How can we encourage more teenagers to be like Kelvin Doe?

New airline flying from London to Freetown

Gambia Bird is now flying three days a week from London Gatwick to Freetown. Return fares start at £469. This is a very competitive price.

Another visit is being explored

We are looking to take a team to Freetown at Easter 2014.

Joseph Hall is keen to come with us to Sierra Leone on our next visit. I met him when he was performing in Nottingham earlier this year. He is an inspired dance teacher and committed to seeing young people develope their full potential. His school in Nottingham includes remedial work with pupils who have been excluded from school. I hope we will reach out to the community in the Kissy area to enable people to begin working together, enjoying and growing in hope and confidence and giving pleasure to others.

I have been inspired by the work of urban youth charity, XLP. They have grown an Arts Showcase programme that is focused on encouraging pupils, especially those who for various reasons struggle academically, to express themselves in their own unique way through dance, comedy, drama, rap and singing. This arts programme, whose primary focus is on ’showcase’ and not ’competition’, encourages these pupils and aims to raise their self-esteem, the sense of their own potential, and help them to set goals and work hard to achieve them. I hope we can see something established in Freetown.

Joseph became widely known in the United Kingdom when he reached the semi-finals of Britain's Got Talent 2013.

A Homemade Mosquito Trap

Simple and easy solutions to a problem as important as mosquito control are not often shared because solutions have focused on chemicals or concepts that can be patented. Unless someone can make a profit from an idea, the public may never become aware of it.
So this idea, found on handimania on facebook, could be useful in Sierra Leone or any area with a mosquito problem.
HOMEMADE MOSQUITO TRAP.

Items needed:

200 ml water
50 grams of brown sugar
1 gram of yeast
2-litre plastic bottle

Or US conversion:
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of brown sugar

HOW:
1. Cut the plastic bottle in half.
2. Mix brown sugar with hot water. Let cool. When cold, pour in the bottom half of the bottle.
3. Add the yeast. No need to mix. It creates carbon dioxide, which attracts mosquitoes.
4. Place the funnel part, upside down, into the other half of the bottle, taping them together if desired.
5. Wrap the bottle with something black, leaving the top uncovered, and place it outside in an area away from your normal gathering area. (Mosquitoes are also drawn to the colour black.)

Change the solution every 2 weeks for continuous control.

New Air Link to Freetown

Kevin McPhillips have just announced that British Airways are now flying Heathrow to Freetown three times a week with fares starting at £719 return.

Alpha's award and his thanks to us.

I have just had an e-mail from Alpha in which he expresses his  hearty thanks and appreciation to PIP (People in Partnership) and our church family in respect of our supporting the teachers’ salaries
and their NASSIT.  This reduces his suffering as he is now heading the programme. The final handing over of all programmes to Alpha will be on the 28th February 2013.

NASSIT stands for The National Social Security and Insurance Trust, which is a Social insurance scheme in which members contribute periodically and receive benefits when a contingency occurs. This includes old age and it  therefore includes retirement benefits. The scheme was set up in 2001.

His suffering includes having to handle the problems caused if we are unable to send the expected amount for the teachers' salaries. This causes tension in the school which is not helpful to the pupils or staff and it tests our faith, but  God has been very gracious in supplying our needs so far and we keep looking to him to continue to do so.
Alpha then went on to tell me that he has been awarded a certificate as the best community activist by a social new (Radio Citizen 103.7)



Alpha to head New Era Evengelism and Development Programme

Samuel Kargbo has written to tell me that he has resigned as Director of the New Era Evangelism and Development Programme (NEEDEP) and will formally hand over to Alpha Kargbo on the 28th of February. The NEEDEP chairman has been duly informed together with all other members of the NEEDEP family.

Alpha (left) presenting certificate to graduating New Era School pupil.

Samuel's resignation will allow him to be more focused on the church and some personal commitments. The decision will also allow Alpha to be more committed and to move forward with the organization. Alpha was the first director of NEEDEP but the constitution only allowed him to hold office for five years. He continues as Head Teacher at the school.

Alpha told me on the phone yesterday (Sun 17th) that a local Radio Station in Freetown has just named him “Community Activist of the Year 2013”.

Help! Get me out of here!

No. It's not as bad as that, but there is always a question hanging over any development aid. What is our exit strategy? How long do we keep supporting work? Not for ever.  It must become self-sustaining. The late Rich Hubbard, when CEO of Links International, used to emphasise to me that the more money we put into a project, the more difficult it would be to get out of it. It has been my aim to allow the school to be self-supporting. The links we are forging with the E.G. West Centre http://egwestcentre.com/ at Newcastle University need to be fully explored (see last post).

