Our mission at the St George Foundation is to continue to relieve poverty and sickness and advance the education of homeless children aged 5 to 15 in Sierra Leone.
The foundation developed from a simple feeding programme for street children and now rescues, cares for and helps support children back into schooling, returning them to the community while continuing to educate the children until they reach school/university leaving age.
Since the Ebola outbreak in October 2014, the St George Foundation has been supporting the efforts to curb the spread of Ebola and assist many of the children left orphaned by this disease. Using our experience of the last ten years we are welcoming children who have been orphaned by the disease. These children are being helped back to good health and reintegrated back into their wider family, or foster care where this is not possible, and assisted back into school. St George have supported 500 children in this way. A further 700 children that have been affected by Ebola have been helped without the need to come into the centre. These have been helped into school and supported with basic provisions.
Charity Project Aim
Our charity project aim is still to increase numbers in the centre once the Ebola situation has settled. St George estimate that a further 100 children will pass through the centre by the end of the year. In the meantime we are currently assessing the situation of the children we have already helped as many of them are living in very impoverished conditions and could benefit from a business support scheme, at a cost of £50 per family, to help them set up in a small business and would include training in basic business skills.
Children who come into the St George Interim Care Centre (ICC) generally stay for one year before being reunited with family or foster care in the community. Children who have been affected by Ebola have only been required to stay in the centre for 6-8 weeks, as St George assists these children to leave the hospital and be reunited with family in the community.
