“Where did all the blue skies go?”

The Up Above charity initiative is a very genuine response to the poverty and degradation being suffered in one of the poorest parts of the globe.

Sierra Leone is a country scarred by war. The civil war that ravaged the country for more than ten years has left its land, its economy and its people in ruins. Businesses fled the country, leaving no jobs for those left behind. Buildings are riddled with bullet holes. Worst of all, because of the rebels’ use of brutal force, many Sierra Leoneans’ have been left as amputees.

The plight of Sierra Leone's children is one of the most appalling legacies of the war. As rebels moved from village to village, boys were abducted and sent to camps where they were trained how to fight. Hundreds of young girls were raped and kept as sex prisoners.

 In 2003, post-war poverty in Sierra Leone was listed as one of the United Nation’s Forgotten Crises. The Up Above Charity Initiative has been set up to remind us all that extreme hardships are a reality for so many millions of people around world. We must keep their plight in our hearts and minds always; our actions must reveal compassion and hopefully those blue skies will be rediscovered.