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New buildings cement school ties among refugees in Sierra Leone
5 Aug 2004 A German television station has helped to fund school buildings for refugees in Sierra Leone's eight camps. When the school term starts in September, children in the camps and host communities will be able to attend classes in proper buildings instead of shelters made of plastic sheeting. -
A Sierra Leonean family comes home
26 Jul 2004 UNHCR followed Ambulai Lumeh and his family as they ended 12 years of exile in Liberia, returning on the last UNHCR convoy to Sierra Leone last week. There were tears and smiles as they arrived back in the village they had left as newly weds - with four children in tow and new challenges ahead. -
Last convoys leave for Sierra Leone as assisted repatriation ends
21 Jul 2004 The last convoys back to Sierra Leone left neighbouring Liberia and Guinea today, ending a huge UNHCR operation that has helped some 178,000 Sierra Leonean refugees to go home. -
Refugee band launches debut album in Freetown
11 Jun 2004 Discovered while in exile in Guinea, the Refugee All Stars band has gone back to Sierra Leone to launch its debut album, "Livin' Like a Refugee". All but one of the band members have returned home to restart their lives. -
A rough but happy journey home for Sierra Leonean refugees
7 Jun 2004 The journey from Guinea to Sierra Leone is rough, but returnees are keen to get home before UNHCR's organised repatriation programme finishes on 30 June. Over 10,000 refugees have now returned since repatriation from Guinea began in late January this year. Community schemes are underway to help them reintegrate. -
Returns to Sierra Leone step up before June 30 deadline
1 Jun 2004 More than 1,500 Sierra Leonean refugees have returned home from Liberia in recent days, ahead of UNHCR's plan to phase out assistance at the end of this month. -
UNHCR opens new building in Sierra Leone to cope with returnees
28 May 2004 As the repatriation of Sierra Leonean refugees from Guinea and Liberia winds down, UNHCR has opened a new building in Kono district, Sierra Leone, to cope with the influx of returnees. It's a far cry from the tarpaulin office UNHCR started with in Kono in 2002. -
Feature: Liberian boy fights kidney disease after surviving war
15 Mar 2004 Dickson Gray has survived a rocket attack and a life in captivity in Liberia. Now in Sierra Leone, the 17-year-old refugee is fighting for his life and needs to be resettled urgently to a country with advanced medical care. -
Peace prospects pulling West Africa's refugees home
12 Mar 2004 Refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone have been streaming home, on UNHCR convoys and on their own, through a now-secured border between the two countries - one firmly on the road to reconstruction, the other at the doorstep of a peaceful future.