I would like to introduce you to Stefan and her son Zogo (their images are below). They are true survivors who escaped the civil wars of Liberia and Sierra Leone in the early 200s to make their way on foot through Guinea (where both developed malaria) to Senegal, The Gambia and now Dakar, Senegal. There they are refugees and have no legal status. As such they cannot earn any money and are eking-out a hand to mouth existence. Though that's not how they would put it. However, Stefan believed her entire family to have been massacred. But now, with my aid she has discovered her father to be alive but in very bad health with a heart condition. He needs $10 000 for hospital bills and for the operation that may save his life. Stefan herself has recently been very ill with malaria and has been hospitalized herself at a cost of $3000.

I love this woman very much, but with her hospitalization I have now spent my last penny so I'm turning to the internet in the hope of gaining donations to help Stefan's father Alfred. I am also looking for the airfare to send Stefan to her father's side. I would also be like to take several months off work so that I can travel to Senegal to look after the boy, Zogo. The total cost of all this will come to more than $20 000, so I'm imploring for your help.

Aims of this campaign:

1. To allow Stefan's father to have a life-saving operation so that the surviving members of her family can be re-united

2. To allow Stefan to visit her father in Liberia and to make the journey there as safe for her as it can be.

3. To allow me to travel to Senegal to look after Stefan's son, Zogo whilst his mother is away.

4. To give Stefan the orthodontic work she needs to repair her upper jaw.

5. To give Stefan a wedding to remember in December so that we can live together in the UK as a family; thus ensuring the new future I promised her.

6. To set-up a fund so that the remaining Liberian refugees in Dakar can have an English-language school for their children to repace the UN school that has just closed.

Stefan was brought-up in Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa as a member of a large, extended Christiian family. Her life, though not exactly easy, was a happy one and she spent her childhood quite normaly (for the region at least). But everything changed in 1999 when she was living with her mother's family in Liberia, where she had gone to escape sporadic fighting in Sierra Leone during the late 1990s. She was caught-up in the civil war and fearing for her life her family sent her back to Sierra Leone. But she returned to Sierra Leone just as fighting broke out on the Liberian border in 1999. Somehow she managed to travel all the way across the country (and her descriptions of this are truly horrific and not for this part of the site). She made her way back to Freetown only to find the place in chaos with bodies littering the streets. Her family managed to shelter her until 2001 when they were scattered and most were killed. She was sheltered by a man who treated her very badly and got her pregnant. She escaped from him, but on her way out of Sierra Leone she was assaulted by a soldier, little more than a child who struck her full face with his rifle but. Believing her dead he left her bleeding on the ground, her upper jaw damaged and most of her front teeth missing. Despite this she managed to nurse herself back to health and escape with what little posessions she had.

Believing that her entire family was dead, massacred in the conflict, Stefan, now with child gathered what little money she had and managed to make it across the border into Guinea where her son was born. Doing odd jobs she managed to cross the country, but both she and her son (Zogo) them contracted malaria, which still plagues them both, as they sought to eke-out a living and from there. Indeed, Stafan is curently desperately ill with hepatic (liver) complications from her malaria. From there they made it to Guinea Bissau, itself recovering from civil war and then through Senegal to The Gambia where she managed to connect with a number of other Liberian refugees who were taking refuge with the Catholic Church. Conditions in The Gambia and the risk of sexual predation forced Stefan to flee again and she made her way to Dakar in Senegal in search of refuge, political stability and personal safety. However, as refugees they were unable to gain employment in Senegal and quite literally had to live a hand-to-mouth existence. There was some protection from the United Nations but it did not really help them much. They were in a foreign conuntry with a foreign language to them and essentially with no political status or recognition whatsoever. Basically they were stuck, unable to gain any money to get them out of the situation they were in. Yet they remained loyal to the Church and staunch Christians.

If you are able to help, then please visit Help Stefan Campaign Home . There you can learn more about Stefan, about the plight of the Liberian/Sierra Leonian refugees in Senegal and you will see how you can help. All I ask for is a small donation on your part. For this you will gain a mention on the site. If you have a website then you can gain a link back to your site from my links page. You can also get copies of my Cooking with Spices, Build your own PC and Poetry eBooks.