Why partner with a village in Sierra Leone?
Village Partnership is an initiative to help villages in Sierra Leone overcome the entrenched obstacles of extreme poverty, illiteracy and endemic disease. Since 2010, Mercy Hospital has provided medical outreach to a network of villages surrounding Bo. In 2018, the Child Reintegration Centre extended enrollment to reach these villages, so that more children can go to school and receive case management services. Helping Children Worldwide is expanding services to the villages we already serve, with a three year plan to provide family empowerment programs, micro-finance training, sanitation, clean water sources, school development, and improved infrastructure. Read our most recent success story here: Fengehun Village Partnership provides community with clean water and sanitation.
48% of village residents do not have access to safe drinking water.
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Sustainability happens when the people with the problems own the solutions. Village Partnership encourages local control and ownership of issues faced by families. Building stronger families and communities encourages self sufficiency, instead of dependency. Through community mapping surveys to solicit information from the village residents and leadership, the CRC and Mercy are determining which improvements are most needed and will be the most effective in lifting the community out of poverty.
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25% of school-aged children living in villages do not attend school.
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How you can help: Churches, families, individuals, and organizations are invited to join our Village Partnership initiative with a three year commitment to support a village served by the CRC and Mercy Hospital. You also have the option to fund a specific village improvement project such as a deep bore well, sanitation system, health clinic, school improvement, or other improvement requested by residents and leadership. Your tax deductible contributions support the improvements to a village that are specifically identified through community mapping. Click on the green button below to see the village sponsorship options. You can set up a recurring donation on our website or mail a check to HCW. We will send you a packet of information about the village you are supporting. We will also send periodic updates about the village and progress reports about the project you are supporting.
As of 2021, three villages have been selected for partnership with confirmation by funding partners. Initial discussions have taken place with all three, and two have entered into active partnership phase one. One is awaiting funding from the underwriting organization. Curriculum development is underway for the Community Peer Leaders training, and expertise in business development has been secured to assist in the enterprise and reinvestment program that will be the final key to village empowerment. Fourteen more villages have been identified for potential partnership. One of Helping Children Worldwide strategic anchors is financial health of the organization. For that reason, we prefer to have 100% of anticipated funding needs available at the time we begin, and will not enter into an MOU with our program partners and village elders to begin a village partnership until we have firm commitments from funders to underwrite the work and a substantial portion of funding for the proposed partnership has been received. |
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If you are interested in the Village Improvement Project, Village Enterprise Project, or Village Impact Partnership, please contact Mission Project Specialist Yasmine Vaughan at yasmine@helpingchildrenworldwide.org
Vision |
Mission |
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To embark on a short-term investment program by forming a committed partnership with an impoverished community that encourages local control and ownership of issues faced in the village, focuses on strengthening families and communities, and encourages self-sufficiency instead of dependency in the long term.
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Develop an intervention that begins and ends with community ownership, giving children and families the tools to invest in their own community to overcome the obstacles of extreme poverty, illiteracy, and endemic disease.
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Goal |
Objective |
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Within 7 years, the community will have a problem management system supported by an income stream that enables a community to be self-sustaining and provide for the health and human service needs of the community.
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Over three years, the Village Partnership will provide resources for collaborative programming in medical services, family empowerment programs, sanitation, clean water sources, school development, improved infrastructure, and enterprise management and community leadership training. Simultaneously, the community will develop an enterprise project that generates the income necessary to sustain these ongoing health and human service needs of the community.
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VILLAGE Partnership Commitments
It is important to understand that one factor that inhibits growth of the local economy and family stability is an annual inflation rate that is always in the double digits. Estimates for costs of improvement projects rise annually for that reason.
VILLAGE SUPPORT SERVICES DURING LIFE OF PROJECT - $30,000 to $60,000 (these are estimated costs, based on number of specific program interventions needed in village.) i.e., patients seen and treated in outpatient services, number of surgeries or extraordinary medical procedures or treatments, number of children enrolled in scholarship programs, number of visits and case manager interventions needed to monitor family progress by CRC, counseling and social work services needed to prepare family or child for reunification, community engagement and social service system development, specific intervention services, and other CRC essential or material supports to individual families or children enrolled in services.
