UNHCR’s Dalaras in Sierra Leone
On his first mission as UNHCR goodwill ambassador, singer George Dalaras with his wife Anna, a UNHCR volunteer, the bureau chief of the High Commission in Greece Giorgos Tsarambopoulos and briefing officer Kaiti Kehayioglou spent six days accompanying Liberian refugees who were returning to their homeland from Sierra Leone. In Freetown, they met with Sierra Leone President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who told them how his country, though poor, hosted 27,000 refugees from neighboring countries. Twenty trucks set out for the border with 284 refugees from the Tobada camp, where the Greek delegation received a warm welcome. After the refugees crossed the border, the Greek delegation flew to the capital of Monrovia for an official meeting with Justice Minister Francis Johnson Morris who was deputizing for the president. Dalaras promised he would do his best to help UNHCR’s efforts to establish schools and hospitals in Liberia, which is now on a peacetime footing. The smiles of the children were the most optimistic message for the singer’s first mission as goodwill ambassador.
