NEWS UPDATE 28/10/09 - MOVING INTO A NEW HOUSE - Once again we are in a state of change. Shortly we will be moving into a new house not far from the once we have been occupying for the last 2 and a half years. As usual this means additional expenses for our small organization. In addition we also have school fees due in the fall increasing our need for donations. It is critical that we can collect the additional funds to avoid interruption in the care of our children. Your help would be much appreciated and will assist us in securing the new house we desperately need. Even if you cannot assist yourself pleace spread the word by telling friends, post us on Facebook of other online communities. Many thanks!! First Step can now accept credit card donations directly by VISA and Master Card. Automatic recurrent donations also available. |
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Registered Canadian Charity |
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Welcome to the First Step Children’s Center website. Established in 2004 we are a relatively new humanitarian organization working to give street children a home in the Hastings area of Sierra Leone. We operate a home for 20 children. Today there are no similar humanitarian efforts in this area that we know of. Ten years of civil war and the lowest life expectancy in the world has left many children on the streets to care for themselves. It is our hope that this effort will give some of them a chance at a good life. |
Over
the past year and a half, working out of the Hastings airport, we have
had the pleasure to get to know many of the local homeless children.
The more time we spent there doing our jobs, the better we got to
know these children. When
they see us arrive in the morning, they would always be excited to see
us and shout hello and wave frantically to get our attention.
When we finished our day of work the kids would still be outside
the airport grounds waiting to say goodbye to us as we left.
As time passed, and we got to know the children a little better,
and understand their individual situations, we began to spend time and
money helping kids on an individual basis to go to school and buy
medicine, food and clothing. In one case, surgery to alleviate a
potentially life threatening condition came up. These efforts definitely
helped, but they were not a permanent solution to the problems. These
children have no parents to look after them and no place to live.
Funding their schooling and providing them with food for a few
days is only a partial solution.
They still had no roof over their heads, or any parental figures to look
up to and to guide them and teach them. Further, we would not always be
there to provide these small bits of assistance, therefore we needed to find a
permanent solution. So, to address this, we have started First Step, with our initial
goal to secure the house pictured at the top of the page as a residence
for up to 20 children.
In order to help us with this project, and to have a local perspective, as well as local knowledge, contacts, and a liaison, Francess Panda (pictured right) took on the daunting tasks of managing the day to day care of the children at the Hastings Children Center. Francess's involvement came naturally as she already knew many of the children. She had cared for many of them that were hanging out in the vicinity of her restaurant at the Hastings Airport. After the small shack the children had been using as a shelter fell down she accommodated them in a storage room next to the restaurant until the house we had rented was ready for possession. She has recruited several prominent community and national leaders to form the board of the Sierra Leone division of First Step. Since our establishment we have achieved charity status in Canada as well as NGO status in Sierra Leone. Our future hold big plans of expansion. First Step is planning an ambitious project of constructing a children's village in the Hastings area. In the preliminary plans we are aiming for a village with capacity of over 100 children. |
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| HOME | THE CHILDREN | HOW TO HELP | ABOUT FSCF | PHOTOS | SPONSORS | SIERRA LEONE INFO | NEWS | NORSK | E-MAIL | WEBMAIL |
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Contact us: saveachild@first-step.org Contact web master: hakon@first-step.org |
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Revenue Canada Business Identification Number: 85849 0378 RR0001 (charity reg. number) |
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NOTE: All images used on this site are © copyright protected. No use is authorized without prior permission from the photographer. |
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Last updated: Octobert 28, 2009 |
© Copyright First Step Children's Fund 2009 |