Two years ago, HCW Partner Church Ebenezer UMC committed to partner with Fengehun village to provide desperately needed clean water and sanitation solutions to the community.  Initially delayed by country-wide COVID restrictions, the projects are now well under way in the capable hands of Elmer and Joann Reifel, missioners with Christians in Action Missions International who are based in Bo, Sierra Leone. 

A major part of the Reifels’ work in Sierra Leone is providing clean water to communities in need via hand-drilled boreholes.  Elmer is also an ordained minister who serves as CinA’s Africa Area Director.  The Reifels use every opportunity to share the Gospel whenever possible. 

The Reifels’ work with Helping Children Worldwide began in 2018 when former HCW Field Director Kim Nabieu engaged them to drill wells in two small villages, funded by contributions made to HCW on behalf of a retiring Methodist minister.

With the launch of the Village Partnership initiative, HCW asked the Reifels to submit a bid for wells and latrines that were needed in Fengehun, a village served by Mercy Hospital’s mobile outreach team.  

During a 2019 mission trip to Sierra Leone, Ebenezer UMC Pastor Rob Lough and Missions Director Tina DeBoeser met with Fengehun leadership and committed to a partnership between their church and the village.  The projects were supposed to be completed in 2020, but COVID closures delayed the start until February of this year. 

The Reifels have completed the new fresh water well and have finished refurbishing the two older wells. They also began work on a new three-stall latrine. After the Fengehun projects are complete, they will begin similar projects in Lemblema, the site of another Village Partnership project.

"We are pleased to let you know that the new well, the first on our list of to-do's in Fengehun, is complete and fully operational," Joann Reifel reported.  "The pump base was installed in the new concrete base last week and given about four days to cure before installing the rest of the pump and shocking the water to purify it for drinking.  A yield test allows us to gauge whether or not there is enough water coming into the hole to use a pump, and we do that before we commit to installing a pump.  The yield of this well is a terrific 10.8 gallons per minute, so it should be able to keep up to the demand. " 

"The method we use for the drilling of the borehole is a manual drilling process using a variety of augers, cutters, rock breakers and tips depending on local geology," Joann explained.  “The new pump parts were installed in the original standpipe and the water source is protected now from the parts of the well that were collapsing in on it and causing the mud to build up over the years."  The new pipes also go further down than the old ones, allowing the villagers to pump water even during the dry season.

The new and renovated wells should supply Fengehun village with clean, fresh water for many years to come.  When the new latrines are completed, the village will be a healthier and more hospitable place for the residents.  

​By Melody Curtiss, HCW Executive Director

When Mercy Hospital's operating suite opened, Project Cure, through a generous donor, provided a large donation of medical equipment to outfit the new suite.  Unfortunately, a surgical table, a very expensive and essential piece of equipment, was not available in Project Cure's warehouse at that time.  For the time being, the Mercy surgical team would have to make do without a surgical table.

Missioners Dr. Gary Gilkeson and his wife and HCW board member Mary Ann Gilkeson had connected HCW with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) to discuss global health outreach to Africa, and we were stunned and blessed to discover MUSC's enthusiasm, immediate connection to our cause, and their desire to be of assistance.  MUSC's Dr. Beth Gray and Dr. Misti Leyva traveled to Sierra Leone with the Gilkesons to collabroate with the Mercy staff.  They carried over equipment in their luggage, worked with the medical staff to identify needs they could fulfill, and were planning to return in July 2020 when COVID shut everything down.  (You can read more about the Gilkesons and MUSC's involvement in our Summer 2020 Magazine, "Not in my wildest dreams" page 12)

MUSC generously offered to let Kim Nabieu, the Gilkesons, and me roam through their warehouse of surplus medical equipment in Charleston.  Miraculously, Kim and Dr. Gilkeson spied a surgical table in the corner of the warehouse.  Imagine our delight when MUSC agreed to not only donate the table, but also to store it until it could be shipped, and assist with the crating! 

With those matters resolved, we faced a new hurdle. The difficulty was trying to get the bed to Sierra Leone, both in terms of logistics and cost. It took 18 months, miraculous interventions of generous donors to provide for the cost of shipping, and the determination of the Gilkesons, the MUSC staff, and our partner church Bethel UMC, to get the bed from Charleston to Bo.  After a year of further delays and complications with the shipping company, HCW's Program Finance Specialist Cynthia Grant (who is also M&E Team Lead and an international negotiation mastermind) was able to team up with Catherine Norman, the UMC Health Coordinator in Sierra Leone, to get the surgical bed to its destination, where it will enable the Mercy surgical staff to perform surgeries and save lives. 

