Marjay Town
Freetown, Sierra Leone
The impoverished community of Marjay Town is located on the outskirts of the quiet, western side of Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown. Amidst its crumbling, potholed, dirt streets, living in houses made of everything from plastic tarps to higher-quality cinder-block construction, live an estimated 20,000 residents. Most homes do not have running water or electricity.
The majority of Marjay Town’s residents support themselves through fishing, working as construction laborers, or by engaging in small-scale trading. The population is predominantly of a Muslim background, but there is also a large Christian community and several churches.
It was in Marjay Town, in 1997 (after finding it difficult to either rent or buy land in the capital), that Children of the Nations found a plot of land that was both suitable and available, and purchased it to center our ministry and establish our flagship Children’s Home for orphaned children. Later that same year, a Children of the Nations short-term mission team broke ground and began construction. Two years later, in 1999, the Marjay Town Children’s Home opened its doors, eventually welcoming 98 orphans—identified as the worst-of-the-worst cases—into full-time residential care.
In 2002, recognizing Marjay Town’s need for quality, affordable education, Children of the Nations opened the Mallory Jansen Memorial School (Marjay Town), utilizing the upper floor of the Children’s Home.
From 1999 to 2007, the Marjay Town Children’s Home and School, along with various rented buildings adjacent to the property, made up our ministry site in Sierra Leone, providing administrative offices as well as housing for staff and visiting teams.
In 2004, Children of the Nations made the decision to relocate the ministry site to a more remote location so the children would be able to enjoy a traditional village setting and live in family-style homes. After being gifted with a 45-acre plot of land in Banta Mokelleh (an 8-hour drive inland from Freetown) by the paramount chief to develop into a ministry site, plans to relocate the children were put into motion.
In 2007, construction of our Banta Children’s Village (including ten Children’s Homes) at our Banta Ministry Center was complete and the children were relocated from the Marjay Town Children’s Home.
Today, the original Children’s Home facility serves fully as a community school and church. In 2010, there were 194 children enrolled in Children of the Nations’ Mallory Jansen Memorial School in Marjay Town, taught by a staff of 11 teachers. COTN’s Church of the Nations, also held in this facility, is open to the community, spreading the gospel and building up disciples.
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