Free the Children children helping children

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Free the Childrenchildren helping children
Helping Children in War-Torn Sierra Leone
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Sierra LeoneAt a glance
Sierra Leone is a small African country that
suffered the atrocities of a brutal, eleven-year
long civil war. The conflict left the nation in
shambles and its communities devastated.
-Poorest country in the world-Population 5.4
million-Population under age 15 2.4
million-Gross National Income (per person) 140
USD (vs. 23,000 in Canada and 35,000 is the US)
As defined by the UN Human Development Index.
This index measures how well a nation is doing,
taking into account three aspects of human
development life expectancy, education and
standard of living (how much money people have.)
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Sierra LeoneAt a glance
Why is Sierra Leone the worst place in the world
in which to live?

• The country is the poorest in the world
• 57 of the population lives on 1 US a day and
  74.5 of the population lives on 2 US a day.
• People, especially children are malnourished and
  in need of basic health services
• HIGHEST Under-five MORTALITY RATE IN THE WORLD
  Of every 1,000 babies born, 316 will not live to
  see their 5th birthday (versus 7 babies in Canada
  and 8 in the US).
• There are only 7 doctors for every 100,000
  people in Sierra Leone.
• The education system is in shambles
• 80 of the educational infrastructure is
  destroyed
• For every 1,000 children, barely half of them
  are in school.
• The government spends only 1 of its revenue on
  education.

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Sierra LeoneAt a glance
Average number of years that people live
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Sierra LeoneEducation
Percentage of people age 15 and older who cannot
read and write
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Sierra LeoneCivil War (1991 2002)
Overview of the War

• Length of war
• 11 years (1991-2002)
• Major Players
• Government of Sierra Leone
• The Revolutionary United Front (RUF), rebels
• Number of People Killed
• More than 100,000
• Number of Child Soldiers
• Between 15,000 20,000
• Number of Refugees and Displaced Persons
• 2.5 million
• Primary Reasons the War Started
• Rebels wanted to overthrow the government
• Greedy people fighting over the diamond mines in
  the country

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Sierra LeoneCivil War (1991 2002)
All parties in the war were terrifyingly
dangerous, but no group was more well known and
feared than the RUF because of their campaign of
terror. This campaign encouraged the rebels to
destroy lives and property without regard.

• Key Features of the RUFs Campaign of Terror
• Amputations of the Limbs of Innocent People
  
• Burning Houses and Pillaging
• Conflict Diamonds
• Child Soldiers
• Brainwashing
• Drugs
• Abductions
• Rape

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Sierra LeoneCivil War (1991 2002)

• Amputations of the Limbs of Innocent People
• The trademark of the RUF was the chopping off of
  arms and legs of men, women and children using
  machetes and chainsaws.
• Number of amputees across the country 10,000
• Youngest recorded amputee four months old.
• Fingers, feet, noses, ears and lips were also
  cut off. Furthermore, using the machetes, eyes
  were slashed and pulled out.

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Sierra LeoneCivil War (1991 2002)

• Burning Houses and Pillaging
• The rebels attacked nearly every village they
  came upon
• Operation Burn House was an attack where the
  houses of innocent people were burned to ashes.
• Operation Pay Yourself encouraged the rebels
  to obtain personal wealth any way they could.
• Operation No Living Thing ordered the rebels
  to kill everything in their path.

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Sierra LeoneCivil War (1991 2002)

• Conflict Diamonds
• The war was primarily fought over and caused by
  greed for the diamonds found in Sierra Leone.
• The RUF used the profits from the sale of
  illegally mined diamonds to buy weapons and
  drugs. For this reason, the diamonds are called
  conflict diamonds or blood diamonds.

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Sierra LeoneCivil War (1991 2002)

• Conflict Diamonds Statistics
• Between 1991 and 1999, it is estimated that the
  RUF brought in over 200 million US dollars.
• Americans buy 65 of the worlds diamonds.
• Although Sierra Leones diamond industry only
  makes up 1 of total diamond sales worldwide, it
  was profitable enough for the RUF to continue its
  campaign of terror.
• Diamonds are forever it is often said. But
  lives are not. We must spare people the ordeal of
  war, mutilations and death for the sake of
  conflict diamonds.
• - Martin Chungong Ayafor, Chairman of the Sierra
  Leone Panel of Experts

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Sierra LeoneWar Affected Children

• Child Soldiers
• All sides in the war used children to fight as
  soldiers.
• In some RUF units, as many as 80 percent of the
  soldiers were children.
• Children as young as 6 years old were forced to
  fight.
• It is estimated that 15,000 20,000 children
  fought in the war.

