Not
just a Christmas Present
Fred and Linda Nye
Fred and Linda manage the formidable logistics behind the regular
despatch of containers by the Waterloo Partnership to Sierra Leone.
Below, they recount the story of the sennding off of the latest
consignment. Their pictures show some of the activity of November 10th,
2007
The Waterloo Partnership's fifth
40-foot container pulled away from the yard at our commercial storage
in Bootle on Saturday 10th November: with about 15 strong men helping,
it was loaded in less than two hours! It was the start of a four week
journey to Waterloo Sierra Leone by road to Widnes, then by rail to
Felixstowe, followed by a twenty-two day voyage via Algeciras to
Freetown. There our shipping agent arranges for it to be craned on to a
lorry to drive thirty miles on the tarmaced highway to Waterloo, where
it should be unloaded by our partners around 14th December.
The container was crammed with a varied ten tonnes of donated and
purchased goods targeted to support Waterloo Partnership projects. All
these projects aim to bring a lasting improvement in quality of life to
our neighbours in Sierra Leone, which some five years after the
devastating civil war remains one of the poorest and least developed
countries in the world.
Thanks to Commonwealth funding, eleven local schoolteachers visited
Sierra Leone in February. Since then school links between the two
Waterloos have developed rapidly. Twelve local schools have between
them given 130 crates of educational resources, enough for every
classroom in the 'other' Waterloo. Merseyside Scouts and Crosby Stuart
Junior Football Club have sent equipment to their fellow enthusiasts
while the Rotary Club donated First Aid kits for schools. Lots of
clothes and shoes are on their way for destitute and needy children,
and a quarter of all pupils will now have been supplied with school
chairs. The load also includes 20 chairs suitable for people with
disabilities, 12 digging forks for women subsistence farmers, and 10
sturdy bicycles for HIV workers to reach outlying areas. Canon
Leighton-Davies's Anglican Church of St. Michael and All Angels will
receive hymn books from St. Mary's and church candles from St. Faith's.
Thanks to regular donors, the charity has for the first time been able
to buy medical supplies for the local health centre, which will also
benefit from surgical instruments donated by local GPs, and from the
generous gift of six new beds. It would not have been possible to get
ten tonnes of goods together for the container without the generosity
of the local community. Members of St. Faith's have been very
supportive in providing help with packing, transport and loading the
container, and we are deeply grateful. You know who you are: it
couldn't happen without you. Thanks to you all from the Waterloo
Partnership here and in Sierra Leone.
Visit the Waterloo
Partnership home page to find out about this exciting ongoing
project
Return to St Faith's home
page