Future in our hands
education and development fund

The FIOH Education and Development Fund
48 Churchward Avenue
Swindon
Wiltshire SN2 1NH
UK
Tel/Fax 01793 532353
Registered Charity Number 1047953

SIERRA LEONE PROJECTS:

POST WAR RURAL DEVELOPMENT AT YONIBANA

BACKGROUND
In 1988 FIOH UK co-ordinator, Mike Thomas and his daughter Clare (then aged 15) visited the FIOH Group in Freetown, led by Olatunde Johnson, and gave a small grant for a bakery and pineapple plantation.
They stayed with Olatunde's sister in a poor home in the main street, Siaka Stevens Street.
During this visit they accidentally encountered a bad slum area named Kroobay housing 5,000 people. The area was adjacent to the south western coast and the main sewage outfalls from Freetown City (the capital) ran through the settlement to the sea. Most people lived in poorly constructed shacks made from corrugated iron. The main problem the people faced was that they had no immediate access to clean water and needed a clean water supply to be piped down from the City centre. Mike undertook to raise £700 for a water supply on condition that a co-operative organisation would be formed to receive the money. Over the next 18 months the Freetown Kroobay Development Association (FKDA) was formed and three pipelines were installed. A BBC television programme 'Trade Slaves' later revealed that the three pipelines were the only development help the community had received.
The FKDA then established that the community needed a community centre and in 1993 Mike returned with a sum of £10,000 donated by friends to help build this. There was an infectious air of optimism in the capital and young people were cleaning out the city's sewers, installing waste baskets and painting fine pictures on walls and public buildings.
A young local architect drew up the plans and the building was eventually completed, after much disruption by civil war, in 2000.
During this visit he met Edward Kargbo, a farmer from Yonibana (90 miles north east of the capital) who attended a locally organised FIOH seminar in the Bai Bureh Hall at Port Loko (which used to be a reception centre for slaves).
Edward formed an association of farmers groups which they named the FIOH Farmers Union. This was later named Future in Our Hands Sierra Leone.
With a small grant from FIOH UK they established a primary health training programme in 13 villages in the Yoni Chiefdom. Government lecturers gave lectures without charge and the community built a training centre using their own resources.
In 1994 the programme was about to be launched in the field, when rebels attacked the area. The attack took place on 25th December and two villages and all the public buildings, including the FIOH training centre, were destroyed.
Many people fled over the next 18 months and 5 local FIOH helpers were killed doing humanitarian work providing food and shelter for people living in the bush. Five more FIOH helpers died in subsequent attacks.
In February 1995 Edward Kargbo moved to Freetown with his family and set up an office after rebels attacked Yonibana for a second time. Initially he is helped by the FKDA under the leadership of Momodu Bangura. Edward and Momodu started working together on joint programmes. On the 12th Feb 95 the FKDA used some of the money for the Community Centre to mount an emergency food relief for the people at Yonibana. A small office (lock-up garage) was established in Freetown and a variety of income generating activities set up to help people displaced by the conflicts in the rural areas.
In March 1995 both Edward and Momodu accompanied a relief convoy to Yonibana during a period when government soldiers had secured the Yonibana area and the road leading to it from Freetown.
Edward received letters of solidarity from FIOH groups around the world.
Erik Dammann (FIOH founder) wrote on the 3rd May.

On the 5th May 1995 Edward joined a convoy to Yonibana. This was ambushed by rebels 65 miles from Freetown. He sustained wounds all over his body but was able to escape into the bush where he spent three days before he was able to make his way to Yonibana. His wounds took 3 months to heal.
On the 11th Jul 1995 Yonibana is attacked for a third time and again on 28th Dec 1995 and the 1st Jan 1996. All the roads to Freetown were blocked by rebels. During 1996 children from 10 schools in Swindon filled shoe boxes with dried milk, food and medical supplies for people living in a displaced camp in Freetown and for people at Yonibana. This was part of the Swindon Agenda 21 programme for schools.

In Mar 1996 Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) was elected president but this was not accepted by the rebels.
In Nov 1996 a peace accord is signed between the warring factions at Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
The peace was to be short-lived.

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