Mission Direct - Volunteers helping the world's poor

The City of Rest is a Christian rehabilitation centre in the capital Freetown. Most residents are former child soldiers deeply scarred by the civil war. Many are recovering drug addicts struggling with mental illness.

City of Rest workers offer counselling, lots of prayers and protection from a hostile world. Mission Direct has been involved with the City of Rest project since 2007.

Outcome:

Our volunteers and donors have already made a huge difference to the lives of the residents. Conditions are far more sanitary and comfortable. The new City of Rest will transform the lives of residents beyond measure offering them a far more humane existence..

Our involvement:

Mission Direct leaders established a partnership with the project in 2004, to help them repair and improve their facilities. Amongst the assistance volunteers have been able to offer has been:

- Two six roomed dormitories built with full accessibility features.
- Wheelchair ramps around the facility
- Various beds, furniture and basic supplies.
- A kitchen to enable them to prepare food to sell
- New sewing machines for training and to generate further income.
- Repair to drainage and sanitation.

Outcome:

Through listening to and meeting the immediate needs of the association, they have been able to work far more effectively and self-sufficiently among people that would otherwise have few chances of a living in Sierra Leone.

King George VI Coronation Home was opened in 1937 as a home for the elderly. The scheme was ignored by the post-independence Government and ravaged by Civil war. There are 53 residents including many who are deaf, blind or bedridden. The premises were unsanitary and almost falling apart.

Our involvement:

Amongst the work done by Mission Direct volunteers has been:

- Working with local tradesmen and volunteers to repair roof, walls, windows and doors.
- Cleaning and painting the dormitories and bathrooms
- Digging a new well and irrigation piping.
- Refurbished beds with mosquito nets.
- Income generation projects including a piggery and building for rental.

Outcome:

In short the work of volunteers has improved the health, welfare and dignity of residents beyond measure.

The Leonard Cheshire Home for Polio Children has been helping children in Freetown for many years. It operates as a school for children suffering from Polio, half of whom are residents. Polio sufferers are effectively marginalised and unable to work.

Our Involvement:

The founders of Mission Direct became involved in the Home in 2004 and with our volunteers, have helped in these and other ways:

- The construction of a new boys' dormitory for sixteen residents.
- Refurbishment of girls' dormitories including lights and fans.
- Redecorating three classrooms including lighting.
- Rebuilding the kitchen facilities.
- New storage tanks and water supply.

Outcome:

Volunteers have removed much of the squalor of the home and offered teachers and staff a new dignity.

The St George's Foundation works with some of Freetown's 3,000 street children, living off scraps or turning to prostitution as young as nine. The Foundation works to bring these children off the streets, offer food, shelter and nurture so that wherever possible they can rejoin their families and be educated in school.

Our involvement:

The foundation was given an area of land with burnt out buildings. Mission Direct has helped to transform this by:

- Renovating the gutted buildings turning them into a transformation centre to house and educate the street children.
- Building hygienic toilet facilities.
- Providing a computer suite to aid the education of the children.

Outcome:

Mission Direct has enabled the Foundation to transform lives more effectively. The time spent by the children in the new facilities aims to return children - driven to the streets by civil war - back to family life, education and a renewed childhood.

The Adventist School has an excellent reputation. However conditions were unsanitary and their toilet facilities collapsed into a hole.

Our Involvement:

Following an appeal for help, Mission Direct was able to source a new latrine system that remains as hygienic as possible despite a lack of running water.

Outcome:

Mission Direct were able to locally source a simple and relatively cheap solution to the problem and thus continue the safe running of a successful school.

The United Polio Brothers is an association of 95, mostly men in Freetown, who are afflicted by polio. All are disabled and some live with severe physical problems. The association occupy about an acre of land on the site of a disused abattoir in Kissy, Freetown, which is owned by the Sierra Leonean Government.

Our Involvement:

Residents lived on the floor of a disused abattoir with all the health implications. Mission Direct volunteers have helped in a number of ways, including:

- Building new toilets and showers and closing off the old cesspit.
- Building a new kitchen.
- Providing a new concrete floor so that residents aren't bitten by worms and bedbugs.
- Providing around 100 beds for residents.

Outcome:

The project aims to offer education and hope for all residents. Thanks to some basic improvements in conditions, they are able to concentrate on this much more effectively.

Mission Direct leaders have enabled help for thousands of children passing through the Christian Hope School in Kissy Freetown. Its dreadful toilets were refurbished, a storm drain built stopping frequent flooding and the whole school was painted. We have provided instruments for a school band, football kits for their teams, teachers salaries and land to build a pre-school. With multiple education supplies Mission Direct volunteers made a great difference here. Others have now kindly added additional classrooms and a perimeter fence and the school manages to get some of the best results in its final year public exams.