Financial crisis

The Global Financial Crisis is kicking in.  Reduced giving means that at the meeting with the EducAid trustees this week, we have been told that all discretionary spending must stop and with immediate effect on my return to Sierra Leone, we must do a staff review and reduce staff and we will have to stop feeding the day students.

This is a very very hard message.  After 11 years of building things up, and at a time when staff and students are doing such a fantastic job, it is very difficult to hear that we must cut back.  If we don't feed the day students, particularly in the provinces, many will drop out.  They will not be able to afford to go to school if they are not fed as they will have to find food elsewhere.  If things are tough in the western world with the financial crisis, they are a lot harder already in Sierra Leone.

If you are a regular donor already and are in a position to increase your donation please consider doing so; if you are not a donor but would like to be one, please go to the donate page of the EducAid website and sign up.  If you know of anyone looking to make a donation where they are sure that their money will make a difference, please put us in touch.  If you know of schools or churches, organisations or clubs that might be prepared to fundraise for EducAid please do introduce us.  If you are in a position to undertake a fundraising event for EducAid, please let us know if there is any information we could supply in order to support you in this.

If you are interested in knowing more about EducAid's work with vulnerable young Sierra Leoneans, please go to www.educaid.org.uk and www.sierraleonegirls.blogspot.com

One off opportunity - Thank you so much to the Steve Sinnott Foundation

.....ready for lift off!

Something EducAid would never have afforded in a million years!  A trip to the UK for 12 staff was paid for by the Steve Sinnott Foundation.  The staff have spent a week in the Premier Inn at Euston and after a couple of days of sight seeing, got stuck into an intensive course in teacher training.

The idea being that those on the receiving end of this will take back their new found knowledge and use it not only in training EducAid staff but in training teachers from schools around us so we can have a maximum impact on teaching and learning in the area.

We are coming to the end of the most wonderful trip and we are very very appreciative of all those who have made it possible: The Broadhursts for everything from warm coats to stew to lifts to and from the tube to goodbye Christmas dinner for the hoards; all the schools that have welcomed the team so warmly and shared ideas and resources; my long suffering parents for hosting the whole team in Aston-le-Walls; the Steve Sinnott Foundation for paying for everything and exciting the staff with the 1st week of training; numerous friends from Muswell Hill and around for meals and treats and warm clothes and so on and so on.....

We are looking forward to taking back our new found learning and experiences and putting things into practice.  Horizons have been expanded.  Creativity and imagination have been sparked.  Determination has been ignited.

If you are interested in knowing more about EducAid's work with vulnerable young Sierra Leoneans, please go to www.educaid.org.uk and www.sierraleonegirls.blogspot.com