Champions

This page is a place to share stories about people who are making a difference.

Now Sarah Johnston, an education and training consultant, has taken on Championing two projects in Sierra Leone with LemonAid Fund. She is volunteering her time with Amidu and is taking on the tennis challenge as one project.

One day recently after school, Sarah was inspired watching Amidu work patiently with a number of aspiring tennis champs. Alfred, 8 years old, was hitting balls with great zeal as Amidu coached "small, small". Alfred's home is near the Liberian border but because of the war he now lives in Freetown with his uncle the hotel cook. On the other side of the court, Balu who is 15 and has represented Sierra Leone in tennis tournaments, was hitting up with 11 year old Johnie whose shoes are broken and racquet in need of restringing, nonetheless, he was whacking the ball back and forth with great vigour. Then there is Musaba, 12 years, who is enthusiastically volleying the ball with a warped racquet with broken strings.

Every day when there is no school, these kids and others head to the court to earn some money to help their families, as ball boys, or in Balu's case to partner adult players who need an opponent. When the court is free there is time for the kids get in a bit of practice and coaching.

The coaches would like to have the more equipment for the kids in Freetown (racquets, balls, grips), money to improve the courts they play on, and support to run tennis clinics for 8-12 year olds in Kono, Bo, and Kenema.

Together, Amidu and Sarah hope to raise fund $10,000 to buy the necessary equipment and run workshops throughout the country. If you would like to help them you can make a donation to LemonAid Fund and earmark your donation for Sierra Leone Kids Tennis.

Amidu, one of the coaches, is a 29 year old Sierra Leonean who gives his time to work with boys and girls from all walks of life, teaching and encouraging them to play, have fun, build their skills and learn the ethics of the sport and life. He is keen to make a difference in his country, to build tennis and to take his skills to children who have never seen tennis in the war torn areas of Sierra Leone.

Sarah Johnston, an education and training consultant, has taken on Championing two projects in Sierra Leone with LemonAid Fund. She is volunteering her time with Amidu and is taking on the tennis challenge as one project.

Prior to coming to Sierra Leone she worked with the Thai Railway Police on an education program for runaway kids, on the Thai Burma Border training teachers who would then go back to the camps to teach and most recently in Afghanistan on a street kids project with Aschiana, an Afghan NGO.

If you would like more information about the project please contact Sarah directly. Email: Sarah

Singer--songwriter Stephanie Rogers is an advocate for orphans in Sierra Leone. She tells her story and hopes you'll join her in the meaningful and important thing any of us can do: to make others happy.

I have never met Alpha Bangura, but I consider him my good friend.

Alpha runs an orphanage in Sierra Leone and I have been in contact with him since 2003, helping to raise funds for his work with children. I am so proud of our friendship and I look forward to visiting him one day with my family.

I first heard about Alpha and his work through a website of one of my favorite performers, Rickie Lee Jones. Being a singer-songwriter, it is my passion and interest to research music through the internet. I was looking at Rickie Lee's website, which had a whole section devoted to her charitable works and humanitarian pursuits. I saw a picture of Alpha's children in the orphanage and my heart ached with a profound pang. These children, beautiful and innocent, had lost their parents due to the ravages of war and AIDS, and they looked very solemn. I knew I wanted to reach out in some way to them and I knew I would contact Mr. Bangura. I emailed him immediately and thus began our friendship and our work together.

I grew up in a comfortable suburb along Chicago's north shore. It is a place many worlds away from the suffering of Sierra Leone. I was a preschool teacher in Evanston, Illinois for a few years and got to work with kids who often didn't have much, but they were generous, loving beings! I'll never forget them and the lessons I learned about how we are all the same; no one is "better" than another. It was an eye-opening experience to teach children and I loved it. When I had a health battle with cancer at the age of 27, my life then changed permanently. I developed an intense love and concern for our world and the lives in it, especially the lives of children.

By comparison to our American standard of living, it does not take much to improve someone's life in Sierra Leone. Together with the small efforts and contributions of many we can make a difference.

My first attempt to send Alpha funds that I had collected did not go well. I tried the mail. He never got the money, unfortunately, and I missed my chance to help provide the children with a happy Christmas. Alpha told me about Money Gram and that is how we worked together until I found Nancy Peddle's LemonAid Fund. I contacted her and she went to Alpha's orphanage, to see the amazing work he is doing, caring for orphaned children in his facility, as well as foster children who have been placed into homes. Nancy told me I had good instincts in wanting to help Alpha when I met her in person in Chicago in January (2007). I knew then I would have to "summon my highest self." All the things I believe about helping others is realized in Nancy. She is a shining star of inspiration and a selfless, caring soul.

I look forward to someday visiting the orphanage in Sierra Leone. I will bring many hugs for an amazing man, my good friend Alpha Bangura.