On…Sierra Leone and its rescue from poverty

The main road through Koidu Town

This is the most obvious topic to reflect upon on return from a poverty-stricken country. I hadn’t heard much about Sierra Leone before going, other than the recent civil war and the country’s position near the bottom of most poverty and development rankings. Indeed the country is bottom of the Human Development Index and seventh-lowest on the Human Poverty Index.

What type of poverty is it? I’d want to say, above other things, that it is a poverty of opportunity. I’m not denying that there are families who don’t have access to clean water and food, but most people, even in some of the poorest areas, seem to be healthy and well-nourished. Provision of food does depend on income, and we heard people say that they eat “when they can”. And you drink the water however unclean it may be.

The lack of opportunities strike you most when you meet the kids. We interacted with some of the children in Kabala and passed many on the road. It is easy to laugh at the endless shouting of “WHITE MAN” and necessary waving, but on further reflection, it is clear that there is very little for them in a small town or village. If male, they might take on their father’s trade, and sadly die very young. In 2000, the World Health Organisation (WHO) published a life expectancy (LE) of 25.9 years. It has probably increased since then, since that was right at the end of the war, and the LE is affected by a high Infant Mortality Rate (IMR).

No doubt previous governments of the country are much to blame. Lack of maintenance of infrastructure, mismanagement of resources (notably diamonds, which led to the civil war) and corruption are all part of the problem. You just have to look at the roads to see the lack of effort made to keep the country going. Potholes don’t get repaired and gradually the road turns into a dirt track.

In spite of all of this, it was encouraging to see signs of much progress in recent years. Keeping on the roads, some good routes have been rebuilt and the current president, who lives off the notorious Freetown-Oogo Farm road, has refused to move until the road is rebuilt. Corruption is still prevalent and it will be hard to measure its eradication. But development projects are having a real impact on the country, and you can’t really put a cost on their outcome. Everywhere you go you see signs of “Funded by Red Cross” or DFID or the EU.

It is precisely these development projects that create opportunities, not just jobs, but the reality of living in a better country where things are moving forward. In a way, I really hope that tourism does not take off in such a beautiful country unspoiled by large hotels and western facilities. But no doubt it will and it will be for the greater good of the economy and the country as a whole.

Returning to the people of the country, their contentment is admirable. But there seems to be a ladder for moving up – if you’re born in a small town you probably want to get out and move to Freetown. And once you’re in Freetown you’ve probably got your eye on the airport and the possibility of enjoying all of the things that the Western world brings to the country.

I close with four challenges. Firstly, being exposed to a country such as Sierra Leone naturally makes you feel extremely privileged to be in the situation you’re in – whatever it is. For me, I’m about to start a well-paid graduate job in a wealthy and prosperous Surrey town, in a field which revolves around something that few Africans own and may only use once a week to check e-mails. Speaking to people at my stage of life therefore exposed the large gap between our countries. Thank God for what you have and never take it for granted! It is a bit of a cliché, but we could have been one of those village children for whom the most exciting event of the month was a Jeep full of white people passing on the road.

Secondly, I think there is a big danger to resent paying taxes. Now I’m not claiming that everything that our taxes go towards is right by any means. But some of it goes to Sierra Leone! The locals there love the British, not least because of our involvement in ending the civil war. But DFID is a well known acronym and it has its stamp on many projects across the country. So I start life as a tax payer in a joyful mood (not sure how long this will last though).

Thirdly, and related to this, I come across many Christians who wouldn’t give on principle to NGOs and relief agencies – or any organisation that isn’t Christian or doesn’t spend its money on bringing the gospel to a lost world. Now I am not saying that the gospel isn’t important, vehemently not so, and I will have more to say about that later. Nor am I saying that we shouldn’t be concerned about how organisations use the money that we give them. But the reality is that most of the development projects that we saw, and let’s not forget that they achieve real results, are funded by non-Christian agencies.

This argument can be grounded biblically in several ways – the obvious ones being love thy neighbour, our duty to care for God’s creation and the numerous references to God’s heart for the poor, his hatred of injustice and so on. However I would also argue this on an eschatological level – God will renew and transform the creation and so our work at helping people out of poverty and hastening development in third-world countries is certainly not in vain. Tom Wright has some helpful material on this in “Surprised by Hope” which I would like to read soon.

Fourthly, and perhaps the climax of what I want to say (ironically this was only added the day after this post was published!), isn’t it about time the evangelical church started showing some real concern for the deprived parts of God’s creation? When was the last time you heard public prayers for development and relief from poverty? Don’t our prayers usually only focus on the Christians in a nation and their struggle to preach the gospel and endure persecutions? We must of course pray for those things, but we mustn’t neglect the material and humanitarian needs of the people as a whole.

It does frustrate me that seemingly the only issue that the church wants its voice to be heard on is abortion. I agree that we must pray and fight for moral transformation in our nation and speak out against the murder of helpless and vulnerable embryos. But people are dying in the world for other reasons too – malnutrition, AIDS etc, and suffering due to economic imbalance and political injustice and corruption. Where is the voice from the church on these issues?

I have heard one minister nearly justify this on the basis that speaking out against abortion is unpopular, but rallying behind anti-poverty campaigns is what everyone else is doing, and therefore without risk. This isn’t good enough – it isn’t right to invest in issues that are unpopular to the detriment of those that after all even non-Christians care about.

That’s all for today. Tomorrow I will examine life as a westerner in Sierra Leone.