Soroptimist International Quadrennial Project 2007 – 2011;Project SIerra: a Family and a Future

Every four years Soroptimist International (SI) launches a major international project in partnership with a charity, NGO or United Nations agency. Each project is designed to be self-sustaining by the end of SI's four-year commitment. Soroptimist members around the world join forces to give active support to the chosen project and in doing so, have improved the lives of many thousands of women and children across the globe. Each Federation takes it in turns to propose an international project: our current project was initiated by Soroptimist International of Great Britain & Ireland. Project SIerra: a Family and a Future, was launched at the SI Convention in July 2007. The project supports women caring for children in extreme poverty and provides a caring secure family home for children who are alone or at risk of abandonment.

• Project location: Sierra Leone, West Africa
• Our partners: Hope and Homes for Children and on-the-ground Help A Needy Child in Sierra Leone (HANCI-SL)

Project objectives and main components

• Children aged 6 to 12 years who live on the streets will be helped to return home
• Very young mothers estranged from their families will be empowered to be active community members and where possible reintegrate with their families
• Families at risk of breakdown due to poverty, illness or death of one or both parents will be supported to self-sufficiency 

Support to each child and family will be individually tailored to meet their needs, including:

• education
• health care
• counselling and help to strengthen family ties
• securing safe living conditions
• economic support to help families move towards self-sufficiency

Project SIerra addresses all Soroptimist Programme Areas and UN Millennium Development Goals.

New project resources

New resources are available to help Soroptimist advocacy and fundraising for Project SIerra:

• Project SIerra’s dedicated website www.projectSIerra.org has information and downloads. It will be regularly updated to be the main source of information about the project and Soroptimist involvement
• Soroptimist Club Protocol contains information about Project SIerra, our partner and ideas for advocacy and fundraising
• a colour brochure is being released to all Federations
• a DVD specially made for Project SIerra is being released to all Federations
• a limited quantity of lapel pin badges and notelets are for sale (contact SI Project Liaison or your Federation Liaison)

We are very fortunate to have the Federation Co-ordinator for this project, Chris Knight, as a member of our club.