A Box of Sweets Gift (Digital download)
Who doesn't love sweets? Your gift will buy the children in the Interim Care Centre a box of sweets.
We will email you a digital version of the gift certificate and provide the gift to a child living, or formerly living, on the streets in Sierra Leone.
How your gift has helped Laughter Africa children in the past:
We all feel like a treat once in a while. And that’s the same for the children in the ICC. Every now and again, we get them a box of chocolates to share. One of the girls who stayed in the ICC who loved a box of chocolates was Mariatu. She definitely deserved a treat after all she has survived over the last few years. We first met Mariatu in June 2017 and she has stayed home since her reunification. In May 2020, due to economic desperation, her family sold Mariatu to a man who wanted to marry her. He was more than double her age. He paid her parents 900,000 leones (less than £90). However she refused to marry him as she was only 16 years old. He threatened to take her family to the police so her family ran away from the village, leaving Mariatu by herself. He was constantly pressurising Mariatu to marry him even though underage marriage is illegal in Sierra Leone. Meanwhile, despite the fact Mariatu was living at the local chief’s house, the man would turn up night and day to harass her, saying things like, “If you and I do not get married, one of us will die.” When you hear threats like this and you are a susceptible teenager, of course you will be afraid. We managed to find more family members in a different location and the man has been unable to find her again. No one will now force her to get married and she has been attending school regularly. We also provided her family with two sheep. Mariatu is doing very well now and is back to being her bubbly, enthusiastic self. It was worth it as well. Mariatu sat the BECE recently and passed with flying colours and is about to start SS1.
Sadly we found out that one of our old girls, Mabinty, also known affectionately as Pikito tragically died in May 2023. We first met Pikito at our mobile project in Portee in 2021. She was only 15 years old. She died after a long term battle with illness. She absolutely loved chocolates. Her photo is the photo on the gift. We miss you Pikito!!