FAQs

On 23rd June I will fly to Freetown, Sierra Leone to work with an NGO called Children of the Nations. Here I will answer a few of the most commonly asked questions...partly on the off chance that some of you might be interested but more than that, to help me sift through my thoughts as I get so close to heading off.

Why are you going to Africa?

The simple and quick answer owes much of its shape to my friend Paddy – I am going to Africa because I wish to better understand poverty, people, peace and faith while seeking out a way in which I might be used in God’s work of redemption in that place.

I preface this blog entry by acknowledging that it is, even more than usual, laced with self-indulgence. But it is helpful for me to look back and think about how I got here. My parents have been, are and will continue to be a huge influence and it was they who first impressed upon me our responsibility to do what we can to stand in the gap opened up by inequality. They have always exemplified love of ones neighbour in many different ways and their involvement with Tearfund ensured that this has always had a global aspect. So when I went to university and was exposed to the teaching of Steve Stockman and travelled with him and the Presbyterian Chaplaincy to Cape Town, South Africa to build houses with Habitat for Humanity, a seed was not so much planted as what was already there given some room to breathe and take shape. And, crucially, probably for the first time, flesh was put on the bones of teaching and inspiration. I had met people whose lives were radically different from my own and the impact was intense. I would suggest however that it was not until my second trip to South Africa, when I had the amazing privilege of spending two months in the country, that Africa really dug its heels in.

I have always been ridiculously blessed with fellow travellers, friends who have joined me on different parts of the journey and I owe so much to so many in that respect. This time was no different and the social action group we started on our return home, Boots On Comrades, saw a wonderful group of people meet together to toy with ideas of affecting a change. Something else had happened between Captownship trips. I had been taught African history by the late and quite wonderful Martin Lynn. Martin not only taught with a passion, a depth of knowledge, an honesty and a genuine interest in and care for his students that could not fail to have an influence on me but he also introduced me to Nigeria. This led me directly to an amazing year with Care, working at Coventry Cathedral’s International Centre of Reconciliation and the human rights NGO, Christian Solidarity Worldwide. And for that I will always be grateful.

Christians talk a lot about being “called” and having various issues “placed on our heart”. This can seem like a quite mysterious process. I found it really helpful at Bible college when a missionary was quoted as saying that quite simply, “the need is the call”. Africa fascinates me. Perhaps there is a hint of the white man’s burden about the whole thing and at the very least the colonial past and the controlling policies of the modern era offers a connection to these events and peoples that is perhaps absent for me with other places. It is also the part of the developing world which I know the most about! And Africa is certainly a place of great need (as well as arguably even greater potential). When I was growing up I never had a particular desire to leave home for foreign parts and remember being quite confused by the notion as a child – why would anyone want to leave Ireland, a wonderful, safe place with sensible weather for one of these far-flung places where natural disasters, dangerous wildlife and scary diseases hang out. I remember a friend, Jonathan, confidently proclaiming his desire to be a missionary when he was older. I had no such thought. But over the last few years I have been really drawn to Africa’s western region and at this point going there and involving myself directly in the kind of work I am going to do feels like the most natural of progressions.

Why Sierra Leone?

Sierra Leone first came on my radar properly when reading an article in The Economist while living in the grandeur of Dewis Lodge, Coventry. I was immediately appalled and confused by the viscous brutality of the conflict there and why the violence was marked by such acts of horror continues to be a darkly compelling question for me. Last year I wrote an essay about the war there, comparing the different ways the international community intervened there with the different forms of intervention experienced by Rwanda before, during and after the 1994 genocide. This essay was a pretty tough thing to research – you always think you’ve heard the most horrible story and then you read the next one. Sierra Leone’s story stuck in my mind for all kinds of reasons – the poverty, the character of the violence, the apparent resource curse, the process of post-conflict reconciliation, the role and current trial of Charles Taylor, the colonial past, the philanthropic vision that gave birth to Freetown, the use of child soldiers...and on and on it goes. When I heard that Children of the Nations worked there and when I heard about what that work consisted of, I was immediately intrigued.

Why Children of the Nations?