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Sierra LeoneWar Affected Children

• Drugs
• Drugs given to child soldiers cocaine,
  marijuana, speed and alcohol.
• Drugs guaranteed that children would be crazy
  when committing a violent act, numbing them to
  the horrors of war.
• The most common drug given to child soldiers in
  the RUF was brown brown, a mixture of cocaine
  and gunpowder. Children were cut in the temples
  of their head, close to the vein, allowing the
  drug to be given close to the brain.

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Sierra LeoneWar-Affected Children

• Brainwashing
• The RUF forced children to kill their own
  family, friends and neighbors. The RUF believed
  that if a child could kill his/her own family
  he/she could kill anyone.
• If children did not obey the RUF, they were
  often tortured, amputated or killed.
• While receiving treatment in a rehabilitation
  center, one fourteen year old former child
  soldier repeatedly attempted suicide by throwing
  himself into traffic.Demons are pursuing me,
  he said. I have done such bad things that I have
  to die.

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Sierra LeoneVoices of War Affected Children
The first time I went into battle I was afraid.
But after two or three days, they forced me to
start using cocaine and then I lost my fear. When
I was taking drugs, I never felt bad on the
front. Human blood was the first thing I would
have every morning. It was in my coffee in the
morningevery morning. -Ibrahim, 16

• At around 700 am I was getting ready to go
  spend the day in the fields when I head a few
  gunshots. At first I thought it was the RUF who
  hang around our village letting off a few rounds.
  There were usually four RUF rebels whore based
  in our village and besides making us give them
  rice, they pretty much leave us alone. Then, as I
  was leaving my house, I starting hearing more
  firing and suddenly saw a Kamajor standing about
  ten meters in front of me. As I tried to run, I
  saw him aim his gun directly at me and fire. The
  bullet went through both of my legs. Then as the
  firing was going on, the Kamajor ran into the
  town and I pulled myself into the bush to hide.
  They looted our village my brother was abducted
  by them to carry away their loot. After walking
  to their base in a village called Yaradu-Sandor,
  he was let go. Now we have nothing and I cant
  walk.
• Mani, 24
• The Kamajors were a group that were sworn
  enemies of the RUF rebels. In their fight, they
  committed atrocities as bad as the RUF.

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Sierra LeoneWar Affected Children

• Abductions
• The RUF invaded villages and refugee camps,
  where the threat of an invasion caused panic.
  Children were often separated from their parents,
  making abduction easy for the rebels.
• A group of about eleven junta soldiers captured
  me, my parents and others. They killed one person
  in our group in front of us. The group split, and
  I lost my parents. They took us back to Koidu and
  released us but arrested us again and made us
  carry their loads. We were adults and children.
  They didnt tell us anything about why they were
  making us do this.
• - Mary, 9 years old

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Sierra LeoneWar-Affected Children

• Abductions Children Volunteering for Armed
  Groups
• There were two reasons why a child might
  volunteer and turn himself in to one of the
  warring groups
• Revenge to kill or hurt people who killed or
  harmed them or their family.
• Because the rebels would often kill the adults
  in a village, children were often forced to turn
  to the fighting groups as the only way to obtain
  food, shelter and clothing.

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Sierra LeoneVoices of War-Affected Children
I went to fetch water one morning, and when I
came back, everyone was dead my parents, the
rest of the family, everyone. Their limbs were
all over the village. The rebels had come with a
chainsaw and cut everybody up. I had no one left,
so I ran away to Bo town. When I got there, I
decided to join the Kamajor society. - John, 17
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Sierra LeoneWar-Affected Children

• Conclusion of the War
• The war officially ended in January 2002.
• By the end of the war
• - Almost 100,000 people had been killed.
• - Half the countrys population was displaced
  from their homes.
• - More than two-thirds of its already weak
  infrastructure was destroyed.
• Because of the continued trade of conflict
  diamonds and the ongoing battle in Liberia, peace
  in Sierra Leone is fragile.

