a government run establishment – they have no text books or library, in the reception classes there were over 80 children in each room with absolutely no room to move. The older classes were not much better – the school is so oversubscribed that they run morning and afternoon sessions.

We then went to watch John and Cletus deliver a Human Rights lesson at Richard Lawson school. The majority of the students were really engaged by this topic which centred on the issue of child trafficking. The work they covered was good but if they only had more resources ie books, brochures, DVDs to watch etc it could be amazing – still they are achieving results and the students are learning that we all have basic Human rights which need to be respected.

On the way back into town we stopped and spoke to two of the beneficiaries of the micro-finance loan scheme. This has only been in operation since December but is already producing results. The women we spoke to have been able to set up their own market stalls thanks to the interest free loans and they are working towards opening bank accounts and eventually expanding their businesses.

We finally made it back to the “office” at 3pm and collapsed in a heap! It had been an exhausting day so we delegated Iain with the task of visiting Devereux FC whilst Anna and I chilled out for an hour before meeting another local NGO as well as catching up with VOS and Johnstone Henries (a UK based Liberian planning to return to Liberia). Iain and Fr Joe were really impressed with the work that Devereux FC are doing now, they have got some land and the use of a barn type building which they need to clear and make into a youth training ground.

We had our last meeting at 8pm with the various VOS organisations to summarise the week and to report on our findings. We all concluded that it had been a really worthwhile visit and that we need to strengthen the projects that are already in place and to continue working together and with other groups.

Wednesday 17th March – St Patricks Day! Another early start with a 9am meeting with the Minister for Youth and Sport who was really helpful and managed to iron out some of the difficulties that VOS had experienced in the past year in finding the right people to talk to. A follow up meeting was scheduled for next Monday so hopefully this will start to yield some results. We then headed back into town to meet with the Minister for Education as well as his Deputy and the Minister for Planning. Again a really productive meeting with some plans for training teachers for the Sean Devereux Children’s Education Programme in Brewerville and maybe even some financial support – fingers crossed!

We drove back out to Sinkor to meet with Madam Ward and Madam Cesar who spoke to us about the Mano River Women’s Peace Network, the TRC and the unified group they have formed with women from the neighbouring countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote D’Ivoire.

We also had a meeting at Don Bosco homes with two of the directors David Konneh and Joe Wiah. We talked through the success of the projects that we have helped support such as the vocational training in Buchanan and the TRC. We also discussed the work of the night patrols and Savio and what progress had been achieved in finding additional partners to help with the reconstruction of the accommodation at Savio.

Our final meeting of the day was at the Sean Devereux Youth Centre in Matadi. We met with scholarship students and talked about the plans for the new extension. Fr Matthew has only been at Matadi for a few weeks but he is really enthusiastic and has some great plans for the centre and appears to be really supportive of the work of VOS.

Sean has definitely been looking after us on this trip! We were invited to a St Patrick’s Day party at the Mamba Point Hotel. What a fun night – we drank green beer and ate green food and chatted to lots of different people – it was good to let our hair down on the last night.

Tuesday 16th March Iain and I headed off to the bank this morning to try and sort out a SDCF bank account and to find out why it s so hard to transfer funds. Our meeting was with the general manager and everything was sorted very efficiently and the transfer issues were ironed out by being given the right transmitting bank to use.

We picked Anna up and headed out to Sinkor to visit some of the schools where VOS have scholarship students – classes of over 50 kids in a room about 10’x12’ with no soundproofing between classrooms. How they ever learn anything is a miracle but somehow they do! Interestingly the discipline is much stricter with teachers hauling kids out by their ears but they all seem to accept it! We had lunch in our “Boulevard Café office” and managed to get on the internet for a little while and catch up on a few emails.

During the afternoon we went to meet the parents of some of the scholarship pupils. Yet another really humbling experience. We met with Jacob and his father who lived on the edge of the swampland. Jacob’s father was a shoe repairer who, until a few months ago, had a stall by the roadside but this was demolished when the Government repaired the road and his livelihood along with it. He now mends a few pairs of shoes outside his home which is a 3 room building with up to 5 people in each room. When we were there Jacob was doing his homework – drawing a picture of the Liberian flag with the crayons he had been given earlier in the day – standing up outside leaning on a workbench. We also met Priscilla’s family – they too live by the edge of swamp but on a piece of ground that regularly floods in a building made of rush matting – surrounded by rubbish, festering water and mosquitos – the children are often ill with malaria. Priscilla’s father completed 3 years at University and has a teaching qualification but is unable to find work – apparently Liberia is much like the UK when it comes to finding work…. It’s not what you know it’s who you know! We suggested that the family meet with Amadu to see if there is the possibility of work at the school in Brewerville and the possibility of moving to a better, healthier area for the family.