However the school have come up with the idea of helping to pay the teachers out of the profits of a motorcycle taxi service. There is a real market for this because of the poor roads in the area which are easier to negotiate with a motorcyacle than with a car. The cost to start this scheme is £1500.
To get the wheels turning, a Youth Team at Community Church Derby are kick-starting the project! Every success to them. Please help if you get the chance.

Motorcycle taxi in Sierra Leone. They run to a set government tariff.



Is a new door opening? Could be exciting!

Talking with a friend, John Sisson, at Christmas, he mentioned that a fellow teacher from his days at Hebron School in India was going to visit private schools in Sierra Leone. Would I be interested in talking to him? Sure I would. So shortly before his flight, David Longfield phoned me to say that he was part of a research programme from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and was travelling with James Tooley, Professor of Education Policy, and renowned for his work on low-cost private education in developing countries. They were spending two weeks looking at some 250 schools in Sierra Leone, aided by 45 researchers from Sierra Leone. I gave him Samuel's mobile number and this week he phoned with a report of his visit to New Era School and conversation with its Head Teacher, Alpha Kargbo. Alpha has since told me "He asked a lot of questions!"

Alpha had told David that it was difficult to get government support. The government only supported three of the ten teachers at the school and were not taking new people on. Alpha believed that this was good because "if it becomes a government school, the teachers are very relaxed. If they come late and go early, they still get paid. They are not accountable to the people they are working for."   Also, it was alleged, it would need a bribe of Le500,000 (£73.50) to get a teacher on the government payroll. That is a lot of money in Sierra Leone.

David was interested that the two schools together educate more girls than boys. This goes against historical trends. There are 366 girls in the schools and only 258 boys.

Newcastle University set up in 2002 the E.G. West Centre based in the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences.   Professor Tooley is the Director and following his research into low-cost private education in India, Africa and China, has dedicated himself to creating and improving working models of innovative practice that will improve educational opportunities for the poor. He is is Co-Founder and Chairman of Omega Schools and they have schools in the poor coastal fishing communities in Sierra Leone which are sustainable with families paying Le2000 per pupil a day. This is 30p and covers uniform, books, lunch and teaching. This opens up a new vista for us to explore.
I have been invited to keep in touch with David.

James Tooley discusses his book "The Beautiful Tree" on ABC News Now (2009)

Money, Money, Money - makes the world go round!

Money isn't everything, but neither is oxygen. We need both to keep moving. The teachers and children of the New Era Schools are immensely grateful to all our supporters, some of whom have been giving monthly amounts for over ten years. Many children have been given care and a purpose in life through the influence of the school. About this time last year we were running short of funds and had one or two special events to tide us over a difficult patch,

One of these was a Pampered Chef Party from which we had a commission. It was great seeing the latest kitchen and tableware, and enjoying pizza and a delicious trifle.

Happy shoppers

A member of our team to Freetown in 2010, Anne-Marie,  undertook a sponsored slim and gained pounds - for us!

Anne-Marie on her first night in Sierra Leone

In May I had an e-mail from Margaret Abbott, a medical doctor from Nottingham, who has been on our last two visits to Freetown.

                                      Margaret (right) with Sarah Frost and Andy Meek

 "Our local churches have a joint choir and they always give all the takings from the ticket sales from their concerts to a charity that local people are involved in. One of the choir's members wanted to propose to the choir committee that the next concert in June will raise money for our work in Sierra Leone through People in partnership." The committee agreed, and in due course we received a sizeable and very welcome cheque. 

Glenys Hart was the secretary of a charity set up to help Christian Schools in less developed countries. She supported us in buying the land for the school, visited to share with  teachers just before the new school opened and gave us a generous gift out of the remaining assets of the trust when it was closed down last year.

Glenys approaching the New Era School for the first time. Her trust had helped to set it up.

We are immensely grateful for the support and encouragement that all these caring people give to the needy and disadvantaged children that we seek to serve.

Dr. Kargbo - Celebratory Service

We are delighted that Samuel has been able to follow his academic interests while at the same time pastoring his church and overseeing the work of the New Era Evangelism and Development Programme. This culminated in his being awarded a Doctorate from the BAKKE Graduate University in Seattle this Summer. Bakke Graduate University (BGU) is a US accredited graduate school for leaders who are seeking to facilitate positive social transformation of urban areas. The school is named for Ray and Dennis Bakke who in the late 20th century respectively pioneered movements to give decision-making power to people in disadvantaged neighborhoods and front-line employees. As a result, BGU has been able to expand into regions in places such as Asia and Africa by developing platforms for local leaders to have the primary voice in how students in their region are trained.