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Sierra LeoneVoices of War Affected Children
As my mother and I tried to run out of the house
we saw about eight Kamajors. Most had guns and a
few had machetes. My mother dashed down the
verandah but they caught her and then shot her.
She fell about five meters from the house. By
this time several of them had surrounded me. They
ordered me to sit down and one held me tight by
the head while the other cut my neck with his
machete. I tried to protect my neck with my left
hand but they slashed it. They said in the Kono
language, 'you'll be dead - all of you are RUF
wives.' After cutting me, I lie still, pretending
to be dead. I was bleeding so much. After a while
I heard them say, 'she done die.' Then I crawled
into the bush and hid until my family came to
help me. - Sara, 12 years old
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Free the Childrenchildren helping children
Free the Children believes that education is the
best way to end the exploitation of children and
break the cycle of poverty.
Education is the key to everything. Poverty,
starvation, sexism, racism and ethnic clashes can
all be solved with universal primary
education. - Steven Lewis, UN Special Envoy for
AIDS in Africa
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Free the ChildrenProjects

• To date Free the Children has
• Built and outfitted more than 400 schools in 15
  developing and war torn countries. FTC schools
  around the world provide education to more than
  35,000 children daily.
• Shipped over 175,000 school and health kits.
• Provided rural and poor communities in the
  developing world with access to clean and safe
  water. Over 123,000 children and adults in
  developing countries have benefited from Free the
  Childrens water and sanitation projects.
• Shipped over 8 million US worth of medical
  supplies and built several community health
  centers.
• Provided poor families with alternative sources
  of income supplying them with milking animals,
  small machines, and arable land.

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Sierra LeoneFree the Children Projects

• To date Free the Children has
• Built four schools providing education to
  war-affected children in three areas of Sierra
  Leone.
• Provided wages for teachers.

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Sierra LeoneFree the Children Projects

• Shipped 1 million US worth of medical supplies.
• Shipped 50 wheelchairs and other medical
  equipment for war-affected children
• Shipped over 7,000 school and health kits.
• Provided communities with access to fresh and
  clean water through wells and sanitations units.

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Sierra LeonePlanned FTC Project Rebuilding Kono

• Kono is located in the eastern region of Sierra
  Leone.
• Because of the great number of diamonds in the
  area, Kono was devastated during the war - no
  other district was as devastated.
• - Houses were completely torn apart in the search
  for diamonds.
• - The rebels burned down and pillaged schools,
  community centers and health clinics.
• - Water systems were intentionally polluted.
• - More than 50,000 Kono residents were displaced.

The floor of this Kono house was pulled up in the
search for diamonds.
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Sierra LeonePlanned FTC Project Rebuilding Kono
Free the Children is planning to rebuild the
community of KONO and WE NEED YOUR HELP!

• Heres how your support can help the war-affected
  children of KONO
• Build a 4-room primary school in Kono District
  for 150 war-affected children. 25,000
• Build a classroom for 40 war-affected children
  5,000
• Furnish a classroom (chairs, benches,
  blackboards, teacher supplies, etc) 3,000
• Provide 150 war-affected children with basic
  school and health supplies 20/student x 150
  3,000
• Provide 150 war-affected children with a
  scholarship (uniforms, textbooks, etc)
  100/student x 150 15,000
• Providing a teachers salary for one year 1,200
• Build a community well 8,000
• Ship Vitamin pills, antibiotics, wheel chairs,
  and other medical supplies each 1 you donate
  can buy 10 worth of medical supplies (i. e. 100
  1000 in medical supplies).
• All costs above are in US dollars.

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Sierra LeonePlanned FTC Project Rebuilding Kono
Currently, children in Kono go to school in
shacks made of grass and wooden poles which are
destroyed when it rains.
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Help the Children of Sierra Leone Be the
difference that makes the difference!
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Help the Children of Sierra Leone Be the
difference that makes the difference!
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Help the Children of Sierra Leone Be the
difference that makes the difference!