SL13 team arrives home
From Saturday 19 to Monday 28 January the SL13 team of 10 colleagues from Turley Associates was in Freetown with charity partners Mission Direct.
Many followed us on Twitter @turleycharity and got a flavour of what we achieved and the encounters we had. Pictures say more than words so have a look at some of “our favourite photos”.
Mission Direct CEO, Nigel Hyde, Trustee Peter Wright and in country volunteer, Alison Marsh were fantastic organisers. The Nehemiah Lifeline boys were brilliant hosts, working alongside us every day to make and lay blocks on the new vocational centre and to paint the dormitory building.
In our time there we:
- Made over 350 sand and cement building blocks
- Built the walls of the vocational centre to 8 ft high
- Painted the dormitory building inside and out
- Taught six classes
- Painted the outside of a hospital
- Undertook a site visit to a polio association residential/workshop centre to advise on redevelopment options
- Met the Freetown City Council planning team to talk about slum housing issues
- Fitted residents of an old people’s home with glasses
- Took aid to a women’s polio group; street kids centre; two schools; and a home for disabled children.
And of course we met a whole range of wonderful and inspiring people, who no matter how hard their life is never complained but faced challenges with determination and a smile.
Thank you all for the financial support you have given to the building project at Nehemiah Lifelines. Another building team from the UK is going out soon to help finish the work. With the support you have given and continue to give the materials can be brought and the building in use by this summer.
Also a big thank you to for the abundance of aid that you donated and that has already started to make such a huge difference to the lives of the people we met.
Sometimes the needs of the world’s poor overwhelm us. At other times we have an opportunity to do something about it, with one act of kindness and compassion at a time. For the SL13 team January 2013 was one such time.
The Turley Associates Charitable Trust is committed to continuing this work. Thank you for being part of it.