Our names are Luke Banaszkiewicz & James Burnford. .
We were given the opportunity to volunteer with a charity called EducAid, which is run by a family friend, Miriam Mason-Sesay. EducAid provides free education to the poorest and most disadvantaged young people in Sierra Leone (and when we say disadvantaged we mean seriously disadvantaged; the national average intake per household per year is no more than $500). Miriam spends two months a year travelling around the UK trying to raise money to keep the four schools running.
EducAid not only pays for the normal expense of running the schools, but they also pay for lunch for around 1400 students in these various schools. For 700 of the students the school is their home and EducAid provides them with a second meal and somewhere to sleep.
We have been in Sierra Leone for a week now and have been working as volunteer teachers for EducAid, teaching mainly basic IT skills, English, Philosophy and maths.
Since arriving here we have both enjoyed the company and friendship of some fantastic people and the students have looked out for us in this new country superbly. They are all amazing people with astonishing and shocking stories to tell but this appeal is about one student in particular, a boy forcibly recruited into the fighting forces during the war. For his own sake we are going to refer to him as ABK. ABK is a remarkable young man whose wonderful character has enabled him to overcome his war time experiences and has made him the head boy of the main EducAid school in Freetown.
The school in Freetown is one in which the students are given a lot of responsibility and the head boy in particular is essential to the smooth interaction between EducAid staff and the students. His role is made more essential when volunteers such as ourselves arrive. He has helped introduce us to this new world showing us where to get food, water and helping us exchange money.
In this one short week since we arrived he has become a true friend and it was heartbreaking when we discovered yesterday that he had Hepatitis C [treatable and curable in the western world]; a condition in which the sufferer’s liver degenerates over time. He currently has fluid in his abdomen which could easily cause an internal infection (which if he is left untreated is only a matter of time in the conditions in which he lives) If the fluid were to infect he would die in a matter of days. Doctors cannot tell him how long he has to live but one thing is certain, he cannot be successfully treated here due to poor health care and equipment.
This appeal therefore is a desperate attempt to raise enough money to get this unique young boy who has endured so much in his relatively short life, to where he can be treated. ABK has always done his best to look to the future and has worked so hard to achieve the grades that will allow him to go to university. Now it seems this hard work will bear little fruit as life has dealt ABK yet another cruel blow.
We ask therefore that you donate anything you can towards this appeal and give a young man, who has, at the age of 20, already endured far too much suffering, the chance to achieve his great potential.
There is something amazing about the way these students have responded to terrible hardships and no one represents the strength of character that these young people possess more than ABK.
Should there be any surplus funds at the end of this appeal, they will be used to able ABK to study at University if his health permits and to fund a special medical fund for particularly needy cases such as ABK's.
