End of Year Update 2006

Dear Members, Donors, and other Friends of Sierra Leone,

First of all, thank you to everyone who emailed, called or sent cards wishing me well with my recent spine surgery. I am happy to report that I am doing much, much better and am ready to go somewhere! I missed the 2006 annual meeting and some other functions because of the surgery, but I hope to attend the event in January and today I booked my flight for the annual meeting in California this July. I hope to see many of you there July 13th through 15th. More information will be coming soon.

Our project committee was productive this past year. We started with the grant to Talking Drum Studio. The funds were used to buy a generator for the collaborative education project with the MOE. Teacher training is the focus of their project. We began raising money for this project in 2005 and completed it in 2006. I visited the Bo studio for Talking Drum when I was there last July and August. I was very impressed with their organization. Additionally, Am. Hull speaks highly of Talking Drum too.

In 2006 we gave $3000 to the Masanga Children’s Fund to help build housing for a small computer lab for the children they sponsor. We gave another $3000 in matching funds to assist in sending a container of new textbooks from the Sabre Foundation to the Sierra Leone Book Trust in Freetown. We donated to Tom Johnson’s surgical efforts for the spinal patients he sends to Ghana for lifesaving treatment.

We have started a new project that we hope will turn into an ongoing collaboration among UNICEF, the MOE and FoSL for teacher training of the untrained and unqualified primary teachers. As this project moves along, more information will be sent out. Meanwhile, we are accepting funds for this and the general project fund as well as accepting applications for small grants in Sierra Leone.

The teacher training project will be one of the biggest projects we have undertaken and may include volunteer opportunities when we get further into it. As such, it will take quite a bit of money. You may donate to the project fund via the website, www.fosalone.org, by clicking on the Donate Now link on the home page. You may use a credit card, eCheck, or paypal. Donations made in someone else’s name are welcome and I will send the honoree a note if you will let me know the contact information.

Cindy Nofziger, our project chair, has been very busy with her committee and I’d like to thank her for her hard work. I'd like to thank her too for her assistance with the summary of the project committee’s work for the past year. In addition to FoSL work, Cindy has her own school building project that is currently finishing another school – or two. She will attend the openings this February. Congratulations on your successes Cindy.

Another hard working FoSL board member is our advocacy chair, Judy Figi. Judy has been incredible in her work toward getting the Peace Corps back to Sierra Leone. We really thought this would happen this summer, but recently we learned that the return to Salone had been delayed indefinitely and that Ethiopia would be welcoming the Peace Corps to her borders. This was a huge disappointment to us, but it is not the end of the struggle. Judy is already making plans to return in February to meet with various officials and I hope to join her for the visits. We welcome anyone who wants to work on this goal – we can’t have too many people helping with this.

Judy wrote a summary of the advocacy committee’s work for the past year. I can’t improve on it by paraphrasing so I have included her report below:

FoSL Advocacy2006

The FoSL Advocacy Committee continues to work for the return of Peace Corps to Sierra Leone. Committee members visited Washington D.C. three times in the past year.

In January I met at Peace Corps Headquarters with James Ham who assured me that Sierra Leone is still at the top of the list. I also spoke with Henry McKoy who told me they were not planning to go into Ethiopia at that time due to safety issues in that country.

In April board members met with officials at the State Department, Sierra Leone Embassy and Peace Corps Headquarters as well as several Congressional staffers. At Peace Corps Headquarters we met with Paul Johnson and Henry McKoy, who assured us that Sierra Leone is still at the top of the list. McKoy was at that time planning a trip to West Africa and possibly a stop in Sierra Leone.
The stop in Sierra Leone did not happen.

In September Committee member Jim Sheahan joined other RPCVs in meeting with Congressmen about increasing the Peace Corps budget.

Board members also met Congressional staffers and with Paul Johnson, Lynn Foden and Jennifer Brown at Peace Corps headquarters. We presented Paul, who was leaving for a new position in the Congo, with a certificate of appreciation. We were told that Peace Corps would be going into Ethiopia and using President Bush's fund for fighting AIDS/HIV in Africa for 75% of its funding. Further new Peace Corps programs will be determined when Peace Corps receives the 2007 budget.

Since September Vice President Berewa and Ambassador Tom Hull have met with Peace Corps staff, again urging them to reinstate the Sierra Leone program.

We continue to contact Congressmen asking them to write Peace Corps about a return to Sierra Leone. We plan to meet with Congressional staffers, the new Sierra Leonean Ambassador to the U.S., the Sierra Leone Desk Officer at the State Dept., and Peace Corps Staff in early 2007.

In addition to our Peace Corps efforts, we will look into getting Sierra Leone included in countries that are receiving funding for President Bush’s Malaria Initiative and urge Congress to increase funding for that initiative.

Judy Figi
Dec. 29, 2006

Thank you, Judy, for all of your work. In addition to her advocacy work, Judy and her husband, Dave, also volunteer with Operation Classroom and they have spent the last two summers working with teachers attending the training sessions in Makeni.

Sarah Armstrong, education chair, has put together a photo CD which is available for presentations. Contact Sarah if you would like to have her help in a presentation about Sierra Leone. Her email is sarah.armstrong@brighterafrica.org.

FoSL and the Sierra Leonean Embassy co-hosted a reception in honor of Sierra Leone Day last April. We had a dinner/dance in conjunction with our annual meeting in Washington last September 16th. During this event we sponsored a silent auction to raise money for the projects' fund. We also honored Judy Figi for dedication and hard work for advocacy and Ambassador Thomas Hull for his continuing efforts to get the Peace Corps back to Sierra Leone.

Again, our next annual meeting is in Monterey, California at the Asilomar Conference Centre. The dates are July 13th through July 15th. FoSL members in that area who would like to help with the conference are asked to contact Bob Heavner, FoSL secretary, at bob@fosalone.org.

Thank you to everyone who contributed in any way toward the goals of FoSL. Whether you donated money, rejoined, wrote a letter to a congressman, or anything else that helps, we greatly appreciate your help. I look forward to seeing many of you this July.

Sincerely,

Peggy Murrah

President

Friends of Sierra Leone

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