Visit to Sierra Leone charity project hailed as an ‘inspiration’ by model

The daughter of singer Annie Lennox visited the West African country as part of her role as an ambassador for Christian Aid Week, which runs until Saturday. She met people in the fertile Bonthe region of southern Sierra Leone, an area that, before the ten-year civil war, was an agricultural centre of the country.

She heard that after the multi-national food companies left with their equipment during the war, the people were forced to rely on inefficient subsistence farming and fighting malnutrition became a daily battle, said Christian Aid.

But a Christian Aid-funded project, run by the Methodist Church of Sierra Leone (MCSL), is not only providing the communities with the seeds and tools that allow them to get the best out of their land, but has established a fishing project and taught local women and young people how to lobby their government for schools and other local amenities. It is helping hundreds of people to work their way out of poverty.

“I have grown up around charity work, but this was the first time I got to see how small changes can transform lives in such a big way,” said Ms Lennox. “People are being provided with the kinds of things we in the UK would take for granted.”

Ms Lennox also visited a school that was built as a result of lobbying from village development committees (VDCs) which were set up to encourage women and young people, traditionally excluded from the decision-making processes in Sierra Leone, to have a say in community life.