The story of Africa Yes is really the story of the remarkable village of Gbeworbu (BEH-wuh-boo), which hosted Peace Corps volunteer Steve Cameron from 1989 to 1991. The partnership that resulted has withstood the intervention of a brutal civil war and thirteen years of separation. The villagers continue to demonstrate their resilience, determination, and work ethic as they rebuild and move forward.
Gbeworbu lies in the remote eastern hills of Sierra Leone, in Tunkia Chiefdom near the edge of the Gola Forest. The nearest sizeable town is Kenema, the district capital. This area is overwhelmingly Mende, and the villagers are primarily subsistence farmers, growing rice, cassava, sweet potatoes, and peppers. Their homes are mostly made of mud blocks with metal roofs; some are made of stick-and-mud wattle. It rains here daily for about 8 months of the year, and most construction takes place in dry season, from January to April.
The first project that grew out of the partnership between Steve and his hosts was a Village Health Worker program to provide low-cost basic medicines and medical advice from the book Where There is No Doctor. This was begun at the request of the villagers themselves -- Steve's primary project was outside the village, supervising a water project in a nearby town. Other villages heard about the program and asked to participate. Eventually, there were 14 villages in the area with Village Health Workers, and another 11 on the waiting list. The project was interrupted when the civil war in Liberia spilled into Sierra Leone. The villagers had to flee, and the country's Peace Corps volunteers were evacuated. It would be 13 years before the horrific war-by-proxy would end.
In the meantime, Steve returned to the United States and continued to try and make contact with his friends back in Sierra Leone. He exchanged letters with Munir Korma and Fodei Mansararay, and tried to send funds to support the Village Health Worker project. But without the infrastructure for reliable communication and funds transfer, often the best that could be done was to say a prayer over an aerogramme with cash inside. Back in North Carolina, Steve reconnected with Braima Moiwai, a native Sierra Leonean who travelled back each year and was able to relay messages. And then one day Steve picked up his ringing telephone to hear Munir's voice on the other end--Braima had given Munir Steve's phone number, and expanding cellular phone service and availability meant that immediate communication was now a possibility. And so the seeds of Africa Yes! were sown.
Africa Yes! was officially founded in 2006 by Steve Cameron and Braima Mowai. They were soon joined on their informal board of directors by Juliet Jensen, a 1988 Duke University graduate and community activitst. They applied for and received 501c(3) status as a non-profit organization in 2009. In the U.S., Africa Yes! is entirely a volunteer organization, so all donated funds are funneled directly into projects in the villages. Projects are conceived and directed by the villagers themselves, who have shown time and again that even small allocations of resources can be translated into big changes in individual lives.
In this corner of West Africa, people are taking their future into their own hands.
At first, the goal was simply to restart the Village Health Worker program. But a chance meeting with Mohammed Yunus in 2006 introduced Steve to the concept of micro-credit, and the villagers enthusiastically embraced the possibility of starting a loan program. Steve and his hometown Sierra Leonean friend, Braima Moiwai, founded Africa Yes as a vehicle for providing the loans. They were soon joined on the Board of Directors by Juliet Jensen, a 1988 Duke graduate and community activist. They applied for 501(c)3 status in 2008 for the Sierra Leone Partnership Foundation, dba Africa Yes!, and received approval in early 2009. The Grameen Foundation sent a field representative, Naral Alam, to the village for two weeks of training. Munir Koroma, an educated resident of the village, volunteered to be the Project Director of the Grameen Gbeworbu Micro-Loan Program. To date, the program has dispensed loans totaling more than $160,000 to local entrepreneurs, mostly women, in Gbeworbu and surrounding villages.
Meanwhile, in early 2008, a proposal was created by Fodei Mansaray, son and grandson of former village chiefs and a trained carpenter and mason who lives with his family in the village, to repair or replace all the homes that had been damaged when the village was overrun during the war. That same year, the women of the village met and requested a birthing center.
Fodei agreed to serve as the Project Director for both of these initiatives, and to be the design coordinator. He organized the villagers to collect native materials such as sand, stone, and wood, and to do all the work. The buildings are constructed of mud blocks made by the villagers, and eventually plastered with a cement-and-sand mixture to protect the exterior surface. Africa Yes supplies what the villagers cannot -- non-native materials like metal roofing, nails, and bags of cement, and payment for the services of skilled laborers such as masons and carpenters. The assistance is considered a loan to the homeowner, and the repaid money is kept in the village and used to fund future loans, making the project potentially self-perpetuating.
