This weekend Paradise 4 Kids Australia (P4K-AU), a volunteer organisation operating as a division of Paradise 4 kids Inc USA (P4K-USA), is holding two fundraiser dinners in Melbourne in order to support Greek Australian Father Themis Adams’ mission in Sierra Leone.

Father Themis has been working in Sierra Leone since 2007. He flew in from Kenya with a suitcase and some books and in that short period of time he has managed to begin, with the support of many people, a mission which serves the educational, health and other needs of the people of this western African country.

The Syke Street School of the mission is both a primary and secondary school, attended by some 1,500 children. In the walled compound of the school there is also the Church of St Eleftherios.

The Waterloo Village for the Disabled is close to the capital city of Sierra Leone Freetown. In this compound there is a medical centre, a school, a church, two small houses for staff and 20 small houses where 80 villagers live.

There is also the College of Early Childhood Education and a church, which are beside the Mission House – a walled compound where Father Adams and some staff stay.

“Father has faced and dealt with many difficulties. I met him 10 years ago in Kenya. He needs to know that he is not alone and that he has people behind him supporting his efforts,” says Greek Australian nurse Jane Pallot, who has visited Father Adams in Africa in the past, together with her husband who is a doctor and who is the event manager of the fundraisers of this weekend for Paradise 4 Kids.

His work has flourished and he has been supported by people from Greece as well in the past, says Ms Pallot. Supporters from Thessaloniki have helped his educational initiatives and the building of the churches.

“Father Themis needs have to support the people of the mission and to be able to buy supplies of food, in case the Ebola epidemic isolates the country and food shortages appear,” says Jane Pallot.

The Ebola epidemic has a death rate of about 60 per cent and the World Health Organisation reports that the total number of cases in the current outbreak in West Africa is 4,366 with 2,218 deaths, as at the 7th September 2014.

So far, four Sierra Leone doctors have died, including the country’s top Ebola specialist. In the whole country, it is estimated that over 240 health staff have fallen ill, with a death rate of 50 per cent.

Father Themis made the decision to remain with his people and it is this decision and his efforts to help his people that the Greek Australian community is called to support this weekend.

Luckily for Father Adams and his mission, so far no mission staff, or those at the Waterloo Village, have been infected. Both schools and the College of Early Childhood Education have been shut for the duration of the epidemic, whilst the Waterloo Village for the Disabled is in shut down mode.

Today’s fundraising function at the Angliss restaurant in Melbourne will be attended and addressed by Father Themis’ sister Mary and it will be supported by a Byzantine choir and Zambian singers. Tomorrow’s fundraiser dinner will be held at the Regal Ballroom in Northcote, Melbourne.

For more information call Ioanna (Jane) Pallot on 0404 040 578.