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SIERRA LEONE RESOURCES Sierra Leone-Plymouth Partnership—www.SLPP.org |
SIERRA LEONE-PLYMOUTH
PARTNERSHIP |
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List of Starter Articles on
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"Sierra Leone-Plymouth
"Walk on African Main St.," 9-05
Review: In the Land of Magic Soldiers by Daniel Bergner," 5-06
"Hope for All Our Children," 7-06
"Micro Loans & Income," 11-07 à
"Passionate for Education," 5-07
Review: "Blood Diamond," 11-07
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Articles/Reprints ---
Articles about Sierra Leone in "The Flame" Newsletter This is the second of three parts on the Sierra Leone-Plymouth Partnership (SLPP) 2007 trip to Sierra Leone. Our 5,000 village friends in Sierra Leone have made excellent progress over the past three years. The Sierra Leone-Plymouth Partnership (SLPP) has worked closely with the villages to provide roofs for shelter, rice seed to increase food production, medical supplies for the health clinic, manual peanut-grinding machines to encourage protein consumption, clean water wells and hundreds of school scholarships.
During our trip in May, we unexpectedly made our initial loans due to overwhelming interest by the villagers. These initial outlays of $100 to $200 were business loans for a group of 30 women making high-quality soap, a highly skilled blacksmith who needed to invest in a new welding machine and two enterprising young men who wanted to purchase bicycles to rent by the hour; both agreed to hire a handicapped person to help run the rental business. We also laid the groundwork for seasonal loans for farmers. Our village friends told us how they harvest cocoa (a cash crop introduced during British colonial times) during the "hungry season," the months of July through October before harvest, when everyone in the country runs out of rice. Farmers in desperate need of cash and food sell the cocoa for about 20¢ a pound; some very desperate farmers even pre-sell cocoa in July for only 15¢ a pound. Yet if the farmers were able to hold their produce for a few months, they would be able to sell it for nearly 40¢ a pound in January. Starting with only $25,000 in capital, our loan officers plan to make loans to 600 farmers that will help them make twice as much money for the same amount of work – or about $50 to $70 extra per farmer. Given that these farmers, among the very poorest in the world, consider themselves lucky to break even each year, an extra $50 is a tremendous financial boost that will have a dramatic impact on their food and health situation. Furthermore, as we expand the micro loan program into various seasons to help with their other main crops – coffee, palm oil and rice – it will have an phenomenal impact on their income.
SLPP has had at least 15 Plymouth members visit the villages the past two years, with more planning to go next June. If you’re interested, watch the bulletin for a mid-November trip meeting. For further information, visit www.SLPP.org. Photos – Top: Awarding our first micro loan to the women soap makers and their trainer. Bottom: A farmer drying his cocoa harvest. |
First publication of this page: 21 Nov. 2007
Most recent update of
this page: 15 July 2008
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Africa image courtesy Barry's Clip Art. Written content & page design unless otherwise noted: Richard Jewell Photos
unless otherwise noted: © 2004-10 by
Jeff Hall, Richard Jewell, other members of the Sierra Leone-Plymouth
Partnership, or Foindu-Jokibu-Pujehun photographers. Public Web address: http://www.SLPP.org. Questions, suggestions, comments, & requests for site links: Contact Richard Jewell. |
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