The housing reconstruction project has attracted the attention of other villages, which have requested Fodei's assistance in organizing themselves and implementing the actual construction. Currently, there are 8 villages actively participating (Gbeworbu, Tiloma, Taninahun, Nanyahun, Kongohun, Gorahun-Coya, Giewahun and Jombohun). Three more villages are on the waiting list (Giema, Bongor, and Borborbu). The project built its 100th house during the 2014 building season. The birthing center project now includes a clinic and a nurse's residence, and has been officially approved for operation. A nurse and a dispenser (pharmacist) have been assigned by the Ministry of Health, and final work is being completed on the well and the solar lighting system.
These construction projects have also created the opportunity to start an apprentice program for the young men of the community. So far, nine men are learning carpentry and masonry skills from the older skilled workers -- a source of income and sustainability as they try to establish their own families and build new lives from the remnants of the old. Their skills are also being utilized in an ambitious project mandated by the Health Ministry and supplemented by Africa Yes -- the construction of a latrine for every house in the village. So far, 45 new latrines have been constructed, with 25 more slated for 2015. Other projects include the planting of seedlings around the village for fruit and shade tress, creation of a sustainable woodlot for rafter poles and other construction-wood needs, and a small palm oil farm in its fifth year which, when mature, will help provide funding for future village initiatives and support for the village's "vulnerables" -- mostly elderly widows without other family members to sustain them.
Braima's home village of Bunumbu hosts an active group of women who have formed a weaving cooperative, and their expertise forms the basis for the Women's Weaving Project, started in 2012. The goal is to facilitate an exchange of knowledge between the two villages to help the women of Gbeworbu create a similar women's weaving collective and establish a strong source of income. As the primary connection of weaving grows, we hope to see other cultural exchanges emerge, as each village shares its areas of expertise and experience with the other, to strengthen both.
The village school has grown from 70 students to 210 in just one year, due to Fodei's plan to provide uniforms for each student and add new activities such as a school band. This success has stretched the resources of the school to the limit, however. Additional desks have been built, two additional rooms are under construction, and barrels of school supplies have been collected in America and shipped to Sierra Leone for sharing with various schools, including Gbeworbu's.
An exciting new partnership has recently been forged between Africa Yes and Betsy Small-Campbell, a long-time supporter who was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone. Her own village of Tokpombu has requested help rebuilding their court barrie, which was destroyed in the war. As this aligns with the mission of Africa Yes, we have arranged to accept donations for this project, and Fodei has agreed to direct the construction effort. So far, funds totaling more than $1000 have been raised by Betsy and by Julia Emerson, a high school senior who did her senior project on development efforts in West Africa. Fodei has visited the village and met with the town elders to organize the work. Collection of materials is already taking place.
In this far corner of West Africa, people are taking their future into their own hands.
Gbeworbu lies in the remote eastern hills of Sierra Leone, in Tunkia Chiefdom near the edge of the Gola Forest. The nearest sizeable town is Kenema, the district capital. This area is overwhelmingly Mende, and the villagers are primarily subsistence farmers, growing rice, cassava, sweet potatoes, and peppers. Their homes are mostly made of mud blocks with metal roofs; some are made of stick-and-mud wattle. It rains here daily for about 8 months of the year, and most construction takes place in dry season, from January to April.
The first project that grew out of the partnership between Steve and his hosts was a Village Health Worker program to provide low-cost basic medicines and medical advice from the book Where There is No Doctor. This was begun at the request of the villagers themselves -- Steve's primary project was outside the village, supervising a water project in a nearby town. Other villages heard about the program and asked to participate. Eventually, there were 14 villages in the area with Village Health Workers, and another 11 on the waiting list. The project was interrupted when the civil war in Liberia spilled into Sierra Leone. The villagers had to flee, and the country's Peace Corps volunteers were evacuated. It would be 13 years before the horrific war-by-proxy would end.
In the meantime, Steve returned to the United States and continued to try and make contact with his friends back in Sierra Leone. He exchanged letters with Munir Korma and Fodei Mansararay, and tried to send funds to support the Village Health Worker project. But without the infrastructure for reliable communication and funds transfer, often the best that could be done was to say a prayer over an aerogramme with cash inside. Back in North Carolina, Steve reconnected with Braima Moiwai, a native Sierra Leonean who travelled back each year and was able to relay messages. And then one day Steve picked up his ringing telephone to hear Munir's voice on the other end--Braima had given Munir Steve's phone number, and expanding cellular phone service and availability meant that immediate communication was now a possibility. And so the seeds of Africa Yes! were sown.
Africa Yes! was officially founded in 2006 by Steve Cameron and Braima Mowai. They were soon joined on their informal board of directors by Juliet Jensen, a 1988 Duke University graduate and community activitst. They applied for and received 501c(3) status as a non-profit organization in 2009. In the U.S., Africa Yes! is entirely a volunteer organization, so all donated funds are funneled directly into projects in the villages. Projects are conceived and directed by the villagers themselves, who have shown time and again that even small allocations of resources can be translated into big changes in individual lives.