Likely to include:
All Program Activities
VILLAGE ENTERPRISE INVESTMENT PROJECT - $30,000
You can commit to fund the Village Enterprise Project. This is a cooperative business venture run by community members to generate funds to maintain community improvements and establish a reinvestment fund that will allow the village to care for its most vulnerable citizens. An initial investment of $10,000 is provided as a grant, and the following supports are established as loans to the enterprise. Repayment of loans is into the reinvestment fund, that is managed by trained a volunteer board of Community Peer Leaders. The enterprise itself is managed by a trained management team that is compensated as enterprise employees. Some possibilities for the VEP are the establishment of a coffee growing concern, farming operation, small scale manufacturing, processing facility, craft enterprise or savings and loan program. The enterprise program is established over the course of several years, with the assistance of local business and management expertise recruited by Village Partnership.
VILLAGE IMPACT - $85,000 - $120,000
Commit to fund the entire 3 to 5 year village improvement and investment initiatives and support the work of the Village Partnership to equip and empower the community to care for its own. This is potentially a project for a church or partnership of churches to undertake. Please contact HCW for more specific information about this initiative.
- Village Improvement Projects Individual Underwriter - $35/month or $420 annually (X3 years)
- Village Empowerment Individual Supporter - $200 month or $2400 annually (x3 years)
- Village Partnership Individual Underwriter or Church Partner - $85,000 to $120,000 (per village)
- Village Partnership Associate Partner - $35/month or greater unspecified donation
- Village Partnership Donation - any amount, monthly or one-time donations
It is important to understand that one factor that inhibits growth of the local economy and family stability is an annual inflation rate that is always in the double digits. Estimates for costs of improvement projects rise annually for that reason.
- Deep bore well for clean water supply (approximately $7,000 @ in 2021)
- Increased medical access for all residents (approximately $4,500 in 2021) - this does not include all costs of medical services and would be an ongoing issue that would require reinvestment fund involvement to support after project concludes.
- Public latrines for improved sanitation and health (approximately $7,000 i@ n 2021)
- School books, backpacks, desks, and blackboards (approximately $1,500 in 2021)
- Community facilities ( meeting facilities, school rooms or buildings, health centers, training centers) ($5,000 to $15,000 in 2021)
VILLAGE SUPPORT SERVICES DURING LIFE OF PROJECT - $30,000 to $60,000 (these are estimated costs, based on number of specific program interventions needed in village.) i.e., patients seen and treated in outpatient services, number of surgeries or extraordinary medical procedures or treatments, number of children enrolled in scholarship programs, number of visits and case manager interventions needed to monitor family progress by CRC, counseling and social work services needed to prepare family or child for reunification, community engagement and social service system development, specific intervention services, and other CRC essential or material supports to individual families or children enrolled in services.
Likely to include:
All Program Activities
- Curriculum Development
- Needs Assessment; Monitoring and Evaluation
- Targeted parent education and community training programs
- Community Peer Leader training programs
- Family Strengthening & Child Reintegration Services
- Scholarship and Educational Supports for 50% of children between ages of 6 and 21 - please keep in mind that children often are not even enrolled in or attending primary school until they are several grade levels behind.
- Referred medical services for CRC program families or children (not offered by Mercy or Mercy Outreach)
- Village outreach Health Services: maternal and infant health services, child nutrition program, infectious disease diagnosis and treatment, insect transmitted and water-borne illness diagnosis and treatment.
- Surgical interventions
- In-patient services
- Transportation to Mercy UMC
- Diagnostics for purpose of referral
- Transportation to referred services
VILLAGE ENTERPRISE INVESTMENT PROJECT - $30,000
You can commit to fund the Village Enterprise Project. This is a cooperative business venture run by community members to generate funds to maintain community improvements and establish a reinvestment fund that will allow the village to care for its most vulnerable citizens. An initial investment of $10,000 is provided as a grant, and the following supports are established as loans to the enterprise. Repayment of loans is into the reinvestment fund, that is managed by trained a volunteer board of Community Peer Leaders. The enterprise itself is managed by a trained management team that is compensated as enterprise employees. Some possibilities for the VEP are the establishment of a coffee growing concern, farming operation, small scale manufacturing, processing facility, craft enterprise or savings and loan program. The enterprise program is established over the course of several years, with the assistance of local business and management expertise recruited by Village Partnership.
VILLAGE IMPACT - $85,000 - $120,000
Commit to fund the entire 3 to 5 year village improvement and investment initiatives and support the work of the Village Partnership to equip and empower the community to care for its own. This is potentially a project for a church or partnership of churches to undertake. Please contact HCW for more specific information about this initiative.
