Sierra Leone

Welcome to Sierra Leone! Sierra Leone is located on the Horn of Africa, the part of Africa that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean 5.7 million people live there They speak English, Krio (a version of English), and various African languages Sierra Leone has many natural resources including various minerals, gold and diamonds

Beginnings of War Because of many rich natural resources, the government of Sierra Leone became corrupt They would not share the wealth of the country with the people This lead to the people being angry at the government Some people formed a rebel army called the Revolutionary United Front (or RUF) to fight the government and gain control of the resources for the people

The RUF attacked the government, starting a civil war that would last 11 years The government could not stand up to the RUF and the RUF took control over the resources of Sierra Leone But instead of giving money back to the people like the RUF promised, the RUF kept all the money from the resources for itself

Turning on the People The RUF began to attack villages and abduct people to force them to fight in the RUF against the government Many people were killed, and many children were separated from their families People left their homes to try and find safety elsewhere

Child Soldiers The RUF began to kidnap children to use them as soldiers in the war They would teach the children they kidnapped how to do nothing but fight and kill As many as 10,000 children became soldiers

United Nations The United Nations (UN), an international council, saw that the RUF was committing many crimes against the people of Sierra Leone They began to send UN soldiers to put an end to the RUF

War Over In 2002, after 11 years of fighting, the UN declared the war officially over Over half of the people in the country had been forced to leave their homes 200,000 people had died

Rebuilding Sierra Leone and the UN are working hard to rebuild the country One of the hardest things to do is to help the children who were soldiers Many children saw horrible things in the war In order to help, Sierra Leone has worked to build libraries and schools

E-luminate This is where YOU come in! Through E-luminate, we will work to provide resources for the children of Sierra Leone who are still working to recover from the war By providing different media materials, we will help the children have a better education and a brighter future

Thank you!