Ebola Virus Hits Sierra Leone

One year ago the village of Morabie in Sierra Leone started building a primary school beside the church.
Pastor Albert Sam and the trustees managed to build the walls before running out of funds.

Charlie and June Newlands had met and made friends with Albert when they were in Sierra Leone with Mercy Ships on a Rotary Mission Challenge in 2004/5. Ever since that moment Renfrew Rotary have had strong ties with this part of Africa.

Renfrew Rotary held a garden party in their home last summer and raised the money to pay for the roof on the building.

Then tragedy struck, the Ebola Virus hit Sierra Leone and the village was quarantined like many others for 8 months, people could not go to work, children could not go to school. Two parents contracted it and died leaving their two children as orphans.

The outbreak is now under control, the quarantine has been lifted and now we are going to help do some more work on the school building.

150 children attend the primary school, 30 children sat the recent qualifying exams and 25 passed for secondary school. One of these children came out top in the whole district. Honour indeed!

This is a two pronged effort, to build the school and to support the village in these very difficult times. We recently sent money and 80 families shared the rice that was purchased, giving them food for several days.

Here are some of the pictures of the school under construction and the villagers getting together for the first time in months to share a local favourite meal.