Background
In recent years, a number of West African nations have been severely afflicted with wars and natural disasters. Liberia has just held its first elections after decades of a cruel and devastating rebel war. The Ivory Coast is still struggling to contain a bloody civil war, and many lives in Niger have been lost through starvation and disease following failed harvests in 2005.
Sierra Leone is also just emerging from a devastating 10-year rebel war, which resulted in the displacement of over half of the population; over 100,000 civilians were killed. Entire villages and towns were razed to the ground. Places of worship and traditional schools were destroyed. About 10,000 children were orphaned and over 30,000 civilians, some as young as three months, were mutilated by the rebels. While the war is now over, the work of rebuilding shattered lives has just begun.
The worst victims in all these disasters are orphans, who have to deal at an early age with the trauma of losing a parent or two, while facing a bleak future with no one left to care for and educate them. For some, just finding food to eat is a major life challenge. Young girls are especially vulnerable.
Orphan Projects
Ihsan launched the orphanage program in 2002 with the building of the Bilal Ibn Rabah Orphanage in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Initial funding provided for 15 orphans on site. In 2004, Ihsan launched the individualized orphan sponsorship program. As a result, twenty-five orphans (boys and girls) are now being raised in the Bilal Ibn Rabah Orphanage. Twenty-five more orphans are cared for in the Sankore College Orphanage in Northern Sierra Leone. They temporarily live in college staff housing. Future projects include the building of an orphans’ home at Sankore to house one hundred orphans.
Ihsan anticipates setting up orphan homes throughout the West African sub-region. Meanwhile, Ihsan is now launching the sponsorship of orphans living in other approved orphanages or with surviving relatives in Niger, Ghana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, and later in Liberia and the Ivory Coast.
Back to projects
