Sery Kone was born in the large port city of Abidjani. When Sery was 4
years old, his parents divorced. His father decided to pull him away from his
mother, so he took him 1,200 away from his home and placed him with a woman he
didn't know in a small village by the name of Kolia. His father left him
there, never to see him again. The woman that he lived with was very poor
and the only way to survive was for Sery to work. He became a child
slave.
The
woman was wise enough to know that children deserved an education. She insisted
that the children in her home went to school. But when Kone was not in school,
he would go to work, sometimes walking as much as 35 miles to a cocoa farm. He
would work 10 hours. He was beaten if he did not work hard. He was not well
fed. He had no choices, no protector and no hope. He worked hard for 6
years. And then, the woman died, and he lost even the comfort of food, clothing
and supervision. Still, he kept working.
After
a particularly hard beating by a rancher when he tried to encourage a tired
little boy working next to him to rest, he said "I have had enough".
He got onto a bus heading to the big city where he was born. He said to the
driver, "I have no money, but my family will pay for me when we get
there". The bus driver refused and told him to get off, but he was not
going to go back to slavery. "I would not get off," he said. "I
would not go back." After much arguing, a kindly rider paid for his fare.
Kone went to Abidjani, a two day ride, to find his family. He stayed in the
streets for 4 weeks. Then he was taken in by an orphanage and worked odd jobs
as he could. He lived there for 6 months.
One
day, a man came up and called him by his childhood name. "I am your
uncle," said the man. Kone did not believe him and he ran away. But the
man persisted in finding him. It turns out that he really was his mother's
brother. He was a school teacher and he took Kone into his home. Later on, Kone
asked him “how did you know it was me?” His uncle answered “you looked so
much like your mother, I knew it was you.”
Kone
found out that his mother had passed away in great sorrow, because her only son
had been taken from her. This left Kone embittered and frustrated. He felt
deeply that God had been so unfair to him, and his anger boiled out of him. Now
a teenager, he found entertainment in arguing with Christians, especially
Jehovah Witnesses. For some reason, he found them an easy target for his anger.
Kone
remembers a day when two LDS missionaries were walking by. He thought they were
Jehovah Witnesses. "Hey," he called out. "Why don't you come
here and talk to me?" He meant it more as a challenge, but the two young
men replied that they were happy to share their message. They came to his home
and began to present the "Plan of Salvation." This struck Kone to the
heart. He knew their message was true and could see from the truths they taught
that Heavenly Father did care about His children and had provided a clear path
for them to find happiness and someday to return home to Him.
Kone
joined the LDS church and found much peace in being a member. His uncle
supported him while he went to public school. When he was 20 years old, he went
on a mission in the DR Congo, where he worked very hard. Following the
completion of his mission, Kone was accepted to BYU-Hawaii, where he is about to
complete his studies in Finance. He will soon be heading out to obtain an MBA
at BYU-Provo. His goal is to become an Investment Counselor
Kone
has served Heavenly Father in many ways, and he was blessed for it. He married
a beautiful daughter of God in a temple of the Lord and is raising an eternal
family. He has a beautiful baby boy named Kenneth.
With
all of these blessings poured upon him, Kone had finally found a peace and joy
he never thought possible. But he was not completely happy. He wanted more.
This desire was not born out of greed but rather gratitude. He wanted to reach
out to other children trapped in child slavery. He wanted to help communities
to become stronger. He even wanted to reach out to the cacao ranchers and help
them improve their systems so that they would not need to depend on utilizing
low wage workers in order to make a profit.
Kone
has organized a movement called WELL Africa (World Education for a Legacy of
Liberty). Since 2012 WELL Africa has taken 300 children out of cacao farms to
receive an education and over 250 women have received micro financing loans to
start businesses. They have trained men in bee keeping. In 2014 WELL Africa
completed the construction of its first school.
The
next goal is to build a self-sustaining hospital in order to provide healthcare
services to the poor communities in Ivory Coast. (Related by Elder and Sister Jones of the Honolulu Hawaii Mission) http://ronandnina.blogspot.com/2015/03/walking-amongst-giants-sery-kone-from.html
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