The foundation Solidarity with Sierra Leone has as main objective to support small scale development programs in the areas of education, health care and community support in Sierra Leone. This West African country was ravaged for 10 years by a civil war, which ended in 2002 through actions by the United Nations. Partially due to this war, the country is one of the poorest in the world.

1. With an empty stomach, you can't study
Many children have been victim of the war: they became orphans, became runaways or had to leave their home towns. Many of these runaways ended up in a refugee camp, called the 'War wounded camp' in Grafton. In this camp, a primary school was founded in 2000, with the name "War wounded Community Primary School Grafton". Currently, the school has about 430 students and employs 8 teachers. The government does not provide any financial support to this school. This means no study materials, no salaries for teachers and no food for the students.
Many of the students thus have to provide for themselves. This results in irregular attendance of classes, or attending classes with an empty stomach. The foundation tries to support the students by way of providing daily meals at school. This gives the children the opportunity to attend classes on a more regular base and with more attention. It is also a sign of hope and that, somewhere in the world, there are people who care about their situation.

2. Without teachers, no education
In 2006, we started an action to preserve the teachers for the school. We approached teams of teachers in the Netherlands with the question whether they want to financially adopt a colleague in Sierra Leone. Together with addtional funds we succeeded in providing the teachers of the primary school a basic monthly allowance.