Hi, My name is Richard and I'd like you to help me raise money to help Mustapha and his family back on their feet after a traumatic experience of being kidnapped and tortured by a gang for 9 months. His story first came to my attention in article by the journalist Olivia Acland which was published in the Sunday Times magazine on 15th June 2025.

The article relates how Mustapha went from being a sports teacher at an International school in Sierra Leone to being kidnapped, tortured and forced to work against his will in a Scam Farm for 9 months. He was initially approached on Facebook by someone claiming to be a recruiter for an international school in Thailand. He went through an interview process and was offered the job which paid 10 times more than he was getting in Sierra Leone. He didn't want to leave his family but he thought the opportunity would allow him to save some money if he just did it for a couple of years.

He got on a flight to Thailand where he was met at the airport by a car and driver. He was a little suspicious of the length of time that the journey was taking but the driver assured him it was just because the school was in the far north of the country. Unbeknown to him, he had actually been driven across the border into Myanmar. When the car stopped he was met by armed gunmen. He was led away and told to sign a contract to say he was willing to work in the 'Scam Farm'. He initially refused but was taken away and beaten and told that if he didn't he would die.

After being forced to sign he found himself in a camp surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards run by Chinese gangs. The camp contained hundreds of people, most of them who were being held against their will. The purpose of the camp was to scam people, usually in Western counties like the US out of their savings using many of the scams you might have heard of in the news. Typical scams involved befriending people on social media and pretending to offer a romantic relationship. Once the victim has been lured in, this was then followed up with a request to lend money or make an investment which gave them access to the victim's bank accounts.

The conditions in the camp were terrible, with people crammed into dormitories with inadequate food or facilities. Mustapha and his fellow captives were beaten regularly. Many of the people around him committed suicide. Towards the end of his 9 months Mustapha was beginning to feel that might be a better way to end his own suffering. On top of all this he was being forced to cause suffering to other people which he knew was morally wrong. With the constant threat of violence and even death he had little choice.

About 9 months later, the camps had come to the attention of the Chinese Government after a well known Chinese actor had been kidnapped and forced to work in one of the camps, of which there are hundreds in Asia. This led them to put pressure on Thailand and Myanmar to close the camps. Eventually many of them did (due to electricity being cut off which made their internet based scams unworkable) including Mustapha's. Finally he was able to escape the camp and with the help of the NGO Global Advance Projects was able to get a flight back to Sierra Leone.

During the whole 9 months, Mustapha had no contact with his wife or two children. With no income to support them they'd had to give up their home and move to a mud hut on the edge of Freetown. The one room hut is too small for the whole family, so Mustapha's son is now living with his grandparents.

Reading this article moved me to tears. I can barely imagine what Mustapha and his family have been through. I couldn't just turn the page and keep drinking my coffee. I had to do something to help so I contacted the journalist Olivia Acland to see if there was something I could do. She explained that as a journalist she couldn't get directly involved as in order to ensure that sources and stories are genuine, journalist can't pay for people for stories. She was however happy to help by putting me in touch with Mustapha.

There are so many problems in the world and so many people deserving of support but sometimes the scale of it can be overwhelming. There is a saying though that if you save one person you can save the whole world. That's why I want to act to help Mustapha and his family get over this trauma and get their lives back to where it was before his tragic ordeal. If you would like to help right this wrong then please support this appeal. The money will be used to enable them to find somewhere decent to live so the whole family can be together again. It will also help with some of their day to day living expenses so they can start to recover from this ordeal and rebuild their lives.

Go Fund Me doesn't allow the direct transfer of funds to someone in Sierra Leone as it isn't one of their supported countries. I will therefore be collecting all the funds in a UK bank account set up specially for this purpose. In order to make sure the funds are fully transparent and accountable and only used for the purpose of supporting Mustapha, the account will be monitored independently by Karunaradha who is an ordained Buddhist and leader of the Ayr Triratna Buddhist Sangha. After the funds have been collected they will be transferred to Mustapha by Western Union.