We are a group of friends who came together because the time is right to help our friends in Sierra Leone.  We are Sierra Leoneans and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who live all over the United States and know we can help the villages we love in Sierra Leone.  Most of us first met each other there in the 1970’s and 1980’s before Sierra Leone plunged headlong into civil war. 

 Over the years we kept in close contact with all the friends we met in Sierra Leone.  Then we watched in horror as Sierra Leone was destroyed in one of the most brutal civil wars known to history.

We waited for letters that poured and then trickled in as the postal system in Sierra Leone deteriorated.  When the letters resumed we knew: their villages were destroyed, their families were displaced, maimed and sometimes killed.  John and Gary published some of these letters in the book, Black Man’s Grave, because they realized they were getting more information from friends than on CNN and in the New York Times. 

 Now that Sierra Leone is stable again, we are grateful to have the opportunity to help our friends rebuild their lives.  We pooled our talents and gathered our friends from across the country and created the SLVP to work in partnership with the villages of Sierra Leone.