Project
SIerra have published their quarterly report from January 2011 – March
2011.  The report explores each of the
programmes which comprise Project SIerra, detailing the latest developments and
the impact your fundraising is having.

Young
Mother Support (in Bo)

The
project works with 104 young mothers and 58 babies, targeting vulnerable,single
young mothers who are living alone. It helps to prevent them from being separated
from their babies by supporting them to learn essential parenting skills. It also
aims to reintegrate them with their families and empower them to be independent,
active members of their community. There are approximately 140 members
of the wider community who benefit from the project by attending workshops
run by the team. Recent developments include upgrading the centre into a
community hub so everyone can benefit. A further 40 young mothers have been
able to access the centre due to the increased capacity! A further 29 young mothers have embarked on three month training and employment placements to give them
the skills necessary to find permanent work on completion of their training.

Young
Mothers and Children Living Alone in Freetown (in
Kissy)

Working
with 70 children, 37 parents/caregivers and 409 extended family members, the
project targets vulnerable children and young mothers who are living alone on
the streets
of Freetown.
The aim is to reunite the children with their families or extended families
and support them to live together. With the young mothers the aim is to prevent
them being separated from their babies and empower them to be independent,
active members of the community, as well as to reconcile them with their
families.

In
its Regional Children of Excellence Awards 2011, the Children’s Forum Network awarded
HANCi-SL a certificate of merit for its excellent work providing education, life
skills and safe family homes to the children of Sierra
Leone. Mr
Moses Kamara, Media and Communications Officer for HANCi-SL, received the award
on behalf of the organisation and spoke about the assistance the teams provide
to children, young mothers and families in need. This award signifies the
outstanding contribution that the teams are making to the wellbeing and happy
futures of so many in Sierra
Leone.

The
New Community Hubs (in Bo, Kissy, Kamakwie, Mattru)

This
quarter, HANCi-SL has begun to increase the impact of the ACTIVE Family Support
model by replacing it with Community Hubs. These hubs are aimed at supporting
significantly more vulnerable children and their families, with facilities to benefit
the entire community. Services have been developed to strengthen vulnerable
families and children, and to extend support to single mothers with teenage
daughters. Depending on the needs of the community, the services provided will
include: counselling and mentoring, basic health care and vaccinations, day
care, life-skills
training and income-generation workshops. This approach is based on the model
successfully implemented in our projects in Rwanda
and South Africa, empowering
local people to care for the most vulnerable children themselves for years
to come.

CASE
STUDY: Elizabeth

Elizabeth
lives in Mattru, in southern Sierra
Leone. She is elderly and in
extremely poor
health. After her daughter died and her son-in-law disappeared, she took on
full responsibility
for her three grandchildren, aged 6, 10 and 15 years.

For
many years, Elizabeth
struggled to raise the children on her own, and had no funds
to repair the family home which was set alight by rebels 15 years ago. Despite her
home being in a central position, she was isolated by her circumstances; no one visited
or spoke to her.

Today,
the children attend school sporadically, but have threadbare uniforms and only
a few books, and are often ridiculed by their peers. They are only accepted
into their
community because of the services they provided to some of the wealthier community
members. This includes fetching water and peeling cassavas in the hope of
bringing in some income.

HANCi-SL
has worked hard with community members in Mattru to highlight everyone’s
responsibility to look after the more vulnerable members of their community
and to avoid excluding them in any way. As
a direct consequence of this work, community leaders in Mattru recommended that
Elizabeth and her grandchildren be assisted through our ACTIVE Family Support programme.

We
have now started working with Elizabeth’s
family and the community to ensure that
she and her grandchildren have access to the help they need. Elizabeth
will receive
medication and her home will be fixed to make it safer for her and her children
to live in. The family will have access to a market table outside their home so they
can start selling their garden produce and start generating some income. The children
will get school uniforms and books so that they can attend school regularly. Most
importantly we will work with the local community to ensure that Elizabeth
and her
grandchildren are no longer ostracised and are welcomed back into their community.

Thanks from Hope and Homes for Children and HANCi-SL:

Your
invaluable support makes all of this possible. Through all your incredible fundraising
efforts for Project SIerra: A Family and a Future
you have enabled so much
to be achieved. With the amount raised approaching the incredible £1 million target,
you are making a real difference to the lives of so many women, children and their
families in need. Please do all you can to make that final push to the £1
million! Thank you from everyone at Hope and Homes for
Children and HANCi-SL.

 You can read the full report at www.projectsierra.org