International link for New Era School

I spent 30 minutes this morning talking to Mrs. Elizabeth Wilson, Head Teacher of the Green Way Primary School in Hull. Since 1980 Hull has been twinned with Freetown and the Freetown Society of Kingston upon Hull was established in September 1981 with the support of the council. Recently six schools in each city have been linked through the Global Partnership Scheme operated with the British Council and the Department for International Development. Now a further ten schools are to join the scheme and Liz Wilson was given the first chance to choose one and picked the New Era Primary and Secondary School, because she had read about it on this blog!

She is due to visit Sierra Leone with other teachers from 14th to 24th October and will be staying at the Hotel 5/10 where teams from Derby have stayed on the last three visits. I was able to tell her about the school and the hotel. Our school is within walking distance although some parts are a steep climb.

Hotel 5/10 is owned and operated by the Teachers' Union of Sierra Leone. The figure of teachers in the courtyard holds a sign showing their calling.

A recent OFSTED report describes the Green Way Primary School as approximately double the size of the average primary school. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is considerably above the national average. The majority of pupils are of White British heritage. There are a few pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds who speak English as an additional language. More pupils than average have special educational needs and/or disabilities. The school holds various awards, including Healthy School status, Arts Mark Gold, the Eco Schools award and the Basic Skills Quality Mark.

The school wishes to add the Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) to this list. This award recognises achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) at the heart of a school’s planning, policies, practice and ethos. A rights-respecting school not only teaches about children’s rights but also models rights and respect in all its relationships: between teachers / adults and pupils, between adults and between pupils. The relationship with New Era will deepen the children's awareness of the difficulties faced by African children such as lack of basic teaching materials, clean water, adequate food and medical care. Pen friendships could develope and various forms of support.

I am delighted by this news. A three year qualitative study by researchers at the Universities of Sussex and Brighton found that "The RRSA has had a profound effect on the majority of the schools involved in the programme."

Funding is provided in the programme to bring the headteacher from Freetown, currently Mr. Jeremiah Cole, (on far right of this photo) to visit his partner school in Hull.

The inspection of Green Way said that "led by its inspiring headteacher, the school is a highly-inclusive community where mutual respect and consideration for others are very much the order of the day." We wish Liz Wilson a very successful and enjoyable visit to Freetown and look forward to great benefit for both schools from this link.



We're nearly there. Micro-enterprise is about to take off!

Now that Samuel Kargbo, Programme Director, is back from his time in the United States we are expecting details of the first five or six "customers" to be given awards to start off their own businesses. I have faith that the overseeing committee will have given much thought to this and have chosen good recipients for the money.

I note that the Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, said a few months ago that "There is no more urgent time than now to break down the compartmentalised thinking that separates trust in God from the world of work".

I am glad that we are taking a step in this direction and will continue to write about how it all works out.

Could it be making and selling craft work?

Or preparing and serving food? We look forward to seeing

who the committee have selected.

Chris Tarrant on his recent visit.

Chris Tarrant, TV personality currently associated, in my mind at least, with hosting “Who wants to be a Millionaire” has returned from a short visit to Sierra Leone and talked about it on The One Show tonight 4th August. He kept a diary and noted

“I have finally arrived in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone has some of the most depressing child survival stats in the world. Life expectancy is just 42. Just over a year ago, the government of Sierra Leone made a fantastic step forward when health care for children under five and breastfeeding mothers became free. But there’s still a very long way to go before children stop dying from easily preventable illness……

We jump in the car and drive to off to Kroo Bay – one of Freetown’s worst slums. Kroo Bay is a dump – literally. It’s located on the banks of the Crocodile River where the better-off Freetown residents throw their rubbish – it all gets washed up in Kroo Bay. Most of the 17,000 plus population live in shacks made from corrugated iron that are built on huge mountains of rubbish.

Kroo Bay

I know this is a sweeping statement but I think this is the worst place I’ve ever seen. The overcrowding is terrible. I’ve got six, wonderful, resilient, unspoilt kids – but I don’t think they could even cope seeing this level of poverty, let alone stay here – the living conditions are beyond their comprehension.”


Currently the Save the Children Fund works in Kroo Bay and at one time Youth with a Mission also worked there. I do not know if they still do.

Stephen O'Brien visited Freetown last week. Who is he?

Stephen O'Brien, Minister for Overseas Development in Westminster visited Freetown for four days from Tuesday, 19th July 2011. This was his second visit in the short time that the present government has been in office and shows the importance that is attached to helping the country at this crucial stage in its history.

He said  "Every Friday when I am back at home, my constituents are saying to me, okay, while we are giving a lot of this money where are the results, what are we achieving. And that's why I am here to see for myself exactly what we are achieving.  I would certainly report back that on water and sanitation there are really results."

Stephen O'Brien



It is encouraging to have someone with access to Ministers in the Government of Sierra Leone reporting back in a very positive way on the new free health initiative and sanitation. All issues on which our teams have shown an interest.

On the free healthcare initiative, he said "enormous progress has been made since my last visit.

The first year of the initiative has seen a doubling of consultations for under-fives (children) and 40,000 women delivering safely in health facilities.

