About Plymouth

Sierra Leone-
Plymouth Partnership

The Sierra Leone-Plymouth Partnership (SLPP) is a long-term partnership between Plymouth and three villages in Sierra Leone.

SLPP was created in 2005 by Plymouth member Jeff Hall, who lived in the Sierra Leonean village of Jokibu for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the early 1990s. Since 2006, he and about 15 to 20 volunteers working with him return each year for two weeks to Jokibu and its sister villages, Foindu and Pujehun.

Jeff and the others have developed SLPP as a way for Plymouth to become aware of conditions in Africa and to offer specific, dynamic help. This help — about $100,000 per year in developmental aid, along with the work of a number of committees in the villages and at Plymouth — is modeled after the current UN Millennium Village Project, with the goal of making the villages self-sufficient with increasing income and among the very best in Sierra Leone and West Africa.

Sierra Leone itself is a small, coastal, tropical West African country between Guinea and Liberia. Its capital, Freetown, once traded slaves (as in the movie Amistad) and later became a major site for repatriation of slaves. The three SLPP villages were devastated in the region’s 1990s civil wars (as in the movies Blood Diamond and Lord of War). The SLPP villages were destroyed and residents fled to refugee camps. With peace and democracy fully restored, the country, once rated poorest in the world by the UN, is now improving. While the 5,000 villagers have no electricity, running water or cars, they do have hope, fertile soil and a willingness to work hard.

All donations to SLPP go directly to the villages, with no overhead. No SLPP members receive pay for their work. SLPP improvements to date include 500 sheet-metal roofs so mud-brick walls won’t crumble in the rainy season, thus allowing farmers more work in their fields; yearly scholarships for about 150 students, who must leave the villages if they wish to attend junior high, high school or college; the fixing of four water wells and the digging of five new wells; regular stocking of the medical clinic and support for its nurse; a new school addition; and a micro-loan program. SLPP hopes to begin regular supplies of books to schools, build libraries and more clinics, develop alternative power, use micro credit to increase business activity and income, and hire a doctor.

To learn more, please attend one of several SLPP information sessions each year or visit www.SLPP.org.

More on SLPP

The Water of Life

Micro loans double farmers' income

Villages passionate about educational needs