Kai’s Building Force in Action!

Amazing developments in Magbeni this week. Joseph M. Kai, our school site co-ordinator, has been arranging for a new building to be constructed in place of what was once only a hut.

Together the local community has been putting together materials and skills to collaborate in the construction of our new building, as well as contributing resources for the education that will take place inside!

Kai tells us:

"We are presently constructing a permanent structure where we built the hut the last time AJ was here. Presently we have reached that height. A very good news towards this development is that we have received some aid from parents. Presently we have sticks, 4 boards, sand from the Magbeni community and most of all is that 2 parents provided 4 bundles of zinc yesterday. We are sure of roofing the building this week and we want to start using it as soon as possible. Lots of love Magbeni team"

Typically it can be difficult to get the local communities involved in the improvement of EducAid sites and the running of the schools. As poverty is so widespread in Sierra Leone, it is not always easy to convince locals to participate unless they see a direct and immediate benefit. Kai has done a fantastic job of involving the community and persuading them it is worth their while to be part of a project that will improve the standards of the local education, little by little.

We hope to implement more projects and opportunities in other areas that provide chances to engage the public, as well as teachers, parents and students, as this is how we will change the country! With people all making their own contribution and doing what they can.


Donate here by clicking this link.

Lucy Howling - Mellor's Rose Queen

There are few better examples of our community's dedication than the story of Lucy who, as Mellor’s 2015/16 Rose Queen, chose to support EducAid in the fundraising events she organised for her village.

Over the past 8 months Lucy has been working hard to organise events for her community – these events have a great way of both bringing the community together, and to raise money for a charity which is close to their hearts. We’d like to say a huge thank you to Lucy for organising this series of events, the people of Mellor to whom we are extremely grateful for their generosity, and to wish them all the best of luck for the events still to come. This month Lucy wrote a letter telling us all about the events that they have carried out in the village, and how much they have managed to raise for the charity through doing so; it’s a really inspirational story from a driven young woman.

Hello, my name is Lucy and I am 15 years old. This year I am my local village Rose Queen and spend the year raising money for charity. I chose EducAid as I know Miriam and Kofi and I can see the fantastic work they do. My year started with me being crowned at the Fete in July.

 

My first fundraising event was a fashion show in which my mum, the local vicar, and a few others modelled clothes from SOS (a local boutique). Sherlocks hairdressers did the models hair and a friend did their makeup to make them feel extra glamorous. We gave everyone a free glass of bucks fizz on arrival and encouraged them to buy the clothes afterwards. We raised £850 which was really encouraging for a first event. 

Next up we hosted an Oktoberfest which featured a professional accordion player and our very own home grown oompah band. We served frankfurters, sauerkraut and apfelstrudel. We raffled a hamper filled with German goodies and had giant salamis as prizes for the best dancing. We encouraged people to come in their lederhosen and dirndls. People schunkled late into the night and we raised £1300.




In November we held a second hand toy sale and children’s Frozen party. We had lots of Frozen themed crafts and a Frozen sing along with ‘real’ snow. 

The weekend’s activities raised £600.


Throughout December we sold homemade produce at various local events. That put our total amount of money raised so far to £3736.55.

 

2016 has started with a bang. We transformed our village hall into a nightclub and hosted an awesome Beatles tribute band. Old and young boogied away the night together and we raised over £1500.

Still to come we have: Mellor’s Got Talent; a cake decorating workshop with afternoon tea; an African evening with a traditional African band and food and a children’s concert. My Dad and brother are also going to walk the Pennine Way in the summer and ask for sponsorship. 

So far this year has been so much fun and it is a privilege to support such an inspiring charity.  

Love from Rose Queen Lucy.

Lucy's story shows just how much a small group of individuals can achieve, particularly when one passionate and dedicated individual drives the team forwards. We at EducAid find it genuinely inspiring that a community will pull together to support children many thousands of miles away. We congratulate and thank you, Mellor, for all of your great work. Your generous fundraising and donations will go to an undeniably great cause: creating a brighter future for young people in Sierra Leone, and we will ensure that it is used in the most efficient and effective way possible.

If you know someone who would like to get involved with EducAid, in a fundraising or volunteering capacity, please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can contact Farah by clicking here, or for any support in existing fundraisers please contact Marcus here.

Sew for Sierra Leone: Joan Keeps Going

Back in April we wrote about the ladies from District 9 of the Inner Wheels Club. They had hand-made over 400 sleeping bags that eventually contributed to the largest shipment of donations that we’ve ever sent to Sierra Leone. This is what I wrote at the time:

“Great fun was had by the ladies from Inner Wheel Clubs. From all across District 9, UK (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire) they got together to ‘Sew for Sierra Leone’ on 26th February. They were busy creating over 400 cotton sleeping bags, requested by Miriam for the youngsters at EducAid’s schools and Interim Care Centres.