Sierra Leone is a country with massive potential and I am pleased to see how innovative approaches like the free health care initiative are demonstrating real results in improving people's lives."

It is also good to hear that he was "heartened and encouraged" by a determination to stamp out corruption in
the country.

Can we move on from being young, gifted and poverty stricken?

I would like you to look at the video at the end of this post because it sets out so clearly some of the problems that our partners in Sierra Leone are facing. Lack of employment opportunities is one. On our last visit in March we trained a committee to run a micro-enterprise scheme that will enable the poorest of the poor to set-up a business. I promised them £1000 to start. This is likely to enable 5 or 6 families to begin a move out of poverty. The money needed to be prayed for. I am grateful to God that he has provided more than this sum through the generosity and care of his people. Now the scheme can begin.

Albert Lebbie is writing the constitution for the group. As the Administrator he plays a key role in the smooth operation of the project. At his baptism he was given the name Barnabas (Son of Encouragement). He will have plenty of opportunity to encourage those seeking to start their own business as well as training and motivating both them and the committee.

Members of the Committee are preparing to act out the presentation of a business plan for approval by the rest of the group. Now they are about to do it for real.

Health and the importance of clean water are also high-lighted in the video. Our trainers and the voluntary health workers in Kissy and Wellington have been looking hard at this. One group went to see the local
facilities in Wellington.  (shown below) We have also sent out 8 water filter kits.

A number of years ago I was privileged to host Morie Ngobeh in our home. He gave a talk on Sierra Leone to my International Development class at Derby University where I was a student. A former businessman, he became a pastor and founded the City of Rest, a residential home for those seeking to escape drug and alcohol addiction and other mental health problems, almost 25 years ago. It is now needed more than ever because since the war drug abuse is rife. We visited the home where he and his wife Grace also live. Dr. Edward Nahim, Sierra Leone's only psychiatrist and now retired, gave some input to the work. Our psychiatrist on the team, Richard Welfare, talked to Morie and Grace and looked round the facilities with us.

The entrance

Grace and Morie. They began by inviting addicts into their home and stayed put during the rebel invasion of 1999, when the house opposite was burnt to the ground.

Single sex domitory accomodation for the residents.

Together with our partners in the New Era Evangelism and Development Programme we hope to look at initiatives to help the youth of the country. We already have schools serving nearly 700 pupils, but what happens to them when they leave?  What motivation do they have as pupils? As young people in the video state, "No one in the government represents the voice of youth".  Can we be doing something?

Hopefully YES!

Blood Diamond

I had seen it before, but flicking through the TV channels last night I saw that Leonardo Di Caprio's film, Blood Diamond, had just started on BBC2. Watching it again was a moving experience as I was with people who had lived through the events in the film only a short time ago.

My friend, Alpha Kargbo, who helped pioneer much of the work we are involved in, had to flee into the bush from his home village in the North when they were attacked by rebels and he was separated for some weeks from his wife and children. He did not know whether they had survived or not.

A boy soldier

During the attack on Freetown, Alpha's home, a fine old wooden house built by the Portugese, was burnt to the ground and all the letters I had written to him perished in the blaze.

Money that I had just sent to him to buy the land for the school had been received on January 5th 1999 and he had collected cash intending to pay it into the bank next day. The rebel attack came that next day and Alpha had just enough time to bury the money in the ground. It was a couple of weeks before he could retrieve it.      

The rebels made him carry some of their wounded and then run errands for them to collect water. He did several trips under guard, but when they trusted him enough to let him go by himself, he escaped.

Alpha today in the school office.

The Report of our recent visit on BBC Radio Derby Website

To see the original article, please go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-12893173

If the article is no longer available, the text of it is set out below!

11 April 2011


Derby Christians help slum-dwellers in Sierra Leone


Like Comic Relief's celebrities, a team from Derby has spent time working in an African shanty town.

The group of eight from Derby Community Church (DCC) were operating in the slums of Freetown, Sierra Leone.

They included three medical experts, as the aim of the enterprise was to teach basic healthcare and hygiene.

Focussing on areas which lacked clean water, sanitation and any form of refuse collection, the group said education was its priority.

For Ted Swindale, a founder member of DCC, it was his ninth visit since links were forged with Sierra Leone in 1999.

The country was still in the grip of the civil war, which ended in 2000.

For Mr Swindale said: "It was all about sharing skills with the community rather than just money."

Ted Swindale gives Usmanne her Health Care Training certificate

He added: "People in Partnership scheme enabled the building of a school for 700 pupils.

"This was what the community really wanted after the civil war which left so many orphaned."

The present government has introduced free healthcare for children under five and for pregnant mothers, but for Mr Swindale there is still a need for teams such as his to promote good health practices.

Access to clean water is an ongoing problem Although the country is mineral rich and among the world's top 10 diamond producers, it is still ranked among the lowest on the Human Poverty Index.

Access to clean water is an ongoing problem



While they based themselves in a Baptist church, the volunteers were clear they were not there to evangelise.

As Sarah Frost, a paediatrician at the Royal Derby Hospital confirmed, they regarded their work as humanitarian.

For this trip the group liaised with the charity Links International.

Mr Swindale said Nelson Mandela has been so impressed with reports of their community healthcare programme he has asked for it to be taken to his home village.