Children of the Nations mission statement says, “our mission is to provide responsible care to orphaned and destitute children by the equipping of nationals, giving children every possible advantage available to grow in a stable, Christ-centered environment, empowering them to be the leaders of tomorrow.” I am moved and excited by the holistic approach adopted by the organisation and I am moved and excited by the focus placed on nationals. Working with children is something I love doing and Children of the Nations have found some areas of work for me which seem to fit amazingly well with what I have studied and what I have some experience of to date. Working with COTN in Sierra Leone sees me living and working in a post-conflict situation in the developing world and with children, bringing together so much of what fascinates, provokes and challenges me. What COTN is doing in Sierra Leone just seems wondrous to me. It is amazing to think that I am going to be a part of it. And it is great to share in that work with my family and so many good friends who are supporting me financially and spiritually.

With your departure so close, how do you feel?

This is a question I have grown somewhat tired of answering. Partly because I do not have a great response. My feelings are many. I am excited by what lies ahead while also scared of what might be in store. I cannot think of anything I would rather do while, at the same time, feel entirely inadequate. I question how much I know about the two main areas of work that I will be involved in – writing and teaching a course for the kids looking at issues of peace and conflict and helping guide a grief counselling programme for our children – and as a result worry that I will leave my friends and family behind and only have minimal impact where I am going. This is countered with confidence that so much of what has passed in the last few years feels like preparation for this work and the way I have been blessed with financial as well as emotional and prayerful support has also been really affirming. At the end of the day the need is the call. And I am being called. I am offering whatever it is that I have, what I know, what I might be...entirely imperfectly I might add, there will be plenty of moments when I will doubtless do everything but offer of myself...and I just have to trust the rest of the way.

My desire is to, in some way...in any way...affect a positive change. If past experience is anything to go by I will learn more, gain more, than I will ever be able to give. It is also important to note that I share in this year with an amazing group of people who are an integral part by virtue of their financial and prayer support. I pray that we will be graced with a role to play.

A story from Malawi

Below is a piece written by Debbie Clark who started Children of the Nations with her husband Chris. This little story has previously been included in the COTN booklet explaining their child sponsorship scheme and I include it here as an example of the kind of impact COTN's work can have.

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Peter Robert of Malawi

I spotted him and immediately took a second glance. His clothes were dirty rags wrapped around his small, thin body and his eyes held an empty gaze. He was being held by a sad, older woman who had another, healthier looking baby tied to her back. They had come to the COTN feeding center in this village. She wanted to register these children in the program. Peter was the baby's name and later I learned that he wasn't really a baby, but a two year old child. Peter was one of the eight children this grandmother was trying to provide for. All of her children had died from the AIDS epidemic, so she was here with two grandchildren and six more at home in their small, mud hut. We watched as this grandmother breast-fed the healthier looking baby three times in one hour and Peter, only once. I was reminded of the poem in a past newsletter - 'decide, mother, who goes without...'

It was obvious that Peter would not make it much longer. He had given up the fight to live. He didn't even have the whimper typical of hungry children and made no sounds at all. The next day we learned that Peter weighed only thirteen pounds (That's less than one stone!).

Peter is now living in our Chiwengo village orphanage and is four years old. He is a typical preschooler who is full of energy and loves to get into everything. He loves to sing and play and is full of life!

Debbie Clark

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I looked on-line to see if I could find the poem she refers to. I found this:

Decide, mother, who goes without.
Is it Rama, the strongest,
or Baca, the weakest,
who may not need it much longer,
or perhaps Sita?
Who may be expendable?
Decide, mother;
kill a part of yourself
as you resolve the dilemma.

Appadura (a poem from India)

Taxi to Sierra Leone

So I was heading out to join the fine people of Belfast Zoo for a post-Dreamnight party. Dreamnight is an annual event which sees the Zoo open late especially for children from the hospice and the children's hospital and their families. It was a really great thing to be a part of, with the Zoo staff working really hard to make it a really special experience - getting help from the police, the army and the fire brigade who all had fun things for the kids to do (climbing walls, shooting ranges, engines and cars and tanks to play with) as well as Northern Ireland's Hell's Angels who showed off their choppers and circus types who showed off their tricks. There was also a couple of Deloreans which was cool, including one which was done up to look exactly like the car seen in Back to the Future...flux capacitor and everything! I also got to get ridiculously close to the Zoo's gorillas which was really cool and only got better when one of them decided to spit a whole mouth full of water at my friend Brendan's face from point blank range.