In this corner of West Africa, people are taking their future into their own hands.
At first, the goal was simply to restart the Village Health Worker program. But a chance meeting with Mohammed Yunus in 2006 introduced Steve to the concept of micro-credit, and the villagers enthusiastically embraced the possibility of starting a loan program. Steve and his hometown Sierra Leonean friend, Braima Moiwai, founded Africa Yes as a vehicle for providing the loans. They were soon joined on the Board of Directors by Juliet Jensen, a 1988 Duke graduate and community activist. They applied for 501(c)3 status in 2008 for the Sierra Leone Partnership Foundation, dba Africa Yes!, and received approval in early 2009. The Grameen Foundation sent a field representative, Naral Alam, to the village for two weeks of training. Munir Koroma, an educated resident of the village, volunteered to be the Project Director of the Grameen Gbeworbu Micro-Loan Program. To date, the program has dispensed loans totaling more than $160,000 to local entrepreneurs, mostly women, in Gbeworbu and surrounding villages.
Meanwhile, in early 2008, a proposal was created by Fodei Mansaray, son and grandson of former village chiefs and a trained carpenter and mason who lives with his family in the village, to repair or replace all the homes that had been damaged when the village was overrun during the war. That same year, the women of the village met and requested a birthing center.
Fodei agreed to serve as the Project Director for both of these initiatives, and to be the design coordinator. He organized the villagers to collect native materials such as sand, stone, and wood, and to do all the work. The buildings are constructed of mud blocks made by the villagers, and eventually plastered with a cement-and-sand mixture to protect the exterior surface. Africa Yes supplies what the villagers cannot -- non-native materials like metal roofing, nails, and bags of cement, and payment for the services of skilled laborers such as masons and carpenters. The assistance is considered a loan to the homeowner, and the repaid money is kept in the village and used to fund future loans, making the project potentially self-perpetuating.
The housing reconstruction project has attracted the attention of other villages, which have requested Fodei's assistance in organizing themselves and implementing the actual construction. Currently, there are 8 villages actively participating (Gbeworbu, Tiloma, Taninahun, Nanyahun, Kongohun, Gorahun-Coya, Giewahun and Jombohun). Three more villages are on the waiting list (Giema, Bongor, and Borborbu). The project built its 100th house during the 2014 building season. The birthing center project now includes a clinic and a nurse's residence, and has been officially approved for operation. A nurse and a dispenser (pharmacist) have been assigned by the Ministry of Health, and final work is being completed on the well and the solar lighting system.
These construction projects have also created the opportunity to start an apprentice program for the young men of the community. So far, nine men are learning carpentry and masonry skills from the older skilled workers -- a source of income and sustainability as they try to establish their own families and build new lives from the remnants of the old. Their skills are also being utilized in an ambitious project mandated by the Health Ministry and supplemented by Africa Yes -- the construction of a latrine for every house in the village. So far, 45 new latrines have been constructed, with 25 more slated for 2015. Other projects include the planting of seedlings around the village for fruit and shade tress, creation of a sustainable woodlot for rafter poles and other construction-wood needs, and a small palm oil farm in its fifth year which, when mature, will help provide funding for future village initiatives and support for the village's "vulnerables" -- mostly elderly widows without other family members to sustain them.
Braima's home village of Bunumbu hosts an active group of women who have formed a weaving cooperative, and their expertise forms the basis for the Women's Weaving Project, started in 2012. The goal is to facilitate an exchange of knowledge between the two villages to help the women of Gbeworbu create a similar women's weaving collective and establish a strong source of income. As the primary connection of weaving grows, we hope to see other cultural exchanges emerge, as each village shares its areas of expertise and experience with the other, to strengthen both.
The village school has grown from 70 students to 210 in just one year, due to Fodei's plan to provide uniforms for each student and add new activities such as a school band. This success has stretched the resources of the school to the limit, however. Additional desks have been built, two additional rooms are under construction, and barrels of school supplies have been collected in America and shipped to Sierra Leone for sharing with various schools, including Gbeworbu's.
An exciting new partnership has recently been forged between Africa Yes and Betsy Small-Campbell, a long-time supporter who was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone. Her own village of Tokpombu has requested help rebuilding their court barrie, which was destroyed in the war. As this aligns with the mission of Africa Yes, we have arranged to accept donations for this project, and Fodei has agreed to direct the construction effort. So far, funds totaling more than $1000 have been raised by Betsy and by Julia Emerson, a high school senior who did her senior project on development efforts in West Africa. Fodei has visited the village and met with the town elders to organize the work. Collection of materials is already taking place.
In this far corner of West Africa, people are taking their future into their own hands.