​Prior to 10 years ago, not in my wildest dreams did I envision myself being involved with Mercy Hospital or the Child Reintegration Centre. I am a rheumatologist, and research in lupus is my career path.

Twenty odd years ago, when I moved from Duke University to Medical University of South Carolina, I learned about a unique group of African Americans living on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia, called the Gullah or Geechee. It became evident that Gullah individuals had a high prevalence of lupus, with significant morbidity and mortality. At that time, I also learned that the Gullah were forcibly brought to America, particularly to South Carolina, due to their rice growing skills (then the cash crop in Charleston). Sierra Leone to Senegal was the primary region in West Africa from which the Gullah were taken.

After the civil war, the Gullah remained on the Sea Islands with very little interaction with others on the mainland. In the meantime, papers were published that suggested lupus was rare in West Africa. Given that, as in almost all diseases, lupus is believed to be a result of a genetically susceptible host responding to an environmental factor (infection, toxin) unleashing the immune system to attack the body, and assuming that the Gullah would genetically still be similar to their ancestral forebears, we embarked on a program to define genetic and potential environmental differences in the Gullah and Sierra Leoneans.

Through United Methodist Volunteers In Mission (UMVIM), I was connected with Dr. Darius Magee who is a retired gynecologist in Texas. He had established the West Africa Fistula Foundation in Bo soon after the civil war ended. He worked out of the Bo Government Hospital diagnosing and repairing urethral and bladder damage that occurred during childbirth. Given that he was treating young women, who are at the highest risk for lupus, I accompanied him on three different trips to Bo from 2009 to 2013. I helped out in the ER and clinic at the Government Hospital, while trying to figure out how to address our research questions.

It soon became evident that there was no way to screen the population in Sierra Leone, for it would be unethical, since we could not provide them with long term treatment. We were able, however, to acquire blood samples and subsequent DNA samples from a number of individuals, testing them at the same time for malaria and providing them treatment for malaria if they were positive.

During the last visit to Sierra Leone, I learned of Mercy Hospital and went there for a visit with a colleague. An HCW UMVIM team had arrived the night before and the team leader graciously invited us in for a tour and offered for us to stay for lunch (my first interaction with Fudia). We toured the hospital and the Naval Research Laboratory where I met Rashid, and we began a collaborative effort for genetic studies along with the Helen Keller Foundation.

Each time I went to Bo, I became more and more tied to it and the wonderful people of Sierra Leone. I investigated Helping Children Worldwide and was greatly impressed with the programs they had in Bo. Mary Ann, my wife, also became interested in doing more with HCW. We were able to get our local church, Bethel United Methodist Church, to become a partner church. This all happened during the time of Ebola, so there were no more trips, but through Rashid we were able to send a large number of personal protective equipment to Mercy.

In July of 2018, Mary Ann and I went on our first trip with a HCW team. This was also Mary Ann’s first trip to Sierra Leone. I had a feeling she would feel the draw like I did, and she was immediately overwhelmed at the multiple wonderful things going on in Bo. The eleven others on our team became best friends with whom we still communicate. Of course we met (then-CRC Director) Nabs, his wife Kim, JJ, JB, Rosa, Fudia, Jinnah, Sister Augusta and Dr. Amara. We had taken a large amount of medical equipment and supplies with us donated by MUSC. As many of you are aware, we hated to leave. In July of 2019 we returned for our second trip along with two other Bethel members: Misti, a PhD nutritionist and diabetes educator, and Beth, a neonatal ICU nurse. We reunited with Sharon from Texas, and again were just overwhelmed by our experience on outreach, visiting a village where our church had provided funds for drilling a well, and seeing the children we are sponsoring. 

​We were on the team for July of 2020, but regrettably it was canceled due to COVID-19. Beth and Misti were planning to return as well. Meanwhile, Mary Ann had been asked to join the Board of Directors and she accepted. We have enjoyed meeting all the other believers and hosting many of them at our home. I have biweekly calls with Dr. Stevens to help in whatever way I can, especially with the COVID-19 virus just hitting there. Mary Ann and a friend of ours have made COVID-19 masks with the outer material made of fabric we brought back from Sierra Leone. The masks are a big hit.

​In the end, my experiences in Bo and with HCW are some of the most meaningful experiences in my life. It is especially fun having this relationship for Mary Ann and I to enjoy and support together. We realize we are not changing the world, but for the children we sponsor, and with the equipment and expertise we provide, we believe we are at least changing the world for a few folks in Bo.