AAPDEP Contingent Returns From Sierra Leone:
Clean Water and Healthcare Projects to Begin in March!

SIERRA LEONE -- In early January, members of the All African People's Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP) traveled to Sierra Leone, West Africa in order to officially launch a number of development projects in the country.

As part of this trip, facilitated by the Africanist Movement of Sierra Leone and West Africa, AAPDEP officials carried out project assessments for clean water, community healthcare and agricultural projects. AAPDEP officials also participated in community meetings and met with leaders of the Gbanelolo and Oloshoro communities.

AAPDEP projects are set to begin in Gbanelolo and Oloshoro in March 2008 with the building of community-sized rainwater harvesting systems and a number of community-wide health trainings on how to prevent, identify and treat waterborne diseases.

Gbanelolo, which means "meeting place" in the Temne language, is home to over 500 people, most of whom are subsistence farmers. In Gbanelolo, AAPDEP's African Corps of Engineers, Scientists and Healthcare workers will also work to develop 30 acres of land into a community farm whose produce will be used for community consumption and sale.

In Oloshoro, a coastal community that is home to over 2,000 people, AAPDEP is also working to develop a community healthcare project to address the high rate of infant and maternal mortality. Sierra Leone has the highest rate of maternal mortality and one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the world.