Mohammed Sano's Story

Recorded 23 June 2005, Kenema, Sierra Leone

Mohammed’s story is recorded here as he told it, more or less. The recording wasn’t great quality but these are his words as far as I can get them down. It begins in his village of Luwma, just three miles from the Liberian border, where he lived with his family.

Click here for the full story.

Ezekiel Nonie

Ezekiel lost contact with most of his family for several years and had been forced to drop out of school. He had no one to pay his school fees for him. After joining EducAid he was working hard in school but often falling asleep in class. Miriam then discovered that he was living in a small kiosk (approximately 2m²). He now lives in the EducAid Freetown school (with 18 others!). For the first time in many years this has given him a stable place to live and study - and regular meals. Here he is with his first prize for English Language and Literature

Each of these girls has a story to tell from the war. The war is over but the effects and the scars continue to affect many a young life. One of these girls was with a group of women in the women’s ‘sacred bush’ undergoing initiation ceremonies into the women’s secret society when the rebels attacked. The woman initiator, the sowe, was cut up and eaten in front of her. She then watched the other girls being raped. She was spared because she was only eight.

Another girl watched as her uncle, who had loved and cared for her as a father, was buried alive in a shallow grave and shot in front of her.

The other one spent weeks on the run fleeing her home with her elderly grandmother. She saw people shot and raped. She saw dead bodies washing up on the river banks and other horrors too fearful to name.

The courage and strength these young women show is extraordinary. They are committed to rebuilding their lives and although the war and poverty set their education back many years, they are determined to make the best of their new opportunity.

Each of these boys was conscripted by force by the rebels during the war. They were drugged to enable them to carry out extraordinary atrocities. One has a great slash scarred into his leg which is where the cocaine was put each day. He ran away after being forced to dig the shallow grave for the burial of the two live sacrifices – a pregnant woman and a child – required as ‘juju’ to ensure success in the following day’s fighting.

The majority of those who fought alongside these boys are either dead, insane or living on the streets in and out of prison for petty theft and violence. But these young men have extraordinary strength of personality. The detail of their stories would move the hardest of hearts, but they do not even consider self-pity. Since they joined EducAid each of them has grown out of all recognition, losing their fears, gaining confidence, growing in maturity and responsibility. Committed to education as a means to control their own lives, they are humbling to work with.