Friendship and service are key elements of membership in Inner Wheel, a worldwide service organisation for women, and this event provided an ideal opportunity for both. There was plenty of chat and large quantities of tea were consumed as ladies gave their time to sort, cut, stitch, iron and pack for EducAid!”

It seems as though one of those ladies never stopped – Joan has gone on to create a huge number more. This inspirational and committed woman has managed to find an unlimited source of cotton, and must’ve been working non-stop since 26th February. When Miriam went to visit her on 17th October, Joan had made another 125 sleeping bags, and she is on the case to make many more before the container leaves London for Sierra Leone in December. What a tremendous achievement! Thank you so much Joan, our youngsters will be so grateful! Thank you to Ernie, Joan's husband, for all the help and support you must’ve given during the time – it all counts!

This is another incredible story of how our committe community helps us to provide a comfortable and caring home for our youngsters.

You can read more about the shipment coming to Sierra Leone here. If you would like to contribute, you can find out what items we are trying to collect for the shipment in that same post. If you would like to discuss contributing something else, please do get in touch by sending an e-mail to this address, and we can discuss how best to support you.

If you have not watched our new video, you can do so on the homepage of our website or on facebook. Please do share this post and the video to help spread our message.


EducAid – Learning for Life in Sierra Leone

Lucy Howling - Mellor Rose Queen 2015-16

Hello, I’m Lucy! 

This year I am Mellor Rose-Queen. The tradition of crowning a young girl as Rose Queen developed in the farming communities of Northern England as part of the celebration of and thanksgiving for the growth of the food crops. Today, in Mellor, this tradition continues but the role of the Rose Queen and her team is to raise money for a charity of the Rose Queen’s choice. I chose the charity EducAid. I chose this charity as I know what they do is amazing and would love to be able to be a small part of helping children fulfil their dreams. I have only been Rose- Queen for two months and I feel proud of what I am doing.

The events we are hosting are for all ages. The first event we are hosting is a Fashion Show! This event includes Mums from my team modelling clothes from a local shop. People can buy the clothes and accessories and 10% of the funds go to EducAid. People also buy tickets to come to the event. There is a bar and raffle, as in all of our events. Other events include an Oktoberfest, Threatles concert, Mellor’s Got Talent, a Children’s Bear Hunt, and many other exciting fund raisers! Thank you for taking the time to read this. It would be great if you could support me when you can!

If you would like to know more about EducAid's work with vulnerable young Sierra Leoneans, please go to www.educaid.org.uk and if you are able to donate to support our work, please go to one of Lucy's events, or to the Donate page on the website or to https://mydonate.bt.com/charities/educaidsierraleone

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

The Progress of the Vaccines

Back in January, I wrote a blog post about the on-going vaccine trials that were providing hopeful signs to find a permanent preventative drug against Ebola. We can all agree that this is the most permanent way for the global community to prevent another outbreak of this virus. As Ebola recedes, and Liberia is declared free from the virus, how have those vaccine trials that we laid so much hope and financial capital in ended up? According to the WHO, not as well as we had hoped.

Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation, said in a news briefing in Geneva: "The best news is we are going to zero cases, there is absolutely no doubt about that," she said.

“Two experimental Ebola vaccines - developed by GlaxoSmithKline and jointly by Merck and NewLink Genetics - being tested on volunteers may not yield sufficient data on efficacy as case numbers fall. It is not clear whether it will be possible to have even a hint of efficacy from these two vaccines," she said, noting that they already had been proven safe.

To have efficacy we must see if people are actually protected, as the number of cases is going down it is not clear whether there will be a strong robust answer to this question at the end of epidemic," Kieny said.

This is, fortunately, not the whole story. As you may remember, Bavarian Nordic, which struck a milestone deal with Johnson & Johnson in October for the development of their Ebola vaccine, was working on a 2-dose vaccination approach for Ebola using different vaccines for the first and second doses. This approach is known as heterologous prime-boost. The two vaccine candidates are known as Ad26-EBOV and MVA-EBOV. Bavarian Nordic, and Johnson & Johnson, have received a 50 million euro loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to help it develop a vaccine against Ebola.

This latter partnership has been collecting samples of the live virus in blood, urine and other bodily fluids in order to continue the testing. Considering the uncertainty surrounding the efficacy of these drugs, it is highly unlikely that we will see human trials of these drugs until absolutely necessary. However, the continued investment by the EIB shows a determined and long-term approach to creating a useable vaccine.

The continued investment and prevalence of live virus samples will enable these companies to do what they can to make sure that we are better prepared for the unfortunate situation when Ebola arises. Let’s hope, for all of sub-Saharan Africa that Ebola doesn’t become a major issue in the future, but at least big Pharma will be in a position of knowledge, rather than chasing ghosts as they were this time around. If you would like to read the full update on all of the antivirals, you can do so from the WHO website here.

There are many lessons that can be learnt from this Ebola outbreak, and the speedy preparation of antivirals is a major one.

