U.K. Jewish group seeks justice and aid for victims of Sierra Leone war

A teacher at an Orthodox Jewish school in London and her Sierra Leone-born husband have formed a U.K.-based organization dedicated to alleviating poverty and severe deprivation in the struggling western African country.

The Sierra Leone Poverty Relief is a small organization that seeks to fund education for children in various villages across the country where a near decade-long brutal war has left thousands destitute and in appalling states of health.

The charity also works toward bringing vital medical treatment to residents, ultimately aiming to make villagers self-sufficient.

Headed by Helen Stephenson-Yankuba, a teacher at Immanuel College, and her husband, Sylvester Yankuba, Sierra Leone Poverty Relief was formed after its founders met a little boy called Sheku and saw firsthand the decrepit conditions of villages and villagers there.

When they met him, Sheku's lower legs were both so severely ulcerated that he faced either a bilateral amputation or certain death. A trustee who later went on to form the relief organization funded Sheku's operation privately out of his own pocket. Sheku has now been in hospital for continuous treatments since January 2007.

The charity relies on donations, mainly from the Immanuel College. Through its 'Shevet Achim' charity scheme, students raise money with small events such as weekly croissant-sales at the school. The last donation received before Christmas paid for half a year's tuition for a nurse at Njala University in the Bo region.

Previous donations have also ensured life saving operations, treatment for malaria and typhoid, as well as enabling the re-building of the burned-down Fobu village.

Sierra Leone Poverty Relief has since also gone on to sponsor education for 55 village children - as free schooling ends after age 11 - by paying tuition fees directly to the local schools.

Despite the charity's efforts, the atrocities seen from a decade-long rebel war in Sierra Leone are imprinted on the minds of many of its residents, where they will remain for years to come.

Disturbing images of rampant and indiscriminate amputations and mutilations of innocent civilians by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) were just the beginning of the suffering.

The rebel war began in 1991, as former army corporal Foday Sankoh and his Revolutionary United Front launched a campaign against then-President Momoh and his ruling All People's Congress Party.

The rebel front invaded towns on the border with Liberia, leading local inhabitants to fear for their lives. The RUF spared none from their violence, and became notorious for its mass rape and mutilations of women and children.

The brutality became known around the world and international attempts to help end the war began to come through in July 1997, when the Commonwealth suspended its ties with Sierra Leone.

In October of the same year, the United Nations Security Council imposed further sanctions against Sierra Leone, barring the supply of arms and petroleum products.

Nontheless, organizations such as the British company, Sandline, continued to supply 'logistical support' - including weapons - to Sierra Leone's democratically elected president Kabbah, as rebels enlisted their own funding from the illicit mining and trading of diamonds.

In January 1999, rebels backing Revolutionary United Front leader Foday Sankoh seized parts of Freetown from ECOMOG, leaving 5,000 people dead.

The UN finally intervened by sending in troops of its own to counter the rebels. By January 2002, the war was declared over and the world agreed to set up a war-crimes tribunal.

Now that the brutality is over, seeking relief and justice for the people of Sierra Leone has become a top issue for rights activists around the world. But as the country struggles to rebuild itself amid the post-war economic crisis, it faces unimaginable poverty and starvation.

In July 2003, rebel leader Foday Sankoh died of natural causes while awaiting trial for war crimes.

Nearly three years later, the former president of neighboring Liberia, Charles Taylor ? notorious for backing and enforcing brutality in his own country - was arrested in Nigeria. He was handed over to the war-crimes court in Sierra Leone and indicted for allegedly backing and arming the Sierra Leonean rebels.

New hope for progress and improvement within the country came in August 2007 when Ernest Bai Koroma won the presidency and his All People's Congress (APC) - thrust into the opposition for 8 years - gained a majority in parliament. It is still the ruling party today.

While the devastating rebel war in Sierra Leone may be over, the country is destitute, suffering from a lack of basic sanitation and education.

Koroma's government provides some hope for change, day-to-day life is still in need of much improvement.

Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommended reparations for amputees and victims - including free health care and monthly pensions - in its final report to the government last October.

Civil society and human-rights groups are pushing for the government to act on the TRC recommendations, which apart from reparations include better government accountability and human rights legislation.

Alhaji Ahmed Jusu Jarka, chairman of the National Amputees and War Wounded Association, has declared war victims must not go unassisted while those committing atrocities receive rewards for disarming.

But the government has already rejected an appeal to grant $3,000 monthly amputees and war casualties, forcing victims? groups to review their reparation demands. Any help is therefore vital to a country, whose people depend much on foreign aid and support.

Tania Newman is currently an intern for Haaretz.com. More information about the Sierra Leone Relief Fund can be found here.