Samuel already held a Bachelor of Theology Degree in Christian Education and a Masters of Education Degree in Educational Administration.

Samuel talking to Sam Warwick and Susie Marshall after the service on 10th March 2011.

For a number of years he has been a lecturer at the Evangelical College of Theology (TECT) at Jui ten miles from Freetown. TECT is a multi-denominational institution whose mission is to "Preach the Word, Reach the World." The college offers certificate, diploma, and bachelor degree programmes. Enrollment for the 2011-12 school year was 259 students. TECT is partnered with the Global Connection Partnership Network, Overseas Council International, and the European Baptist Mission.

On the 9th September 2012 a doctoral thanksgiving service was organized by Samuel's church in appreciation to God for making it possible for him complete his studies successfully. I was not able to attend but was invited to send some words of congratulation to be read out at the service.

I wrote, "I am delighted to send Dr. Samuel Kargbo greetings in Christ and our hearty congratulations on his award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy on behalf of Wendy and myself, the Community Church Derby and Links International.

We are grateful to Jesus, our Lord, for the way that He has led Samuel into a relationship with Himself, has enabled him to develop his full intellectual abilities and has placed him in a position where he is able to serve the body of Christ through his vision and leadership skills.

We think of Samuel at the Thanksgiving service today and know that “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5.24). May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Afterwards he wrote "I bring you greetings in the mighty name of our saviour Jesus Christ who has called us to His service. During the service, your congratulatory statement was read and I appreciate the words in it."



Looking back at 2012

It has been nearly a year since I posted something here. This does not mean that there has been nothing going on. The picture has been changing all the time and often too fast moving to record here.
That includes events in our church in Derby as well as in Freetown.

Visits that did not take place!
 We had hoped to welcome both Pastor Samuel Kargbo and his brother, Alpha, to England at different times in the year. This would have allowed us to review where we are at and give them an idea of the current vision of our church.

                                Samuel Kargbo, Pastor of Faith Baptist Church, Wellington

Samuel was due at the end of May, when he proposed to stop off for a few days on route to the United States to be awarded a doctorate. Unfortunately he was refused an entry visa on the grounds that he had failed to show that he had enough money to support himself in the UK. This is in spite of our invitation latter stating that we would be responsible for his accommodation, meals and transport.

Alpha Kargbo,  Head Teacher and Development Co-ordinator

Alpha was due to come in a party of 27 teachers to visit their twinned schools in Hull. He had problems with a passport apparently and when I wrote to the school in Hull I received the reply,

"I'm sorry to say that Alpha will not be coming to England in the near future as he missed his flight. We were told that he was collecting his passport on the 19th and to book a flight for Sunday 23rd which we did. Unfortunately, due to a breakdown in communication, we were not informed until the day of the flight that Alpha had not got his passport by which time it was too late to get a refund on the flight so the money was lost." 

I don't know the details of this, but the upshot has been that the Greenway Primary School has linked with a different school in Freetown, which has been distressing for Alpha. I hope he has learnt something from it.


No trip from Derby to Freetown in 2012.

The primary focus of this trip would have been follow up to the healthcare teaching and the micro-enterprise. We had considered going at Easter, but the normal pattern of church services would have left little time for our teaching programme.

a)  Healthcare
After our visit in 2011 we were concerned that the people who came to the community health care teaching were, in the main, not prepared to take the knowledge they gained into the community unless they were paid to do so. That was not an option. Our teachers also saw that the professional medical staff who were there, clinic nurses etc., were knowledgeable and probably as capable of teaching the community as we are. I asked Samuel and the team in Freetown whether there is much point in continuing as we have been? Might it be taught better to teach primary health care through the school, or the scouts? Do we say we have done our bit and leave it as it is, or does it need more time?

b)  Micro-enterprise
This appeared to be doing well. Some new clients had just been taken on and “reports of the new clients will be sent once we are through with the verification process. We did not gave them the money before Christmas for fear that they would have used it for dress and food and done nothing with the intended purpose.

A client who was able to increase her selection of herbs and spices to attract more customers  and thereby support her family.

The old clients are doing fine with their repayment and there are no defaulters."

There was nothing that seemed to need our immediate help and it has been a good time to take a step back and see how we can best serve the communities of Looking Town, Kissy and Wellington in the future. We hope to be back before too long!