Rebuilding Communities - Rebuilding Lives

Christian Children's Fund
Monday, 10 September 2001

Christian Children's Fund (CCF) has received a $950,000 USAID grant to get 3,200 men and women back into the work force in war-torn Sierra Leone through a combination of civil works projects and vocational development. CCF will match the grant with $389,000, bringing the total jobs program to $1.3 million over the next 12 months. At least 2,040 of those enrolled in the program will be ex-combatants who fought in a protracted conflict over control of Sierra Leone's diamond mines.

CCF's jobs program involves three phases including: community mobilization to determine what civil works projects are most needed in affected communities; actual implementation of the civil works projects; and vocational and business skills training for participants.

Phase one of the CCF program will begin in late September when CCF meets with leaders in the Tonkolili, Koinadugu, and Bombali districts in northern Sierra Leone to identify civic works needed in the local villages. Public works projects could include road building, reconstruction of destroyed schools, building grain storage facilities or grain drying floors, etc. The community mobilization phase also will identify key available community resources?including both natural resources needed for construction projects and skilled artisans needed to train job recruits and oversee the work. Workshops will be conducted for the artisans who will supervise work teams that will include ex-combatants and community people.

In phase two, participants will work at least 160 hours on designated civil works projects. This phase is designed to promote cooperation between ex-combatants and community members. All of the participants will receive stipends for their work.

After the second phase of the jobs program is completed, participants will be offered vocational and business training in one of three areas. Participants can chose additional training in a technical skill that takes more than 6 months to achieve complete competency such as carpentry, masonry, metal working, electrical, mechanical work and tailoring. In an apprenticeship program under a master artisan, participants will receive a stipend as they learn.

For those who want basic training in technical skills that can be mastered in less than six months such as baking or fishing, an introductory skill course will be offered. Participants will be required to organize themselves into groups of five to seven individuals working under the mentorship of an experienced business leader whowill continue to monitor the development of the group?s technical skills and serve as a business mentor to the group. CCF will assist these groups in developing a business plan, and provide loans for fixed shared assets such as boats, ovens or transport trucks.

A third option will be available to those with an existing technical skill who need start-up capital for a small business. Small business loans of approximately $50 to $100 will be available through savings and loan type associations, established through the USAID matching grant.

"This is really about reintegration and rebuilding through a job training and business development program. It will get ex-combatants and community members working together to rebuild their communities, while at the same time rebuilding their lives," explained CCF President John F. Schultz. "Right now, you have men and women coming back into the community with nothing to do, no skills and no formal training. This program will put them to work and help rebuild the community at the same time. And when we talk about rebuilding the community, we are not just envisioning concrete structures, but rebuilding the community by training skilled technical workers and future business leaders."

CCF, which assists 4.6 million children and families in 31 countries worldwide, has been working in Sierra Leone since 1985. CCF programs in Sierra Leone have focused primarily on psychosocial interventions to assist children traumatized and physically wounded by years of war. CCF has also engaged in massive immunization programs in Sierra Leone, immunizing more than 360,000 children in the past year. CCF offers non-formal primary education programs with special emphasis on girl child education in 19 communities in the northern and eastern provinces of the country. To foster income-generating activities, CCF also provides revolving loans to women primarily for crop production, fishing, chicken production, etc. The reintegration of former child soldiers is now a main focus for CCF in Sierra Leone.

USAID (the U.S. Agency for International Development) administers the U.S. foreign assistance program providing economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 80 countries worldwide.

For more information, or to contact Christian Children's Fund, see their website at: www.christianchildrensfund.org