PASTORAL INTERLUDE: HOPE 4 MANAYS

....BANGURA BROTHERS LAND We went to Manays and we meet..... the Bangura Brother's land, a year after their father, Pa "Co-Op" Bangura, passed. Pa Bangura was the district co-op officer back in the '60's and the brothers want to honour his memory by helping their ancestral village become food independant, using the latest eco based techniques. The brothers also want to help their Ma, who founded Hope 4 Ebola Orphans, so the rice they plan to grow can help feed 100+ orphans of Ebola living in our centre and in Moa Wharf.

Well, the Bangura’s ancestral lands stretch further to the distant horizon than the boys imagined....let's see how keen the village are and find out what they need to thrive....

........THE MANAYS BOYS We went to Manays and meet….the Manays Boys – these are the guys who clean and scrub the land, who plant and weed and watch the harvest as it grows. These boys go from small holder to small holder, working the land and you can see how proud they are of what they can do!

Trouble is there’s no food to feed them for their toil, no money to fuel the tractor and no seed to plant so they’re unproductive and lots of land lies fallow.

......THE MANAYS LADIES We went to Manays and we meet….The Manays Ladies – you can see these ladies are up for a battle with the boys, they know they can outperform the boys by planning peanuts, pepper and sesame (and we think they might be right).

The Chief and the Chairman like the idea so much they set aside some communal land, there and then.....