At Lifeline Nehemiah there is never a dull moment and, it is with great pleasure that I inform you that the month of April was both exciting and memorable, filled with development work and celebrations shared with our friends both in-country and in the diaspora, including our friends in the UK.
It was a joy to welcome 13 of our friends and long-time supporters and investors from the UK on April 1st, the team visiting us here with the express purpose of celebrating together the 30th Anniversary of the founding of the Lifeline Nehemiah Projects (LNP) organisation, and those who came were, Phil & Elspeth Paisley, Leonie Garland, Gordon Brewer, Chris Page, Daniel Meerjane, Jacob Baiden, Naomi November, Luke Smith, Alex Warlow, Josiah Singleton, Keiralyn Singleton and Lynn Coles.
The UK team’s contribution to the planning and preparation for the celebration was invaluable, supporting such activities as painting the school buildings, carrying water, moving and carrying stones to support the paving of the grounds where the celebration events took place, engaging with the Nehemiah Home boys and girls, conducting learning and fun sessions with the Nursery, Primary and Junior Secondary school pupils, and teaching sessions with the Betteh Tumara Technical Vocational Training Institute students.
The team also conducted teaching sessions during Sunday school and Sunday meeting, on April 5th, at the Lifeline Church in Kuntorloh, engaging with the children, youth and adults of the church family.
On the day of the event, April 4th, we celebrated together in truly unique fashion with the Lifeline Church UK, implementing modern technology to enable them to join with us.
Many former Lifeline Nehemiah beneficiaries were able to be present, including former students, former Nehemiah Home boys, members staff, 2YongLives mentees and mentors and community stakeholders, and some of our partners, making the whole day a wonderful moment since many of these various attendees had travelled from across many parts of Sierra Leone to participate.
Several of attendees were given the opportunity to share their testimonies, highlighting powerful success stories, such as…
Mariatu A. Sankoh: seen here, proudly wearing a replica of her previous Lifeline Nursery school uniform, she said, “I am currently pursuing a Master’s in Administration and Human Resource Management, and I am confident in competing with male members in class because of the principles I learnt from Lifeline, and I remain proud of Lifeline”.
Alie Sesay: this young man had this to say, “Having attended the Lifeline Junior Secondary School, I learned many good things and some of its principles and values have kept me going. Today, I am in my final year at Forah Bay College, pursuing a Bachelor of Engineering in Mining degree. I am proud of Lifeline and its teachers, including those who mentored me and disciplined me during my school days at Lifeline”.
Abdul Sankoh: a Nehemiah boy wrote a poem explaining how he feels now, having been orphaned during the Ebola crisis but added to the Nehemiah Home family as a direct result of LNP’s response to the Ebola epidemic.
This represents only a small selection of what was shared on the day, but we will be uploading more of the poems and testimonies on our website and 
Facebook page.
We were also delighted to be able to welcome members of the press and television media to join in the celebrations, and thank them for their support in raising the profile and recognition of Lifeline Nehemiah Projects and the work it has done over three decades, and continues to push forward into in the future – for another 30 years at least…!
Among those present was the Africa24Newspaper, and this is the link to their article from the day – Lifeline Showcases Three Decades of Impact.
