Executive Director Background

How We Got Here

My name is John U. Swarray, I came from a family background of six, At the age of seven years old, during the Rebel war in Sierra Leone, and I was stale with a bayonet on my right hand by rebel to the point of death. And I became sick, very sick. My body was swelling and my right hand started to rot while we were in the bush. My mother found her way to Matru Jong hospital in the southern district of Sierra Leone

I was hospitalized at the Matru Jong Hospital for four years, for which an operation was done on my hand, the doctors removed some flesh from my hand. I didn’t recover from the rebel attack of the Matru Jong village and we escaped from the hospital and we moved into the bush for almost eight months and we came to Freetown the capital city of Sierra Leone.

We visited Dr. Mike the man who did the initial operation in Matru Jong hospital and he transferred us at the Connaught Hospital to Dr. Boima which I was admitted there for another three and a half years.
So I have spent seven and a half long years in hospital. Can you imagine that? About 2,736 days in pain at hospital. At Connaught hospital, the situation was getting worse and my whole body swelled up some part of my hand got rotten. The doctors try all but given up on me. My mom drove out of the ward as I was only giving a few minutes to live, but I survived.
For each surgery, they took the skin from my legs for the skin grafts. I had to wear pressure garments on my legs because it takes a while for the donor sites to heal. My mum was taught how to change my bandage, assist with the prescribed exercise program to keep to skin stretched out.
I continued on with reconstructive surgery once every six to eight months but the doctors saw it fixed that they should cut off the hand, Three times my mother signed a 

My tragedy become an open book to my family, friends, and even stranger, my name changed to my problem, it was difficult for me to live.

At Connaught Hospital in Freetown, the rebel attack the city, and we were displaced from the hospital, during that period, my mum dropped me at the John Bosco orphanage home to check on my brothers and sisters in the village. I spent some months in the orphanage home then I moved out.

I gained a lot from my pain and I found out I am very strong today, have a very strong-willed, and I know there is something in this life for me. I don’t throw pity party it solves nothing and no one listens, it’s up to me to take charge of my life. At this point in my life, I have learned that God created or mode we proportion to the task He has for us.

My struggle was a training ground. He created my story to prove to others that he is God and to solve problems because my future is mark proportion to the problem I am willingly ready to solve for other.

Documents to cut off my hand, my right hand because there were no veins that could supply the flowed of blood in my hand.