Follow your heart…

It’s all about following your heart. When you know you need to do something – JUST DO IT (obviously I am not talking about harming yourself or others here!).

To back up a little and give some context, during our KACW packing week we had planned to pack aid for Ukraine, Moldova and Nepal. We were inundated with great items (as I am sure you read on an earlier post). During the week we became aware that we couldn’t send certain items to Nepal, which meant we needed to make a decision about what to do with the surplus.

As we are ethical and like to stay true to our word, this left us with an obvious challenge. We felt a little helpless as our hands were tied regarding the imposed restrictions for Nepal.  After battling with this for a day, we decided we would look into sending a container to Sierra Leone. To be honest, I’m not sure why we didn’t think of this before. As soon as the idea was spoken out loud, everything became clear and we felt instantly better about the whole situation. We support some children there already through Heaven Homes, so they would be able to take what they wanted for the children and then distribute as they saw fit.  There is so much poverty in Sierra Leone that we knew the additional blankets and clothes would be put to good use.

This container was by far the easiest to send. No real restrictions, and provision for the additional container was met, thanks to the shipping company offering to do this for us at cost price!  We loaded and sent the full container which arrived just a few days ago.

Now for the news… Last night I got a text from our friend Kippy who is the coordinator of the project in Sierra Leone. There has been a freak flood in Freetown area – some killed and thousands have lost their homes. They are desperate. She said it was as if we had known – the surplus aid was being sorted and sent to the National Stadium, where thousands of displaced people are sleeping rough.

What’s wonderful to me is that our heart is to help those in crisis. We are still developing this and working out our next steps but not aiming to run before we can walk. How awesome that without even trying we have been able to respond to the need of these people in their desperation – all thanks to an inspired idea.

I think it’s amaZing and I have just been blown away by this all day.  I just wanted to share it with you and say thank you for helping us to do what we do. 
We would love for you to spread the word and tell others about us so that we can continue taking steps forward towards our Crisis Intervention plans.