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"Sierra Leone-Plymouth Partnership - A New Mission Effort in Africa"

Plymouth Church Monthly Newsletter "Flame, " June 2005

by Richard Jewell

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Member Jeff Hall will offer an intimately detailed slide presentation on his two-year stay in Jokibu, Sierra Leone, as a Peace Corps volunteer on Sunday, June 5, at 9:15 a.m. in Jackman. Jeff has returned to Jokibu since his initial stay. This presentation is an introduction to a new program and committee, the “Sierra Leone-Plymouth Partnership” (SLPP).

Sierra Leone is a small, coastal West African country between Guinea and Liberia. It’s capital, Freetown, was a major slave trading port for the Americas. The village of Jokibu, near Sierra Leone’s eastern inland border, was devastated during the region’s 1990s civil conflicts. The new Partnership has three goals:

• To raise $125,000 from a variety of wider Twin Cities sources for permanent metal roofs and harvest-storage containers for the village. Recently, the Plymouth Church School – through its “Spare Change to Change Lives”– raised $500 for one roof, which has been installed.

• To bring together Plymouth volunteers for one or more trips to Jokibu to help install the roofs and experience life in a Third World village.
    

• To provide regular educational scholarships for Jokibu students.

Jeff is coordinating the Partnership and SLPP committee. His close friendships with Jokibu villagers and owners of building supplies make it possible for him to personally and directly order goods, transfer money and keep accurate, detailed accounting and installation records, including photographs. Every penny contributed goes directly to aid for the village. His slide show is an excellent way to see both “before” and “after” pictures of how the partnership can help Jokibu and what the villagers themselves are like.

[If you are a group within Plymouth Church, in another church, or part of any service group--and you would like to see Jeff Hall's slide show--please contact Jeff by clicking on "Contact Us" at the top of any page.]

Most recent revision of this page: 21 Sept. 2010