Ghost Schools - a problem for us too!

We have reached a milestone with the Primary School.  After a school has been running for three years it  becomes eligible to apply for financial support from the government. But, as Alpha has said in the past on a number of occasions, "This is a problem we are having here".  The problem this time - corruption.  The Ministry of Education was under investigation.

One of the New Era Primary School pupils

Lansana Fofana,  writing from Freetown in September 2009, has the story.
 'Magnus Kamara is a school inspector with a difference. He has been hired to find schools that don't exist.
"It has been a shocking experience. In some of the towns and villages we visited, there were neither school structures nor genuine teachers, but the government was paying salaries and subsidies to them, on a monthly basis."

The Education Minister, Minkailu Bah, has moved swiftly to end the fraud.  "This syndicate works because staff of my ministry, including supervisors and education secretaries, connive with officials from the accountant general's office, to carry out the act," Bah adds.'

After investigation, the Department is up and running again and if all goes to plan, the teachers' salaries in the Primary School will be paid by the government from January next year.        This will allow our finances to strengthen the Secondary School and further developments.

To read Lansana Fofana's article on "Ghost Schools" go to  http://allafrica.com/stories/200905080007.html

Community Healthcare in Freetown - Join us!

If you live in the United Kingdom it is easy to take the National Health Service for granted.  We have three children in their twenties and late teens. Two of them have needed medical help. One to survive being born eleven weeks premature and another to overcome a cleft lip and palate. Probably neither would have come through if they had been born in Sierra Leone.

In a poor country, illness is frequently the result of polluted water and insanitary conditions. This is exacerbated by malnutrition, poor education, and the lack of affordable treatments and preventative measures such as mosquito nets.

In Sierra Leone life expectancy at birth of a male is 39 years and a female is 44 years. (The UK average is 79 years). For every 1000 live births, 154 babies are likely to die before their first birthday. 50% of the population is undernourished, and to make things more difficult only 47% of the men and 24% of the women over 15 years of age can read and write.

We can do something about it.  
We are looking to visit Sierra Leone in the first week of March 2010 with a team of people to train and empower local people in basic healthcare principles.

We shall be lead in this by Linden Boothby of Links International. She has a passion for the poor and has lived in Africa working on healthcare-related projects. Having been a manager in a primary care trust in the UK, she brings professional-level skills to help us develop our community healthcare work.

Linden Boothby

We wish to send out a team made up of enthusiastic volunteers, good communicators and people passionate about healthcare.

 What will happen?

Following a needs assessment, training is done using a modular manual. The team will teach healthcare principles to influencers and trainers within the community on the understanding of health in its broadest holistic sense.

 Subjects covered by the modules range from the importance of clean water to sexually transmitted diseases.

The training has been so successful that

• Child mortality rates have been drastically reduced by between 50-80% in many areas around the world.
• A team was sent to train delegates from Nelson Mandela’s home village in South Africa, at his personal invitation.
• Our work has also inspired involvement from regional government, keen to work with us.
• All of the teaching is based on Christian principles and many people begin a relationship with Jesus as a direct result of the transformation that comes to their communities through the training.

The area the team is seeking to reach

(Please click on the photo to enlarge it. Note the housing and communal use of the stream)

They would all benefit

The school's daily supply of water

We shall be arranging an orientation day. This would be from around 10.00am to 4.0pm with a break for lunch. Anyone wishing to come on the trip should make every effort to attend this. To express an interest please contact me, Ted, on tswindaleuk@yahoo.co.uk

I asked Linden what her hope for the visit would be. She replied, "My hope is always that the team will fall in love with the people they meet and teach and that they will want to commit to going back there several times (by which time the community should be flying and able to carry on the work). It is about building relationships, so getting stuck into one area is good. If people never go on another trip they are changed for life and often they become ardent prayer warriors and sometimes amazing fundraisers."

A school is built

It was in 1999, after several years of writing to my penfriend, Alpha, and having helped him to get established in life, I was asked to aid him and his community at Looking Town, on the edge of Freetown the capital.  The area had been devastated in the rebel attack on Freetown of the 6th January, 1999. Thousands of people were killed and homes burnt to the ground. Women and girls had been raped. Children and young people had been conscripted as fighters in the rebel cause. Hundreds of people had limbs amputated.  On the 23rd March,  a group of Christians in the community decided to start a programme for both the residents and the many people who had fled to the area as a result of the civil war and had been caught up in the attack.  The children, some of whom had lost parents in the fighting, were roaming around with no hope, future or direction. The Chief and elders in the community believed that education was the answer. With the help of friends in Community Church Derby we were able to buy a plot of land and to start erecting a school.

Building started on this site with a commanding view over Kissy and across the estuary. At first the school for primary age children was housed in very unstable buildings, but gradually the new school took shape. The children helped in the building work and the great day arrived when everything was ready and the children could carry their desks and chairs to the new accommodation.

Moving day to the new school

What a fine building they have erected. It now houses two schools. The New Era Primary School meets there in the morning and the Junior Secondary School in the afternoon. Alpha Kargbo has done a good job as the Education and Development co-ordinator.  The number of pupils in the Primary School is now 409.  The Secondary School started in September 2008 with 50 pupils and has now nearly doubled in size. Foundations are in place for a second classroom block which urgently needs funds for early completion. Our funding comes mainly from those who sponsor children, as well as events and gifts from a number of Trusts. We are very grateful to all our supporters. If you would like further information or wish to support the work, please contact the UK Co-ordinator, Ted Swindale on tswindaleuk@yahoo.co.uk

The first classroom block, currently home to both schools

A Class in the new Secondary School

Some of the youngest starting their life's journey!

The foundations of our second classroom block taken from the steps of the first.

The building will have an office/library as well as classrooms for the Junior Secondary School. It will also be used for vocational studies such as soap making, gara tie-dying, tailoring, catering and carpentry. Currently much of this has been done in the open-air, but this is not possible in the lengthy rainy season.