Newsletter No. 239
April 14, 2006

 

PEACE WINDS JAPAN ENDS ITS MISSION IN THE KONO DISTRICT OF SIERRA LEONE

The well-known Japanese NGO Peace Winds Japan has ended its mission in the Kono district of Sierra Leone as of March 31st. The reasons for the termination of the mission are reported to be two. First, the UNHCR, which was the main financial backer of the project, decided to terminate funding for the project. Second, officials at Peace Winds Japan suggest that they had pretty much completed their mission in any case.

Peace Winds Japan began operations in Sierra Leone in April 2001. Their main concern has been to provide services for refugees from the civil wars in both Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia. By May 2002, most of the Sierra Leonean refugees had returned home to the Kono district, but their old villages were in ruins. Peace Winds Japan helped these people to get resettled, and was particularly noted for their efforts in digging much-needed wells.

The Awareness Times has described the mission as “a real success story” and says that Peace Winds Japan is now “a household name” in the district.

In an interview that they did with Mr. James Tamba Weima, who worked with the Japanese NGO, the following information was communicated: “Peace Winds is the only organization that provides boreholes as deep as thirty meters to the communities. Even before the war, we had serious difficulties to access good water facilities. The residents had to walk miles and miles away just to fetch water. This is now a thing of the past with the intervention of Peace Winds Japan.”

The Japanese NGO also provided educational materials for local schools.

The Awareness Times indicates that many people wanted the Sierra Leone government to continue to fund the operations itself, but that the impoverished government just didn’t have enough money to do so.

The presence of Peace Winds Japan in Sierra Leone has not entirely disappeared, however, as they still maintain services for a camp of Liberian refugees on Sierra Leonean territory.