Iain and I then had a meeting with Fr Charles and some of the Sean Devereux groups to discuss the possibility of providing office space at Matadi. It looks like this could be a real possibility but plans and costs need to be developed before any further decisions can be made.

Thanks to John and the support of Don Bosco Homes Anna and I were privileged enough to be taken on one of the night missions to track down street kids. We had to get special permission for the Security team to allow us back into the compound as the gates are typically locked at 12am. We left the complex at 10:30 and stopped to pick up Glen the photojournalist we had met on the flight. We headed out to the slum area of West Point. It is hard to put into words the emotions that I felt – a real mixture of fear, disgust, pity, and shame. The fear came from knowing that as white people we were potential targets for the armed robbers that have started targeting UN and other Aid workers as well as the fear of what we would see. Disgust at the area, the conditions, the dirt, the smells, pity for those that lived in these conditions but, in reality they should be admired for the sense of community and survival instinct and finally shame that people who live in the so called civilised world allow these conditions to still exist.

The professionalism of the Don Bosco team was awe-inspiring – they spoke to all the kids at their own level as a group and then spoke to them on a one on one basis. At no time was any pressure put on the kids by the Team, they were invited to go with them to Savio but only if they wanted to, there was never any attempt to persuade or coerce them. One of the kids I spoke to decided that he wanted to go to Savio and to eventually be reconciled with his family – it was an amazing feeling as he took my hand as we walked off to try and find some bread and juice for them. He was 10 years old and had been living on the streets since Christmas – simply because he had lost the money his mother had given him to buy food at the market and he was too scared to go home. Another boy also wanted to go to Savio and, at the last minute a third one joined in – initially he was told he would have to wait until the next visit but he was so desperate that he piled into the back of the jeep as well. Three boys – all under 12 years old, all with a different story to tell but despite all that they must have seen and experienced they were still little boys.

We could have stayed out for hours but sadly had to get back to our accommodation before we were locked out for the night.

Monday 15th March We set off at 5am for the long drive to Gbarnga and our UN helicopter ride to Tappita. With Joe “Schumacher” behind the wheel we managed to make the 125 mile trip in around 3.5 hours allowing for all the road blocks on the way. I lost count of the number of pot holes we crashed through and the number of chickens which nearly met an untimely end. As usual the UN helicopter was crewed by Russians who didn’t understand our “jokes” about when lunch would be served or if we could buy duty free – but at least we tried to make them laugh. There were just the 6 of us (including Cletus and John) plus one other UN soldier on the trip to Ganta but there was some confusion at Ganta as there was a whole contingent of Bangladeshi soldiers expecting to get on … somehow we all squeezed on after several frantic phone calls to Monrovia. The flight landed at the “wrong” airport in Tappita again so our welcoming party was at a different location. We started walking into town and were met by a contingent of motorcyclists and, at the same time a Major from the UN post drove past and offered to help so Anna and I hitched lifts on the bikes and the “boys” went in the UN jeep. As always the welcome at Tappita was amazing – they had built a pagoda out of palm leaves. The buildings are all complete bar a few finishing touches and, since last year, they have built an auto mechanic centre. They have also planted acres of cassava, palm oil, rubber and rice which should mean that in years to come they will be self-sustainable.

Local dignitaries were present as well as Councillor Winston Tubman who is planning to campaign for the Presidency of Liberia next year. Luckily for us the number of questions addressed to him were limited… we all thought it was going to be a big political campaign session. The UN observer stayed with us for the whole time and foolishly gave us his email address so now we can pester him to keep an eye on the project for us whilst he is there.

We were overwhelmed by the help and support that the UN gave us for this trip – not just in organising the helicopter but also the lifts to/from Tappita airport and allowing us to sit in their nice cool office while we waited for the return journey. We even found a Gambian Colonel who spoke Russian and managed to translate Anna’s request to the Russian crew to fly the chopper back – made them smile at last!

We made it back to Monrovia safe and sound (with a few scary pothole encounters) just before 9 and had left over peanut butter sandwiches, cold beer followed by black Russian cocktails and… once again showered by torchlight!

Sunday 14th March In true Liberian style we got home last night to find there was no power in the rooms that Anna and I are using… Iain is ok though! So… we wandered down to the supermarket and bought a “picnic” and headed back to our sitting area and munched our way through Pringles and cold beer – Saturday night in downtown Monrovia… its all happening here!