AJ & Kai Making us Proud in Magbeni

One cornerstone of our mission, and something that EducAid has always been immensely proud of, is being an intrinsically Sierra Leonean organisation, and being cemented in the centre of our communities. From the very inception of the charity we committed to establishing our roots in Sierra Leone - not to fall in to the trap of many NGOs - but to empower Sierra Leoneans themselves to initiate their own change. This week, Miriam’s visit to our school at Magbeni revealed an initiative devised by some of the staff there that encapsulates this very fact, better than we could ever describe it. This is Miriam’s account:


“I visited Magbeni yesterday and found myself incredibly touched by their latest activities at the school. On the suggestion of AJ, our site coordinator there, and his deputy, Kai, the staff members have been ‘taxing’ themselves for a development fund. Their idea was to use this time and money in order to be able to do things they perceive as necessary within the school. To reiterate, this was an initiative dreamed up entirely by AJ and Kai – what a fantastic and entrepreneurial thing to do.

During the height of the Ebola crisis they contributed 1 Friday each and built 10 large group work tables and 20 benches; they put in a new ceiling in the library as well as laying a new floor. This week I met a new building that has been built as a library - it is nearly finished. Their attitude is so lovely and encouraging, I was really impressed.

The work that they have undertaken within the school is not the end of it. AJ (in blue) and his deputy, Kai, are both past pupils, and they are so incredibly committed to the EducAid beliefs and really lead the team. The photos of the two of them is with their other construction project, something that they have persuaded the community to help them with i.e. a couple of outside classrooms that can accommodate everyone in the village. They are determined that they, and the community that we are helping, will not force EducAid to carry the whole burden. It is a very very unusual attitude, and in great contradiction to the usual dependence and sense of entitlement that people often feel when they’ve been reliant on charity and aid for such a long time. It really reminds us of how much work that we’re doing to change things here – not just education, nor housing and food, but real social change. I’m so proud of those boys and long may them keep it up!”

I can do nothing but to reiterate Miriam’s words here. It is an immensely powerful story and one that signals such positive change in these communities. Through our educational morals we have inspired others to come together and work for the greater good. Go AJ, Go Kai, and Go Magbeni!

We’re beginning to accept our students in to our schools – running through the necessary precautions as we always have - and classes will be up and running again very soon. This is such a great story to propel us off in to this period of hard work, we can say nothing but thank you.


It is when one considers the compassion and generosity of these small acts that we can really appreciate the impact of the hard work that we do. It reiterates our mission and motto: Learning for Life in Sierra Leone.

Sewing for Sierra Leone

 

It is from the generosity of so many that we are able to continue our efforts in Sierra Leone, and can deliver such needed change in a country with so little amongst its general population.

EducAid is not just a network of schools that provide education, we also provide the residential and pastoral care that so many of our students desperately require. Our needs are great: financial donations enable us to keep buy educational materials, pay our 180 or so staff in Sierra Leone, and to keep our students fed; material donations are also very much needed. As shown in the post about a huge shipment of clothes and educational materials sent to Sierra Leone, we can see how much we rely on the generosity of our loyal donors. Again this has been shown this week, with District 9 of the Inner Wheels Club coming together for an event they called ‘Sew for Sierra Leone.’ Below is a brief report written by one of the ladies in charge of this fantastic effort.

“Great fun was had by the ladies from Inner Wheel Clubs. From all across District 9, UK (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire) they got together to 'Sew for Sierra Leone' on 26th February. They were busy creating over 400 cotton sleeping bags, requested by Miriam for the youngsters at EducAid's schools and Interim Care Centres. Friendship and service are key elements of membership in Inner Wheel, a worldwide service organisation for women, and this event provided an ideal opportunity for both. There was plenty of chat and large quantities of tea were consumed as ladies gave their time to sort, cut, stitch, iron and pack for EducAid!

EducAid is District 9's chosen International Service charity for 2014/15 and members were keen to provide some practical help in addition to their on-going fundraising efforts. Members of the public gave tremendous support too, arriving at Inner Wheel club meetings beforehand with bags of sheets and duvet covers for members to transform.

A donation of washable printed labels was received from Beaconsfield company Ooh La Label, who heard what was happening and wanted to get involved. Showing the Inner wheel logo, these were attached to the completed sleeping bags. A Rotarian, Alan, generously helped to pack and transport the completed items at the end of the day, to be added to his next shipment of aid bound for Sierra Leone.”

This superb effort by the ladies at District 9 of the Inner Wheel Clubs again shows us how much can be done when people come together and work towards a single goal. Donations from their community, effort from the Inner Wheel Clubs organisation, and work from private companies have ensured that EducAid is receiving some vital bed-clothing for our students.

We can’t reiterate how essential these kinds of fundraising efforts are for our work in Sierra Leone. Not only does it provide vital items for use by our students, but it also spreads the word of the work that we are doing in Sierra Leone.

Many thanks to all of those who supported this effort through their hard work, organisation, and generous donations. Without your efforts we cannot continue to do what we do so effectively.