`My child Mustapha was abducted. He was two months old when he was taken. I have never heard of him since'.

Byline: By Matt McKenzie

As people around the North raise money for Red Nose Day today, The Journal's Matt McKenzie brings his second report from Sierra Leone, a country he visited last month to see the work being funded by Comic Relief in the war-ravaged country ( by your donations.

Mamakor Kpaka sits in a doorway in her home village of Maipema.

Her braided hair shrouds silver and blue earrings, a green and white dress hangs over plastic red sandals.

She speaks in a quiet voice. Looking younger than her 30 years, Mamakor is telling her desperate story.

"During the war, most of us went out of the community," she says. "My child Mustapha was abducted. He was two months old when he was taken out.

"We were in a hiding place when the rebels met us there. They came in and killed my brother, who was just 25. We had to go into hiding by the side of the road, in the next village, in the bush.

"I was flogged by the rebels and badly beaten. I saved my life because I was able to run.

"I have never heard of Mustapha since he was taken away."

Mamakor's whispered conversation, with no tears or signs of anger, seemed to conceal a resigned acceptance of the events of eight years ago.

She is not alone in her trauma, thousands of other parents suffered similarly during the decade of conflict when a tactic of horrific intimidation held sway in this diamond-rich land.

It was a basic but terrifying form of warfare as the marauding rebels drove half the population from their homes, destroying many villages in their wake. The graffiti declaring the rebels' presence is still visible on many walls.

Sierra Leone as a nation was traumatised, and it seemed to me, it is pulling itself back from chaos collectively too.

"There are times when I think of those days," she says. "But if I keep thinking of them, it affects me too much and stops me thinking of the future."

That future is being shaped by Comic Relief. The charity helps fund APEM ( the Association for People's Empowerment ( a Christian Aid partner that is rebuilding livelihoods in the Southern and Eastern provinces.

Since Comic Relief began, it has awarded 34 grants to Christian Aid, totalling pounds 4,727,728. Four of them, worth pounds 386,797 have gone to Sierra Leone.

The money goes to 44 villages ( including Mamakor's home, Maipema in the Pujehun district, whose people are being trained in farming, providing seeds and tools.

The funding lasts three years, by which time it is hoped that the community can survive on its own.

Mustahpa Abdulai, programme manager with APEM, explained how the system involved identifying a village and two inhabitants who will be trained up as leaders. They then return home to set up a committee and community operation swings into place. Loans are also handed out to buy basic goods and often goats, so that people can start dealing in commodities. They are trained in food management ( just outside the village is a freshly cultivated field, with cassava being planted and harvested to bring in extra cash.

Our arrival in Maipema was like nothing I'd ever seen. The whole village turned out led by a man dressed as a `Bush Devil', whose straw mane was beaten to expel the spirits.

A man on stilts careered around us, while a woman representing the female god stood enigmatically aloof.

The welcome, in an open-sided meeting place with corrugated iron roof not far from a mass burial pit, revealed the stratas of society.

The village has a chief, a vice-chief and is split into four sections, with section heads, opinion leaders, youth leaders, women's leaders, advisors.

One man stood up, addressing us, and said: "To raise money to help ordinary people is not an easy task. It seems too big for me. I'm thanking you for what you do."

His words are noble and sincerely grateful. Walking around the village, the fruits of the Comic Relief cash are very evident. Two birthing rooms have been built with a medical kit and attendant to help ease the trials of childbirth in a country where one in six women die in labour.

The realities are summed up by Manakor, whose husband is a farmer, and who would eventually like to learn tie dye like the other women.

"But for now," she says. "I am a housewife, I look after my children. I am not satisfied with my present condition because I am illiterate."

And what pains her most is that she cannot afford to send her four children to school.

"There are a lot of people like me who are illiterate, it is one of our biggest problems.

"But I would like my children to go to school. So I'm asking you to encourage your people to help our children to become better citizens of tomorrow."

Sierra leone Poverty Indicators

Population in poverty: 57pc are living on less than $1 a day

Nutritional Status: 47pc don't have sufficient food

Life expectancy: 34.5 (UK life expectancy is 78)

Mortality for under 5 years of age: 316 per 1,000 live births (in the UK this is only 7)

Access to safe water: 28pc

Literacy: Male: 36pc. Female:18.2pc

Primary School Enrolment: Male: 59pc. Female: 41pc

Secondary School Enrolment: Male: 22pc. Female: 13pc

Number of doctors: 7.3 per 100,000 (in the UK this is 164)

Number of nurses: 58 per 100,000

Sierra leone: Economic Indicators

GDP: 4.2pc (growth rate)

GDP per head: $470 (compared to UK $24,000 per head)

Debt: $1.28 billion

Inflation: 15pc

Major industries: Mining (diamonds); small scale manufacturing (beverages, textiles, cigarettes, footwear); fisheries, petroleum refining

Major trading partners: Belgium, UK, USA, Italy and Nigeria