2009.09.10: September 10, 2009: Headlines: COS - Sierra Leone: Return to our Country of Service - Sierra Leone: Service: YMCA: The Missoulian: Chris Siegler last visited Sierra Leone in 2004, 35 years after his duty there in the Peace Corps ended and 18 months after a devastating civil war left the country battered and reeling

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Sierra Leone: Peace Corps Sierra Leone : Peace Corps Sierra Leone: Newest Stories: 2009.09.10: September 10, 2009: Headlines: COS - Sierra Leone: Return to our Country of Service - Sierra Leone: Service: YMCA: The Missoulian: Chris Siegler last visited Sierra Leone in 2004, 35 years after his duty there in the Peace Corps ended and 18 months after a devastating civil war left the country battered and reeling

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Chris Siegler last visited Sierra Leone in 2004, 35 years after his duty there in the Peace Corps ended and 18 months after a devastating civil war left the country battered and reeling

Chris Siegler last visited Sierra Leone in 2004, 35 years after his duty there in the Peace Corps ended and 18 months after a devastating civil war left the country battered and reeling

On that visit, he said, buildings - the ones that were still standing - were shells of what they had been before the 11-year conflict, which was based largely on control of the small country's spectacular diamond resources. Families were ripped apart. School-age children became soldiers. That was what troubled Siegler - that the better part of a generation was raised without education, structure or discipline. The realization struck the Missoula resident when he ventured into Makeni, the capital of the West African nation's northern province, with his wife Jeannie. The two volunteers met in Sierra Leone in the '60s, and were back for a meeting of the group Friends of Sierra Leone, which worked to provide aid to natives during the war that began in 1991 and lasted into 2002. It was a part of town in which Siegler had felt safe decades ago - but this time he was the target of a group of boys trying to steal his wallet. One bumped into him, another reached for his pocket. Siegler fended them off, but was stunned by the attempt, and the fact that people on the street accepted the attack as normal. "These kids were fending for themselves in the streets, trying to make a buck here and there," Siegler said. "Probably didn't have family. Certainly didn't have discipline and support. That was really pivotal for us. If there's something we can do, we ought to do it."

Chris Siegler last visited Sierra Leone in 2004, 35 years after his duty there in the Peace Corps ended and 18 months after a devastating civil war left the country battered and reeling

YMCA board members head to Sierra Leone as part of unique partnership

* Story
* Discussion

By Bill Oram for the Missoulian |

Posted: Thursday, September 10, 2009 10:35 pm

Caption: YMCA Chief Executive Officer David Ports and board members Chris Siegler and Rick Wishcamper, from left, are heading to Sierra Leone this weekend on a nine-day goodwill mission and to explore the feasibility of an exchange program with the war-ravaged African nation. Photo by Michael Gallacher/Missoulian

Chris Siegler last visited Sierra Leone in 2004, 35 years after his duty there in the Peace Corps ended and 18 months after a devastating civil war left the country battered and reeling.

This weekend, he'll go back again as part of a contingent from the Missoula YMCA, which has developed a relationship with its counterpart in Sierra Leone because of Siegler's 2004 trip.

On that visit, he said, buildings - the ones that were still standing - were shells of what they had been before the 11-year conflict, which was based largely on control of the small country's spectacular diamond resources. Families were ripped apart. School-age children became soldiers.

That was what troubled Siegler - that the better part of a generation was raised without education, structure or discipline.

The realization struck the Missoula resident when he ventured into Makeni, the capital of the West African nation's northern province, with his wife Jeannie. The two volunteers met in Sierra Leone in the '60s, and were back for a meeting of the group Friends of Sierra Leone, which worked to provide aid to natives during the war that began in 1991 and lasted into 2002.

It was a part of town in which Siegler had felt safe decades ago - but this time he was the target of a group of boys trying to steal his wallet. One bumped into him, another reached for his pocket. Siegler fended them off, but was stunned by the attempt, and the fact that people on the street accepted the attack as normal.

"These kids were fending for themselves in the streets, trying to make a buck here and there," Siegler said. "Probably didn't have family. Certainly didn't have discipline and support. That was really pivotal for us. If there's something we can do, we ought to do it."

So Siegler, a board member of the Missoula YMCA, came home and, along with then-CEO Pat Dodson, established a partnership with the YMCA of Sierra Leone, one of 125 countries in which there is a YMCA.

What ensued was a relationship that included two visits from the leader of Sierra Leone's YMCA and fundraising by the Missoula group.

David Ports, who replaced Dodson as CEO in 2006, said the group has raised nearly $60,000, which has helped build schools and develop youth programs in the rebuilding nation.

But this weekend, for the first time, a Missoula contingent will visit Sierra Leone to meet the people they have been trying to help, while trying to bolster their relationship with the tiny nation - which is roughly the size of West Virginia and one-fifth the size of Montana.

Siegler and Ports will be joined on the nine-day trip by board member Rick Wishcamper. The group leaves Saturday and will return on Sept. 21.

"Every single day but the last we're going to be meeting with board members, meeting with volunteers and staff, and making forays into different communities," Ports said.

The group will leave for Sierra Leone with two main goals in mind. The first, Wishcamper said, is to enhance the relationship that's developed in the five years since the partnership began.

The second is more professional: To explore the feasibility of an exchange program that would allow staff members from Missoula and Sierra Leone to visit their partner sites, learn about the new culture and offer insight into their own.

Wishcamper, a Missoula entrepreneur and real estate developer, said he has been traveling to Africa since he was 13 and has visited about 15 countries. Never Sierra Leone, though, and he said he is prepared to be startled.

"I've never been to a place that I expect will have this palpable sense of trauma as a result of civil war," he said. "So it will be interesting. Most places I've been in Africa have social structures eroded by colonialism but not totally devastated by a war like this."

While the two sites are separated by thousands of miles and an ocean, there are similarities between the people in Missoula and Sierra Leone, stressed Siegler. He said teenagers in America who have perhaps been disappointed by missing the cut for a varsity sports team, or have faced any other adversity, could learn from Sierra Leoneans.

"To a certain extent, those kids are the ones who are going to be struggling with who they are and what they want to be," Siegler said, "just like the kids in Sierra Leone, who have lost touch with their community, with their culture. That's one thing we think we can maybe learn from their staff: How do we get in touch with these people?"

Bill Orem is a Missoula freelance writer.




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Story Source: The Missoulian

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Sierra Leone; Return to our Country of Service - Sierra Leone; Service; YMCA

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