So, after our late evening of Zoo antics we all made our way home to get ready for our after-party. I got myself a taxi and soon got in to conversation with my driver. He was a pretty chatty guy and I was soon hearing stories about his child and his partner. He then told me that his previous job had seen him work as a bodyguard all over the world. Intrigued, I asked him what sort of places he had worked. The first place he mentioned? Sierra Leone.

I laughed at the coicidence and told him that I was soon to head there myself. Not really sure how he would respond to questions, I asked him some anyway. When were you there? About five years ago. That would make it 2003, a year after the war is considered to have ended. Where were you? All over. Were you working mostly with business men or what? Yeah, all business men.

He then told me that it was a pretty rough place to spend some time. At one point his group had had a run in with a child soldier wielding an AK-47. Deeming that it was either them or the child one of the other guys shot the child. The girl. The ten year old girl. "Job done", the driver commented.

What is our response to the actions of these sorts of private security firms? Their existence is fraught with moral dilemmas and their actions are surely extremely difficult to control. In a situation like Sierra Leone a few years ago or Iraq now, are they a neccessary evil to provide a modicum of stability beyond the capacity of any central authority? Or are they in fact perpetuating instability and making things worse in the long run? And if we do see a place for them then we surely expect them to defend themselves. Whilst killing a child in this way seems unfathomable to me, I wasn't there and of course she was capable of killing many in their group. My driver commented that his collegue had ensured that it was a painless death for the girl - shooting her between the eyes. What I certainly don't understand is why anyone would put themselves in such a situation to protect some businessman darting through Sierra Leone, presumably snaffling up whatever mineral wealth they can get their hands on in the post-war chaos. And of course conditioning children to fight and kill in these ways is disgusting.

The whole thing is just dreadful. I was extremely uneasy with the way he distanced himself from what had happened by talking about it in those kind of "job done" terms, although he did recognise the horror of what had occurred at the same time. How could you process witnessing something like that? I was also surprised, naively probably, that there would still have been child soldiers operating in Sierra Leone in 2003. But I should have known better - just people saying, "The war is over", does not mean that all the killing will cease.

A desperately sad story. But a real one. Told in surely the most unlikely of circumstances.

Privilege Meets Poverty

So the ethical consumption thought process continued recently as I watched the BBC's Blood, Sweat and T-shirts.  What I realised as I watched this documentary style reality tv was very obvious.  It is not particularly insightful for the more intelligent. But for me it was an important moment.  As the show took a handful of different-shades-of-spoiled british twenty-somethings to India and put them through their paces working at all levels of the Indian garment industry - from intense but reputable factory seamstress-ing to something a whole lot more sweaty, from cotton picking to slaving their guts out (okay, complaining their guts out) at a cotton mill - I realised just how many stages are involved in the production of clothes.  And so how many different stages there are to monitor before we can talk about ethical production.  

When I think about the ethics of clothing production I think my eyes have been almost totally fixed on the sweatshop with the mill and the field sitting in the shadows somewhere.  This show has helped bring them out in to the light for me and I feel like I understand a little more about the massive challenge we are faced with.  When companies like Primark talk about the Ethical Trading Initiative and the progress they are making with their producers via, for example, independently auditing factories etc we must always ask the question - just how far back along the production process is progress being sought (if changes are in fact being made at all).  I certainly have my suspicions about what the answer to that enquiry would be.  

If only Channel 4 hadn't (as far as I could make out) pulled their documentary "The Devil Wears Primark" at the last moment maybe we would have a better look at their argument.  The truth is incredibly difficult to uncover when all you have is a laptop and tv production companies to help you out...and as a good friend of mine recently found out, even going in to what passes for the heart of the Seattle-based beast does not mean you get to the heart of the matter...

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Also, I kinda fell in love with her on the right...in all her big-hearted, ditzy glory...