Help planned for street kids in Sierra Leone
Help planned for street kids in Sierra Leone
| News - National | |
| Monday, 19 November 2007 | |
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Saturday 17 November saw a colourful ceremony take place at the Sierra Leone Scouts training camp in Grafton, on the occasion of the opening of the new site for the St. George Foundation, a leading organisation providing shelter to street children in Freetown.
The St. George Foundation is a local non-government organisation, which has helped take over 300 children off the streets of Freetown, successfully reunifying them with their families and ensuring their full-time education.
The partnership between the two organisations was struck when St. George Foundation, realizing it had outgrown the accommodation, which housed the 60 children under its care, approached the Scouts Association to share their land. With the support of the scouts and UK-based charity Mission Direct, the derelict site was redeveloped and the children’s accommodation constructed.
Speaking at the ceremony the Co-founder of the organisation, Philip Dean stated, ‘the
The organisation’s outgrown accommodation in Wellington, Eastern Freetown has been
The St. George Foundation is currently seeking funding for the completion of the new site, in particular the construction of additional rooms, an office and vegetable garden. The ceremony also saw the donation of five Mitsubishi overland vehicles worth US$100,000 from the people of Hull City in England. The ‘Hull Freedom Trail’ expedition saw 25 Hull residents travel overland for 21 days driving from England to Sierra Leone, to donate five vehicles to Sierra Leone children’s charities. One vehicle was presented to the St. George Foundation and the other four were given to HANCI, AMNET and PRIMED. The Mayor of Freetown, Winstanley Bankole Johnson, was present at the ceremony to hand over the keys to the organisations. Press release provided by the UNDP |
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