Ex-Peace Corps volunteers to return to Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone may be thousands of miles from Seattle, but two Ballard residents have made it their mission as volunteers, to help that country re-develop.

Dan Lavin first went to Sierra Leone as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1988 until 1990. Back in Seattle he met Cindy Nofziger and learned she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone from 1985 to 1987.

Both have made an impact on the country, which went through a civil war resulting from a conflict in neighboring country Liberia from the late 1990s through 2002. "During the war, government agencies, relief groups and the Peace Corps pulled out," said Lavin.

He is going back this month. Nofziger is also returning to Sierra Leone in a separate trip.

Lavin was instrumental in launching the Community Initiative Program in Sierra Leone. The program was started during the war with support from fundraising efforts in the U.S.

Since the conflict ended, the Community Initiative Program has flourished, conducting education, health, community enrichment, sports and agriculture projects.

Three of Lavin's Sierra Leone friends died in the war.

"I will go back and see who is alive," said Lavin. "I consider them family. It's amazing they (the people) survived so long."

He will be taking is son Sam, 10, with him on the trip. Sam will attend a local Sierra Leone school to develop an understanding of what they are like compared to the U.S.

"They will do a project with stories and drawings, collect them and put them together from a kid's perspective. We will put it in a book format when we get back," said Lavin.

The father and son will travel to a village that was once the base camp for Liberian rebels. At this village, Lavin helped design a fish pond the size of an Olympic style swimming pool. It produces 20,000 to 30,000 tilapia fish to help feed the local population.

Lavin, who has an aquaculture background, developed the fish farms so they can be replicated in other parts of the country.

Other Community Initiative Programs have built furniture for health centers and provided bicycles for health care workers to ride to remote villages instead of walking.

"I've dreamed about Sam being there long before he was born. I want him to see what it is really like. How hard it is but how wonderful," said Lavin.

"I'm excited about everything. I've asked my dad what the country is like. They are different in a lot of ways. School will be different from my school. They learn the same topics, but the way they learn is different," said Sam Lavin, a student at Whittier Elementary.

The Lavins will be bringing 80 soccer balls and air pumps with them on the trip. They will also be taking t-shirts donated by Bob Wenman athletic director at the Ballard Boys and Girls Club.

The Community Initiative Program is affiliated with Schools for Salone, which was started by Nofziger started in 2004 to assist in reconstructing the country's schools and infrastructure that were destroyed during the war.

Lavin has a picture of students in a classroom that was shot at by rebels during the war. The students are standing at a blackboard, with large holes in the wall caused by RPG's (rocket propelled grenades).

As a physical therapist, Nofziger worked at the Masanga Leprosy Hospital. A friend, John Sasay asked her to help rebuild a school.

While back in Seattle, Nofziger made sets of greeting cards featuring fish paintings made by Sierra Leone children.

She sold the cards locally in places like the Green Bean Coffeehouse and raised $16,000 in proceeds and donations. The money helped build three schools. The schools are more primitive that those in America, as they lack electricity. Often classes share a classroom, with some grades facing one way and the other grade sitting in the opposite direction. The old schools were just grass huts.

Now seven schools have been built with funding in the works for three more. "We want to bring up the levels of the teachers. Books and supplies are difficult to get," she said.

The schools are in poor, rural areas. These communities lack safe water, suffer from poor health, nutrition and hunger. The people place a high priority on education as a way to break the cycle of poverty.

Nofziger joined the Peace Corps to make a contribution to the world. "I wanted to live in a different country and culture, trying to help people in a difficult part of the world," she said.

Son Michael, seven years old, will go on the trip. "It's a big part of my life and I want to share it with him. Other people live differently. I want to open his eyes to different cultures," said Nofziger.

While Lavin and Nofziger have had their own individual experiences in Sierra Leone, they have spent time in the country together. Lavin's laptop has hundreds of photographs of people they have met on their trips.

"It's been infectious for both of us. It has changed my life in so many ways," said Lavin.

Seeing the first school she helped build was what Nofziger remembers most.

"The first one is the most emotional for me. It's such an emotional thing. I was just crying," said Nofziger.

Dean Wong may be reached at 783.1244 or deanw@robinsonnews.com