We headed off to Brewerville again this morning to pick Amadu and a few others before heading off to Suveh Mecca in the heart of Bomi Hills. It was a good drive along a reasonable red dirt road – about 37 miles in 1.5 hours. We went to visit a project that the Fund has supported in conjunction with the Liberian Education Trust (LET). The Fund has sent sewing machines to the project thanks to the help we have received from our friends at Revive n Thrive and Feed the Children. The village is largely Muslim and we were welcomed by the Imam. The project is aimed at illiterate market women who are being taught tailoring skills. We were welcomed with a song and then a demonstration of their reading, writing and number skills. One of the women measured, cut out and sewed a dress for one of the children while we were there … a new competition for the Generation Game perhaps? We were also shown around the local clinic which, for rural Liberia, was quite well equipped although, as always the main problem is a shortage of medicines.

We stopped off at Duala Market to buy bread for breakfast tomorrow morning and headed off for an early night and the usual shower by torchlight!

Thursday 11th March to Saturday 13th March We left home at 9:00 am on Thursday and travelled in style to Gatwick thanks to the support of Eagle Executive cars and arrived here in Monrovia at 2am on Friday morning after 17 hours of travelling – including a 4 hour stop in Casablanca where we discovered that they only accepted Euros or Dirhams at the cafes etc and there was nowhere to change money! It was a long wait but Anna and I managed to entertain ourselves by having races on the trolleys in the corridors – childish but fun!

We met some fascinating people on the flight from Casablanca to Monrovia including a Liberian who was a street kid whose father was murdered in the war and whose mother spent 3 years in jail and who then went to the US and now lives in the UK and is thinking of moving back to Liberia. We also bumped into representatives from Computer Aid and a local restauranteur – both very useful contacts!

It is amazing how the fears and anxieties of staying in Liberia vanish once you get here and are met by familiar faces. It is still not the safest place in the world by any means but as long as you are sensible and don’t go out at night alone its ok. We are staying in a Pastoral Centre in downtown Monrovia which is very basic. No water for washing or showers on the second night so we were advised to use the water in the jerry can provided which is a great idea as long as you have the strength to lift the container and there is a plug that fits in the sink!

Our feet have not touched the ground since we arrived. We started work at 9:00 on Friday with a series of meetings at Sean Devereux Memorial School in Brewerville plus a ground breaking ceremony for the Internet café followed by Anna and I acting as dinner ladies for 150 kids and a visit to the two community farms. It is really challenging to sit through a morning of discussion with loads of people all needing our input and feedback after just 4 hours sleep and a temperature difference of +35C!

Saturday was another early 9:00 am start with a morning session to discuss project proposals, monitoring and financial reports. We were joined by various Sean Devereux organisations and partners and had a really good brainstorming session which resulted in the generation of a reporting structure which will be easy to complete and will enable us to report back to our donors and evaluate the success of each stage of the projects.

We headed off at lunchtime to Bomi Hills with Fr Joe and Iain going to see Fr Gary and Sally and Anna going to visit Liesbeth at Mary’s Meals and the Deaf School. Mary’s Meals are now feeding over 22,000 children in the area and have offered to help with feeding at Sean Devereux Memorial School which is amazing. Liesbeth has a wealth of knowledge of the area and agriculture etc and will be a valuable source of information and help for VOS and other groups. Also staying at the Oscar Romero school is Emma – a British nutritionist working with Mary’s Meals who is studying the growth of Liberian children and ways of increasing the nutritional value of the meals that are provided.

On the way home we did a quick detour to Don Bosco Homes in Savio – and only got a little bit lost in the Liberian bush! Thank heavens for 4 wheel drive jeeps! It was really good to visit the project and see some of the street kids – there were even a couple of 5 year olds who had been trafficked and Don Bosco Homes were trying to trace their parents though one of them had been there for a year already. Most of the kids are resettled with their parents within a month or so but for some it is a long time before they are reunited with their families.

As you drive through the towns and the countryside you get a sense of what a truly overwhelming task this country faces to get back on its feet. There has been so much intervention by so many charities but it only seems to scratch the surface. Many organisations are now pulling out of Liberia as they consider their work done, especially those who are primarily concerned with disaster relief but the real work has only just started. There is a whole generation of children, teenagers and young adults who have no education or prospects and in a country which has 85% unemployment the future looks bleak. Thanks to the support of all of you who may be reading this Blog at least some of them will have the chance to help themselves by participating in scholarship schemes or taking advantage of vocational training etc.

Well…  Some of you might know that in a little less than two weeks time between 22 and 29 March I will be attempting to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, highest mountain in Africa and the highest free standing mountain in the world at just a shade under 6000 metres – what have I let myself in for? Read the rest of this entry »