Trip Slideshow

CRC Background

The Child Rescue Centre (CRC), established in July 2000, provides safety and hope to nearly 300 children who have been rescued from desperate situations. Initially opened as a feeding program for children living on the streets during Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war, the Centre has become a nationally-recognized model for bringing up at-risk children in Sierra Leone to become leaders. The CRC takes a holistic approach to raising children, addressing their intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs. Through in-country partnerships with church organizations and local community groups, the CRC seeks to ensure that children in Sierra Leone are allowed to enjoy their childhood – attend school, receive basic healthcare, actively participate in sports and other games, attend worship, and develop leadership skills. Our team Consisted of 3 adults and 13 college students. We provided vacation bible school, completed projects around the compound, tutored the students, and attended real and meaningful young adult relationship with the kids living inside the CRC. To find out more information please visit www.helpingchildrenworldwide.org

The First Day of 2012

The day began with a trip to the Sunday service at Leader UMC.  I was nervous because last time around in 2009, the service ran extremely long. I'm talking like 4 hours and counting.  But when we got there, we started off singing and dancing and it was actually really fun, no lie. There was a blind man sitting in the front, and right when we were asked to greet those around us, one of our team members Kelly walked to the front to shake his hand. She was the only one I saw do it, and I thought that was a really touching moment that day. I was sitting next to Auntie Cecilia who is probably in her late twenties.  She is too cool, she guided me through the service pointing out pages and helping me understand what the pastor was saying. She's always making jokes and laughing, it was really funny dancing next to her when she would show me the moves and I would fail miserably. When the people in the church prayed, they all prayed out loud together so it was just a bunch of people talking.  It was really cool and amazing hearing how thankful everyone is just to get from 2011 to 2012. They are so thankful to God just to get by another year. The country's life expectancy is 45, and I'm just sitting there realizing almost everything I'm thankful are things these people don't even have, including my family, It really made me realize how blessed I am to have my parents, especially the ones I have.
       After church, we gathered with a bunch of the kids for a walk around Bo.  I grabbed Olson’s hand and we walked probably 5 miles through the town. She is too funny, she was eating like drink mix straight up, just the sugar.  She says its sweet and her favorite, she bought it for 1000 leones (0.50 cents). We saw the boys school, which has an alligator, caged up in the back of it.  Apparently when the boys get it trouble, they have to go in and clean the cage or feed the alligator. They say they feed it stray dogs sometimes but they get a kick out of lying sometimes so i'm still skeptical. Johanese says "no, fish", I believe that. One things for sure though, no chance I'd ever do that, I'd be the most behaved kid in that school for sure.  We saw another school some of the kids attend and a lot of the town. There were plenty of places selling all sorts of things. We probably were walking in a group of 30 so I am glad we had some of the older kids touring us around because we were getting some funny looks.  It is a real eye opener to take a walk around Bo and see the condition the majority of the city is living in everyday. But some of the kids expressed to me how they love Bo, they really are the hope and future of this city and their country.


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