What Is Being Done, and What Can Be Done
We are mainly assisting the people of Sierra Leone, especially the school children and pupils in the city of Lunsar.The people in Sierra Leone are the wounded traveler that we come across as we walk along the path of our life.
This is true, but we are not able to help the country of Sierra Leone as a whole, nor help the town of Lunsar itself. There are things we can and cannot do, right?
However, there are things that we can do as individuals or small groups. And that is exactly the kind of international aid activities that Lend A Hand Movement takes part in. The base of our activities is in the aid that we send in the form of money, which each one of us earns from working in Japan. As a rule, we do not send personnel overseas, but instead cooperate with the sisters or others who are already working there. It is a cooperative work between the sisters who are committed but have no funding, and those of us who cannot go abroad but can help financially.
The following were our specific aid activities. (We will explain the reason for the use of past tense at the end of this section.)
1.School Meal Aid
The organization of the meals is (was) done by the sisters of the Clarissan Missionary Sisters and the school staff, at Our Lady of Guadalupe (O.L.G.), an all-girls school, and R.C. Elementary School in Lunsar.
1.O.L.G. girls' secondary school- # of students:
(used to be) 500
2.O.L.G. girls' elementary school- # of students:
(used to be) 1200
3.O.L.G. kindergarten- # of students:(used to be) 100
4.R.C. Elementary School- # of students:(used to be) 1000
2. Education Aid
Through the Education Aid, we provide scholarships to students unable to attend school and to receive education due to poverty, despite their ability and will. This is (was) for students in secondary school and up, and as to who qualifies, we leave (left) the selection process in the hands of the sisters.
1.O.L.G. girls' secondary school- # of students receiving scholarship: (used to be)60~70
2.Murialdo boys' secondary school- # of students receiving scholarship: (used to be) 10~20
3.San Cristóbal De Las Casas secondary school in Chiapas, Mexico- # of students receiving scholarship:5~8
3. Aid for Raising Local Talent In order to make the education aid more effective, we provide funding to local university-age youths with potential in order to raise local talent. The selection process is left up to the Sisters and Fathers.
4. Material Aid
Once a year, we send (sent) a very large container of school material and everyday goods to children and/or citizens of Sierra Leone.
5. Urgency AidPast Examples:
1.Aid for the great earthquake of Hanshin disaster (1995)
2.Aid to teachers in Sierra Leone (1997)
3.Aid for the flood disaster in Tabasco, Mexico (2000)
Going on right now:
4.Aid for school construction in Obosi, Nigeria
5.Aid to O.L.G. schools and Murialdo school students and teachers who became internally displaced in Freetown
However, we must give you some excuses…
Out of the above aid activities, those that have the past tense written in parentheses are presently (2001) being interrupted. In Sierra Leone, there was a nine-year civil war, and although the Lomé Peace Accord was reached in July of 1999, the reality is that violence still prevails. Furthermore, the Sisters working there were forced to seek refuge overseas four times in five years, and since January of 1999, the schools remain closed to this day. Because of this, delivery of the above-mentioned aid to O.L.G. and Murialdo schools, as well as the material aid of 4 containers have been made impossible.
However, we intentionally left those activities in the present tense as well. Because if the situation improves, and the sisters of the Clarissan Missionary Sisters and the missionaries of Josephite Fathers come back and the schools reopen, we intend to resume the aid activities. Because the emergency situation continues, we are at this moment providing aid to where we can, while waiting to return to our original aid activities. We ask you for your understanding.
