Leaders 4 Life: The Challenging Context of Sierra Leone

When starting a new venture it is crucial not only to assess your strengths, but also to take stock of the challenges and potential obstacles. But being wide-eyed about the obstacles can help us overcome them. The major challenge for Leaders 4 Life is the context in which we are called to work. It will take a Herculean effort to prevail in a place like Sierra Leone. Here's why ...

Corruption is rife in Sierra Leone and recent efforts to root out corruption in the government, army, and police force are slow-going. The main airport, Lungi International, is notorious for bribery and corruption. The infrastructure of the country was decimated during their 11 year civil war and it is only beginning to be rebuilt. For instance, although the war ended in 2002, consistent 24-hour electricity in the capital city of Freetown was only just restored in 2010 along with the city’s hydro-electrical plant being put back on track for completion. Roads are just beginning to be rebuilt so that travel remains slow and difficult. The postal system is notoriously unreliable so nothing can be mailed in or out of the country except by UPS, which is extremely expensive. Less than 1% of the people in Sierra Leone have Internet access, and it is one of the few countries left which is wholly reliant upon expensive satellite bandwidth. (The World Bank estimates that Sierra Leone pays 10 times as much as East Africa and 25 times higher than America for Internet access.)[1] Clean water is a substantial problem in the country (although bottled water is plentiful enough). Food is scarce as subsistence farmers struggle to obtain the skills, equipment and raw materials to improve their food supply.

The rainy season in Sierra Leone—May to November—makes travel and construction slow and difficult. This large amount of water in the country is, however, also a potential resource for power, etc.

For many people, gathering firewood to sell is the only way to survive.

Unemployment remains high at 74%. Besides contributing to a depressed economy, such high unemployment is a potential threat because it has the potential danger of creating civil unrest. Many of the unemployed or under-employed are youth, and some of these youth are former child soldiers (an estimated 10,000 child soldiers were forced into military action during the war). Such frustration and “idle hands” among the country’s youth is a continuing security threat.

Sierra Leone has been consistently ranked near the bottom of the human development index for the past 20 years.[2] Due to the extreme poverty, the crime rate in Sierra Leone is very high with the most common being petty theft, burglary and muggings. Pick-pocketing is also common in highly populated areas such as the ferries or major city centers. More high profile crimes in Sierra Leone are drug and human trafficking. Along with Guinea and Guinea Bissau to the north, Sierra Leone is considered a “weak state” or a “narco state.” Drug traffickers from Columbia and other drug-producing countries in South America use these West African countries as hubs en route to Europe, often bribing airport officials to refuel and make their passage. In the process, drugs often filter into these countries themselves. Women and children are also often taken from the rural provinces of Sierra Leone and trafficked for the purpose of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation.

Children at a school in Lungi.

The effects can still be felt in the country from its history of colonialism and poor governance, leading to a brutal civil war. The education level in Sierra Leone is poor, with only a 40% rate of literacy among adults, 66% among male youth (15-24 yrs) and 46% among female youth (15-24).[3] Tribalism makes social cooperation, in general, difficult. The fair and equal treatment of women is also an issue.
The level of health in Sierra Leone is poor. Malaria and yellow fever are common as is tuberculosis and HIV. Polio is also present. Sierra Leone’s mortality rate for children 5 years old and under is the 5^th worst in the world and the maternal death rate the 4^th worst in the world.

The tools of witchcraft for sale at the local market.

Secret societies and witchcraft remains prevalent religious influences in Sierra Leone, keeping the country in spiritual bondage. The practice of female circumcision related to such religious practices occurs in 95% of women in Sierra Leone and often creates health problems such as severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later, potential childbirth complications and stillbirths.

Sierra Leone is not an easy place to operate and initial progress may be slow. However, it is in light of such challenges that we have chosen our particular tactic. The first phase in building our L4L Communities addresses—at least on a small scale—many of the infrastructural challenges (more on this later). Later phases address spiritual issues such as corruption and witchcraft through the planting of churches with the preaching of the gospel; health challenges through the building of clinics; and tackle social and educational issues through the starting of orphanages and schools. The L4L Institute aims to raise the level of technical and leadership expertise (again, more on this later).

I don't know what kind of emotions are evoked in you when you read about these challenges, but I get an adrenaline rush thinking them. I get pumped because I dream about the day when Sierra Leone is rebuilt, revitalized, and renewed.

[1] This situation will hopefully soon change; in 2011 Sierra Leone—with a grant of $30m from the World Bank—connected to a submarine fiber optic cable which will run from France to South Africa. See http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/10/sierraleone-fibre-idUSL5E7LA2W920111010 and http://www.theafricareport.com/201110105174258/reuters-feed/sierra-leone-gets-fibre-optic-link-to-internet.html: both accessed October 10, 2011.

[2] See the United Nations Development Programme’s statistics on Sierra Leone here, http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/SLE.html: accessed October 11, 2011.

[3] Statistics from UNICEF’s website, http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sierraleone_statistics.html#77: accessed June 26, 2011.