Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone is poised at a significant time in her history. Beautiful yet devastated, poor in the midst of untold natural riches - she indeed is in a kairos window. Her people, who have been patient are now pregnant with expectation, the new democratic government has to deliver. A Call to Business and many others really believe in our hearts that Sierra Leone can and will be transformed. Watch our brief dvd about Sierra Leone.
Since we first made contact with Christian businessmen in Sierra Leone in October 2005 the vision of A Call to Business has flourished and begun to bear good, seed-bearing fruit. There is now a national office in Freetown, a flourishing micro-finance project and links being forged with other nearby nations, Guinea and Liberia.
The work in Sierra Leone is part of Jartua Gilpin's brief within A Call to Business, while on the ground Pastor Felix Koroma is an amazing networker and heads up the micro finance operation. We have organised two visits to Freetown in the past 10 months, including each time a one day conference for exhortation and teaching along with exploration of potential mercy and commercial projects. Read some of the impressions of our last visit here. The next trip is scheduled for 17th-28th November.
A Call to Business is involved in a growing number of mercy projects and commercial enterprise activities in Sierra Leone in various spheres including education, an orphanage, remote medical assistance, microfinance, rural mobile telephony, tourism and textiles.
One such initiative has been launched by Emmaus, a small NGO which has been pioneering a Construction Skills Training Centre in Sierra Leone, training young men in various aspects of construction, including using the innovative Hydroform Building System (www.hydraform.com) to make building blocks using locally available mud and a small amount of cement which produces durable bricks used in the construction of buildings. An added bonus of this particular scheme is the completed building available for community use at the end of the training cycle.
Emmaus and A Call to Business are now working together to expand and establish the Skills Training Centre, adding to the training in construction skills and diversifying into other areas including a skills training programme for women.
To this end we are looking for some skilled people (ideally a couple) to manage and develop the Training Centre. The successful candidates will be prepared to spend up to 12 months in the outskirts of Freetown. Sierra Leone currently has over 70% unemployment; the majority of young people have no marketable skills and have never had a job. Alongside the existing construction skills training and mentoring for men we would like to develop and expand our operations to include services for women as well as develop small scale industries.
For further information click here. If you are interested in applying, please send CV, covering letter and other relevant information to Jartua Gilpin, Africa Development Director at jartua.gilpin@acalltobusiness.co.uk
Candidates for this position must share A Call to Business's evangelical Christian values.
For up-to-date news read our latest Sierra Leone Bulletin.