Letters - 24 October 2014
From ebola to inherited buildings
Ebola in Rokel, Sierra Leone
Friends in Rokel, Sierra Leone, are experiencing unprecedented difficulties at the moment. They are not able to hold Meeting for Worship because of the Ebola crisis.
Those who have visited the area may have been taken to the John Thorpe hamlet where the river sand mining takes place. It is a very ramshackle area with broken houses.
Sadly, twenty of the residents in that area died last week from Ebola. Whole families have been wiped out. I don’t believe that any of them were involved with the Quaker Meeting. However, members of the Quaker Peace Networks West Africa group in Rokel have been heavily involved in Ebola prevention work. They have been led by Fatou Samah who features in the book: The Light That Pushes Me: Stories of African Peacebuilders.
In spite of the fact that Fatou was quarantined for six weeks earlier in the year she is back at work, running the little clinic and visiting the population to try to educate the locals about cleanliness. She puts herself at great risk and has not been paid for some weeks because they have been unable to carry out their usual work of raising money to keep the clinic functioning.
Please hold them in the Light.
Dorothy Crowther
Transformation
With reference to ‘Transformation’ (17 October): my transformation came during rehearsals for The Gates of Greenham in 1985 when we reached the words: ‘we were taking charge of our lives for the first time’ which turned into a query: ‘When did you take charge of your life?’ My honest answer was never! So, I did just that by retiring early to create space for a new life. It was a personal transformation, with Alec Davison and Tony Biggin as the catalysts. Thank you both!
David L Saunders
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