One year later, church continues support for landslide survivors

The Sierra Leone Conference, with support from the United Methodist Committee on Relief, has distributed uniforms, backpacks, shoes and other school supplies to 476 children in four schools affected by the Aug. 14, 2017, landslide and flooding in Freetown.

The distribution took place concurrently with health education in the Kamayama, Pentagon and Kaningo communities June 18-22.

Volunteer nurses from the denomination’s Kissy Hospital participated in door-to-door health talks on malaria, diarrhea and cholera — three of the most common diseases that occur during the rainy season, which normally falls between June and September.

Health staff also used the opportunity to remind residents to take precautionary measures to keep children from straying into the neighboring disaster-prone areas during the rainy season.

At Hope Preparatory School in Kamayama, Ethel Sandy helped hand out the school items.

“Each of you will receive a bag, a pair of shoes, some books, pens, pencils, rulers, erasers and a geometry set. We want you to know that we love you and that our bishop, John K. Yambasu, is a caring leader who wants you all to be educated and be happy,” said Sandy, women’s coordinator for the conference.

“Yes, ma!” the children yelled in excitement.

Bethel Institution of Excellence, in the Kondiema Farm Community, the Rev. Solomon Rogers told the children all was not lost. Through education, God would help them get more than they lost to the flooding and landslide, said Rogers, administrative assistant to the bishop.

“As long as there is life, there is hope. We from The United Methodist Church are here to pray with you and ask God to bless and protect you this season from harm,” he said. 

He prayed with the children and ended with “He Is a Miracle Working God,” with the kids joining in on the chorus.

The school academic year in Sierra Leone starts in September. Distribution of the school materials was supposed to have been done earlier so that the children would benefit in the first term of the academic year. However, they received the items late due to election-related violence.

For almost three months in Sierra Leone, the nation was brought to its knees as everybody, including school authorities, was hesitant to go to work or school for fear of election-related violence, Yambasu said.

“There were hitches in the process, especially during the electioneering period when the whole of Sierra Leone virtually came to a standstill and schools were not operating at all. Schools were closed down for fear of anything that might erupt during the elections. So, we had to hold on until the end of elections,” he said.

The $98,000 UMCOR-funded project also provided five boreholes in the disaster-affected communities. The boreholes are finished and will be handed over to the communities after residents are educated on basic maintenance, care and sanitation, said Smart Senesie, the conference’s director of missions and programs.

The boreholes also were delayed because of the elections.

“People operating their machines were afraid to risk their machines into the field. So, we had to wait until the end of the elections,” Yambasu said. “Finally, when things settled down, we did the distribution. But, above all, it was a transforming exercise. Theologically, it was also a redemptive exercise because by the time we were approaching the elections, there was abject poverty in the country.”

The 2017 twin disasters killed over a thousand people in the West African country’s capital, many of whom remained buried under the rubble at the foot of Mount Sugar Loaf in western Freetown and its environs.

The donated items were bought with funds received from UMCOR part of a post-disaster response from the agency to support the conference’s disaster response team in helping surviving families.

Overwhelmed by the degree of devastation experienced by victims, Yambasu in 2017 pledged on behalf of The United Methodist Church long-term support for the affected communities.

The bishop said he was excited that the conference delivered on its promise to continue in ministry with the landslide victims.

“The United Methodist Church is … one of the very few following up on the flooding and landslide victims one year after the disaster,” he said.

Jusu is director of communications for The United Methodist Church in Sierra Leone.

News media contact: Vicki Brown at (615) 742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free Daily or Weekly Digests.