Ravaged by the conflict of civil war for a decade, Sierra Leone is in the process of reconstruction.

It is eight years since UN troops were drafted in to bring peace, but the country is still ranked the poorest in the world – there remain homes to rebuild, businesses to recover and families to reunite.

It is not surprising therefore that the country has been chosen as a major benefactor of Soroptimist International.

Known as an organisation for professional women, the Soroptimist movement is not just about empowering women at work. Every four years, members select international projects to support and work in partnership with charities around the world.

Since 2007, they have been working towards a target of £1 million to transform the lives of vulnerable women and children in Sierra Leone.

Margaret Cook, of Ilkley, has just returned from a visit to the country to see the projects they support. An international assistant programme director for Soroptimist International, she has witnessed volunteers help teenage mums outcast by the community, street children lured into a life of crime and families torn apart by horrors of war.

The statistics are shocking. During ten years of fighting, 500,000 people were killed, raped or injured. Over half the population was made homeless and thousands of children orphaned or separated from their families.

Nearly three-quarters of the population live below the poverty line, living on less than £1 a day. A woman’s life expectancy is just 42 years and nearly a third of children die before their fifth birthday.

Margaret, a past president of Ilkley Soroptomists, arrived to find three community-driven projects, led by local charity Hope and Homes for Children, which are designed to lift the population out of poverty.

The first supports teenage mums – a legacy of the long-running conflict when many vulnerable young women were trafficked into prostitution, often resulting in pregnancy.

“There’s a lot of difficulty if you are found out to be pregnant,” explained Margaret. “They drop out of school and get little support as their families can’t support them, they’re so poor. What this project does is to make sure they complete their schooling and look after the children so they can work.”

In fact, two young mums who had been trained in catering were working in the hotels where Margaret stayed – success stories of the project, which has now helped around 130 mothers.

“Both were living independently, were able to pay for childcare and had somewhere to live,” said Margaret. “The people are very community oriented and support them if they can, but they find it hard.

“There is still this stigma of having children outside marriage so the project tries to get them reunited with families and the communities as well. If they are in poor health, they teach them nutrition and healthcare so they have a good foundation for the family.”

Sierra Leone lies on the western edge of Africa. Although blessed with miles of golden beaches and being rich in diamonds, poverty remains its biggest challenge.

But Margaret was amazed by the warm and vibrant welcome, especially from members of the street children project where, surprisingly, girls outnumber boys. Although the scheme has only been active for a few months, around 70 children attend to complete their education and find a trade. Forty-eight children living alone on the streets of the capital Freetown have also been reconciled with their families.

“I saw a very vibrant project,” said Margaret, a former nurse. “They don’t live there, they visit for the day and get sent to school if they need educating.

“The same principle works with them – they finish their education and are taught how to keep safe and healthy. They give them counselling and help them to establish themselves with a trade of some sort. The girls do tie-dying, tailoring and hairdressing and the boys welding and carpentry.”

Perhaps one of Margaret’s most enduring memories of her visit will be the personal stories of people fleeing from fighting. The civil war ended in 2002, when foreign troops disarmed rebel forces who were known for hacking off victims’ hands or feet. But the result is that many families have been left without providers and are often headed by a lone female.

The third project supported by the Soroptimist International, Integrated Child and Family Support, helps to prevent the break-up of these fragile families and children leaving home.

“People are struggling,” said Margaret. “After the war they have been parted from their families. In one family I went to see, the woman was disabled and had three children. Her husband had died and left her with no means of income. The community had asked for help as they had tried to support her but couldn’t anymore.

“She was selling bits and pieces on the street so they helped her by providing a booth where she could sit down and display her wares. Because she was so poor, they helped her with nutrition and practical problems like a place to sleep.”

“The poverty is dire. Things are beginning to change a little but most of the country has electricity spasmodically and certainly in all the places we were staying we only had electricity for 12 hours a day and even then it went off some of the time.”

Surrounded by hardship, one of the surprising discoveries of her visit was the harmonious relationship between the Christian and Muslim faiths, perhaps united by such harsh social and economic conditions and the strength of community ties.

“The communities we went into were very supportive of each other and they placed a great deal of importance on the community,” said Margaret. “We met the chiefs and leaders of the community and local politicians – all the people play a part and all are respected as part of the community. I feel the sense of community is something we have lost.”

To find out more about Soroptimist International’s work in Sierra Leone, visit projectSIerra.org.