Allotments 4 All

Anyone else seen the film? Namissa and I went last night; she, of course, is Sierra Leonean, and at the time we knew a fair bit about what was going, quite apart from having our girls caught up in it at one point. Inevitably, a few details are wrong, and comparing that madness with casual pre-colonial cattle-raiding is just out of the window. But the bloody chaos in the rebel-held areas and the emphasis on diamonds - the war was just an excuse while all sides mined like mad - are spot on. Definitely worth watching.

I've managed to track down a short film about a girl who spent a weekend with us a few years ago; her hands had been cut off by rebels when she was 13. She struck lucky, and was on her way to Conada where she was due to be adopted by a couple there. It's the clip at the bottom of the page.

http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/f00685?opendocument