About Us

Tim and Ceri Griffiths, the founders of Compassion Africa served for 5 years, as missionary relief workers in Sierra Leone. In the early 1980’s they resigned from their teaching posts and left with their 18 month old daughter Tara to work in a small village outside the capital Freetown, called Makump. It was during this time that they saw firsthand some of the appalling poverty and almost insurmountable problems that people suffered on a daily basis. When a friendʼs wife died in childbirth, they were asked to adopt the baby, as there is little hope of life for babies in the bush who are not breast fed, the father felt that he could not cope with the baby and also raise his remaining five children.

They discovered later that the boy had sickle cell disease and the doctors only gave him 2 years to live. Today John is a healthy strong young man. Through the activities of Compassion Africa, Tim & Ceri Griffiths want to provide similar opportunities for other orphaned children in Sierra Leone.

Trusted Connections Thanks to the personal links that Tim & Ceri built during their stay in Sierra Leone, Compassion Africa has formed strong, trusted partnerships with organisations in Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone

Children in Sierra Leone face some of the biggest challenges in the whole world. Infant mortality rates are higher than any other country, thousands of kids are left orphaned after a 10 year civil war and education is normally only for those who can afford it. Sierra Leone is a beautiful country in West Africa. It does, however, face some big challenges:

The number of children (0-17 years) orphaned due to all causes, 2003, is estimated at 350,000 (UNICEF)

• Under-5 mortality rank number 1 in the whole world (UNICEF)
• Primary school attendance for boys 43% (UNICEF)
• Primary school attendance for girls 39% (UNICEF)
• An 11yr civil war left 50,000 people dead, 100,000 people mutilated and 500,000 people displaced
• The UN estimates that of those fighting with Sierra Leone government forces, a quarter are children below the age of 18
• Almost three quarters of all Sierra Leonean children are engaged in some kind of work. Furthermore, many children are forced into mine works and girls are kept in sexual slavery (ICFTU)
• The 2003/04 household survey shows that 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line of Le 2,111 (slightly below US $1) per day. (World Bank)
• Sierra Leone is 2nd from bottom on the Human Development Index (HDI) (a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare.)

Our partners have identified children most in need in their local areas and begun the process of helping within the remits of limited facilities and resources.