What is People in Partnership?

We call our group "People in Partnership" because as we began to work with Alpha Kargbo and his team we wanted to be partners who share success but also stand together and in failure and learn from it. I first got to know Alpha as a pen friend when he was one of many people who wrote requesting friends as the result of the mailings we used to do as a church on behalf of "Soon". I met him on my first visit to Sierra Leone with Graham and Sandra Hinds in 1988. We walked around most of Freetown together. I got to know the place well and could walk from one side of town to the other, Wilberforce to Kissy by myself.

He requested money to start a business.  It was a small amount as what seems small to us can do amazing things in a less developed country. He was faithful in this adventure.

When the civil war was reaching its climax around 2000, he was instrumental in staring the school with a group of Christians, as they wanted to help the many orphaned and abandoned children who were roaming around Kissy, their area of Freetown. .From Derby we were able to buy land and build the school. We continue to support the teaching staff, and have also been involved in setting up a micro-enterprise scheme giving loans to help small businesses take off and grow.

We have twice done training in community health care as our last two teams have had three medical doctors on board.

I am hoping that Alpha will visit Derby in October to discuss future needs and developments. He is an amazing leader and friend.  Living through his era in Sierra Leone has been a traumatic time for him, as for many. In the Civil War his house in Freetown was burnt down. When visiting his home village they were attacked by rebels and his family fled into the bush. He did not find his wife and children for several days.

His Father was killed in a car crash when he was 14 and he had to leave school as the fees could not be paid.  His first wife died during a hospital operation when the electricity failed and the hospital had run out of drugs. I could tell you more. I am hoping that he will benefit from going to an International Leaders School of Ministry in Belfast during his time here.

His whole visit, airfares included, is projected to cost around £1200.

Jacob Hayward is hoping to raise at least part of this by a sponsored cycle ride, Derby to Skegness, at the end of August.

Any other offers of financial help would be appreciated.

What has been going on in the Looking Town Schools in 2013-14?

I have just had a report from our Programme Director, Alpha Kargbo, setting out the highlights of the academic year 2013-14.

The Primary School is now recognised by both the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Freetown City Council.  They have 567 pupils from nursery up to class 6. The school meets from 8.30 am until 1.00 pm.

The Junior Secondary School uses the same premises from 1.30 pm to 5.30 pm. They have 193 students, giving a total number for the two schools of 760 children receiving education that we support from Derby.

Primary children on the steps of the school

Teachers

The Primary have ten teachers, three of whom are approved and paid for by the government. Another six have applications for approval with the Ministry of Education. This is taking some time as there is a large backlog of applications and the government are going through the Secondary and Vocational Schools before they start on the Primary sector. The state pays a teacher around £81.50 a month.

The Secondary School is approved by the Freetown Council but not yet by the government so its teachers are not eligible for state support. There are 13 teachers, many part-time.

For the period August 2013 to June 2014 we sent £7197 from PIP to pay teachers salaries and also contribute to the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT). This was set up in 2001 to administer Sierra Leone’s National Pension scheme which provides retirement and other benefits to meet the contingency needs of workers and their dependents. The school is required to pay £4.14 per teacher per month, 

Membership is mandatory for all workers with an employer-employee relationship. It is mandatory for all employers to ensure that their workers are registered with the scheme.

Orphans

Across the two schools there are 40 orphan children. We do not have residential care for them and they stay with extended family. In a very poor area, such as Looking Town where the school is situated, an extra child can be regarded as an imposition and suffer hardship and rejection.

The school helps with free tuition, exercise and text books, pens and other educational materials so they feel like other children in the school. Alpha says, "The teachers are very instrumental in helping them and provide real Christian love and care for them."

Alimony was six when this photo was taken.  Zainab was thirteen. Both of them have lost both their parents.

Alpha would like us to provide a contribution of £42 a year for an orphan in the primary school and £141 in the secondary. We are not taking this on board at the present time. This is one of the things we will talk about when he visits us. Rachel Hoyle, who has worked at New Hope Uganda, has agreed to give some input on orphan care.

