In April 2012 travel photographer Tariq Zaidi documented the journey through Sierra Leone for the charity Keys of Change.

Starting in the capital Freetown, Panos Karan (Keys of Change, Founder) played piano recitals in Bonthe, Mattru, Bo and villages in surrounding areas. Recitals were played in a children’s hospital, a prison, an HIV clinic, a school for the blind, a home for the elderly, an amputee group, a teachers college near Grafton, a sex-worker’s support group and in the slum communities of Mabella and Dwarzark in Freetown.

Sierra Leone historically conjures up images of blood diamonds and war. It is still very much on the road to recovery after the civil war from 1991 to 2002 that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of more than 2 million people (a third of the population).