When we see pictures and hear stories of starving or abused children, it stirs you; sometimes to action.
This is a positive thing. There are many such pictures and stories on this site.
However emotions often fade – and then the actions may too. Which is why we have set out our stall on a
heavily rational footing as well. This site takes time to set out the problem, context and actions
Because we believe that commitments made clearly and rationally last longer and run deeper. And again,
lets be blunt, this is what the fight against poverty needs – sustained, lasting, deep commitment –
from as many people as possible.
So, we want to explain the importance of street child crisis in Sierra Leone; what life is like as a
street child in Makeni – and most importantly, what we are doing, why we are doing it and why it works.
The above is all really important but
if there is one point above all others by which we want to
define Street Child of Sierra Leone, it is an atmosphere of inclusiveness, participation and genuine
partnership between our children, team and work in Sierra Leone and our supporters in the UK.
As a volunteer-based organisation, to be exclusive would be suicidal! We are uniquely dependent on the participation of our supporters. To further our work in Sierra Leone, we need . . .
(your?)
Money
Obviously! Please! To fund our work.
(your?)
Specialist skills
For our UK charity work: IT, marketing, promotional, administrative, accountancy . . . all these can improve our work
For our SL children’s work: child specialist, medical, planning, development, teaching, sports, audit ... all of these skills can strengthen our work
(your?)
Ideas
For our UK charity work: fund-raising ideas, ideas of new people to contact, ideas for how we can do things better ...
For our SL children’s work: how could we do things better? What new could we introduce? What are we doing that you think might be a little odd?
(your?)
Time
To help with events. For all those basic but lets face it, not especially skill-requiring tasks. For example you don’t need much more than a bit of time and a big smile to join us shaking a bucket at the London marathon!
(your?)
Address book(s)!
To bring more people on board (with their money, skills, time, ideas, address books!)
And
if you are working with us, or thinking about working with us, you need to know exactly where your
support is going – and what impact it is making. So we have tried to make this site a uniquely transparent portal -
it is loaded with plans, budgets, profiles, pictures, film, back-ground documents and detailed reports . . .
Knowledge motivates, ‘proximity’ motivates. They motivate because you grow in understanding of the scale of the
problem – but also in what you can do to solve it
Finally, know that SCoSL is ambitious! Today there is Street Child Makeni, but our goal is to have a
project in every major town – not just caring for the children, but doing what it takes to address the
roots of this crisis.
Working only for street children in a small country may sound like a niche place with limited scope -
but to reach that conclusion would be to terribly underestimate the scale of the issue, the importance
of the issue, and how far its roots reach into society.
Sierra Leone urgently needs SCoSL to grow and grow – and with your support, we are on the case!