Sports Day

One of the great days in the school social calendar. Along with Thanksgiving Day, Day of the African Child (16 June every year: Commemorating children killed protesting in Soweto in 1976.) and Christmas.

Children ready for Sports day.

Sorts Day this year was on the 23rd March  The results for the houses were

1st     Yellow    Alpha House                223  Points
2nd     Blue       Brain House                 218 points
3rd     Red        Swindale House           216 points
4th     Green      Miezgal House             202 points

Exams

70 pupils sat the National Primary School Examination on 3rd May, which enables them to move to a Junior Secondary School in September 2014. Results not yet out.

24 candidates are due to take the Basic Entrance Certificate Examination, which allows them to move to a Senior Secondary or a vocational school.

Consultant Paediatrician needed to head up training programme

We are extending the application deadline for the Consultant Paediatrician - Head of Training post through the Ministry of Health & Sanitation, based at the Ola During Children's Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The new deadline is the 20th June 2014.

Please share this post with anyone you feel may be interested and qualified! It's an exciting opportunity to be at the forefront of establishing the first ever paediatric postgraduate training programme in country.

http://www.welbodipartnership.blogspot.com/2014/06/deadline-extension-consultant.html

Welbodi Partnership: Deadline Extension: Consultant Paediatrician Post - 20th June 2014

WELBODIPARTNERSHIP.BLOGSPOT.COM

Ebola virus has entered Sierra Leone

The BBC has reported that four people have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone, the first confirmed cases in the country following an outbreak in Guinea. 

They died in the eastern Kailahun district, which borders southern Guinea where the outbreak started in March. Ebola, a haemorrhagic fever with a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent, is believed to have killed some 185 people in Guinea and Liberia since March in the first deadly appearance of the disease in West Africa.

The UN World Health Organization said it has been informed about the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and would help deploy essential supplies.

A nurse of the 'Doctors without Borders' medical aid organisation examines a patient in the in-take area at a centre for victims of the Ebola virus on 1st April, 2014 in Guekedou, a town in Guinea near to the border with Sierra Leone.

Esther Sterk, a tropical medicine adviser for Doctors without Borders, has been on the ground during past Ebola outbreaks in Africa and, from her base in Geneva, is helping coordinate efforts to quash this one.

She said "we know from other outbreaks that epidemics can be stopped. And the principle is always the same: isolating suspected patients to prevent them from giving the disease to people around them.  Ebola is transmitted by close contact with infected people. It's spread via body fluids, like the blood and the urine and the saliva, the stools — all body fluids are contagious.

Ebola is not airborne, so not contagious like, for example, the flu. Now we know more or less which families are infected, so we are following them. The expectation is that if the people in the community are better informed about the disease, we can detect all possible cases of Ebola and quarantine them.

We will manage to contain this outbreak in a short amount of time, but it's difficult to say when this will be at the moment."

Mr. Benjamin Sensasi of WHO giving on overview of Ebola Virus Disease to health workers in Sierra Leone.

250 health professionals had been trained in case the outbreak in Guinea spread to the county. According to several participants, issues likely to pose major challenges in Ebola response in their areas of work include hunting and eating of bush meat, caring for the sick and burying the dead. This is because African funerals rituals involve touching the dead person. Bush meat, monkeys, but especially fruit bats, are considered to be the natural hosts of the virus.

Locals are advised to avoid contact with Ebola patients and their bodily fluids. Do not touch anything - such as shared towels - which could have become contaminated in a public place.

Carers should wear gloves and protective equipment, such as masks, and wash their hands regularly.

The WHO also warns against consuming raw bushmeat and any contact with infected bats or monkeys and apes. Fruit bats in particular are considered a delicacy in the area of Guinea where the outbreak started.

The British Foreign Office have noted that the ebola virus has been confirmed in Sierra Leone, near the border with Guinea. They advise that if you travel to this region you should follow the health advice issued by the National Travel Health Network and Centre, maintain strict standards of hygiene and avoid eating bushmeat.

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.