Hopes for 2010

This year, EducAid will celebrate 10 years of having its own school (now schools). EducAid Lumley opened on 18th September 2000.

There have been many successes but equally many difficulties, many challenges and many sadnesses. In 2009, we not only lost Alhassan but also 4 students (and we know of several ex-students too) to the attrocious medical provision. We are hoping for happier times in 2010.

These are some of our dreams and where our energies will be focused:

• A new teacher training programme is being piloted and at least 12 of our youngsters will be involved. This programme promises to provide opportunities for our ´graduates´ to develop their skills and therefore ability to better build the country but it should also have a significant impact in all the schools where teachers are engaged on the course. The quality of teaching and learning, in so many schools in Sierra Leone, is absolutely terrifyingly low.
• EducAid has new construction work on three out of four sites in 2010. The new primary school building in Maronka has already started. The new senior secondary building in Rolal will start in January. The new ICT building in Lumley, in Alhassan´s memory, will start as soon as the new store has been finished.
• Alongside the Girl Power Group, which seeks to help girls understand and realise their rights, responsibilities and educational potential, we hope to start a ´White Ribbon Campaign´group, which will encourage boys to use their strength for the defending of women and women´s rights, instead of going with the cultural flow and continuing the suppression of girls and women.
• Out of these two groups, we hope, too, to start a newsletter for young people about these gender equality issues. The suppression of women, particularly in education, is a massive issue for development here.
• ICT seems to be the most likely way forward for EducAid students to make an impact, on their own life situations but also on the country´s. We hope to move into an era where we have all students, from primary to secondary, using basic applications competently so we can move on to a stage where thinking is being developed and ICT becomes a tool for problem solving, creativity and enterprise.
• The health situation is where we feel most vulnerable. We hope to start looking for ways of accessing proper medical care for our students. If we can find ways of supporting medical education, even better. This is the real face of the day to day poverty in Sierra Leone.

We have many long term dreams and hopes too and truly want to work to extend the reach of our impact so that ripple by ripple the EducAid effect may change thinking, attitudes and skill levels in more and more young people and thus destroy poverty.

If you are interested in reading more about our work please go to http://www.educaid.org.uk/

Atlantic Rising

An interesting project: a British team are travelling round the rim of the Atlantic Basin and linking schools along their journey with each other. The idea is to educate about the Climate Change and consequent rising of the Atlantic and the related issues and to engage the youngsters at the various schools on their journey in the dialogue about the causes and effects within their lives.

At EducAid, we are always delighted to have our youngsters challenged by new opportunities, new ways of thinking, new contacts and connections so we jumped at the chance.

Apparently, our students did more than hold their own. Well done to all involved and thank you to the 'Atlantic Rising' team.

http://www.atlanticrising.org/news/blog_view.asp?id=42

http://www.atlanticrising.org/schools/school-profiles.asp?id=22

If you are interested in knowing more about EducAid's work, please see: www.educaid.org.uk

Injustice - one serious face of the poverty in Sierra Leone

The most clear places to see the poverty in Sierra Leone are in the provision of health care and in the total lack of real justice.

Please go to this site for an excellent article written by one of the founders of AdvocAid.

http://www.foreignpolicydigest.org/Africa/December-2009/sierra-leone-women-in-conflict-with-the-courts.html

AdvocAid contracts EducAid to provide basic education in the female wings of both the Central Prison in Freetown and the prison in Kenema.

Jimiyke - the public speaker

Jimiyke is still waiting for further feedback on the last few tests to ensure that his health is secure but in the meantime he is putting his time to good use. Various friends have offered opportunities to sit alongside them and improve his ICT skills and, in addition, he is fast becoming a bit of a mini-celebrity. He spoke, during his first week in the UK, at North Oxfordshire Academy and the students came out of his assemblies enthused and moved. Since then, he has been speaking on skype quite regularly to Alex Ehegartner's [Stockport Citizenship teacher] students. This week he has been to Alex's school in person and has spoken to an assembled group of representatives of around a dozen schools in the Stockport area. He spoke about his experiences during the war and also about what EducAid has done for him. I understand that once again the listeners were greatly moved by what he had to say.

As a result of this meeting, he was invited to St Simon's [long standing EducAid supporters] to see the Nativity play and to speak to parents and children. His visit and what he had to say were received, as ever, with great enthusiasm.

Jimiyke speaking to Year 4.

For those new to Jimiyke's story see earlier posts from May to date and http://www.educaid.org.uk/EducAid_Sierra_Leone/Abu_Bakarr_Koroma.html

Jimiyke is one of my personal heroes - a young man of great courage and integrity.

His own experiences in the UK are recorded on his blog http://jimiykevisittotheuk.blogspot.com/

If you want to know more about EducAid's work please see www.educaid.org.uk

EducAid's first graduate - a Big Day!

Mohamed Sannoh - A very proud day for him and for us all.

Ok....and a few others too!
Mohamed Sannoh, the longest standing EducAid pupil, has graduated from Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone in Accounting and Finance.

Mohamed was part of our sponsorship programme in the very early days before there was an EducAid school. Mohamed finished his education at the EducAid Senior Secondary School and was the first EducAid student to gain entrance to university.

For more details about his courage and strength in the pursuit of education see: http://www.educaid.org.uk/EducAid_Sierra_Leone/Mohamed_Sannoh.html

For more information about EducAid's work see: www.educaid.org.uk

Getting festive in aid of EducAid

Quite a few Santas then!

Triumphant! Alison and Megan post 'dash'.
Alison Walsh of Lambeth Academy and one of her students, Megan, participated in a 6 kilometre Santa Dash around Battersea Park, sponsored for EducAid. Alison is a long-term supporter of EducAid's work and has visited the project twice.

To learn more about EducAid's work see www.educaid.org.uk

Introduction of a Skills Based Teacher -training Curriculum in Sierra Leone

Sean [British teacher] and I have been working like mad things on writing up the distance learning modules for a brand new teacher training programme. At present, approximately 40% of Sierra Leonean teachers are trained and qualified so this programme does have the potential to make a real difference to the quality of education in secondary schools across the country.

This week we are training the tutors and mentors that will support the 40 student-teachers who will participate in the pilot in Kenema and Kono, the far east of Sierra Leone. In January, the course goes live, starting with 2 week residential sessions.

The new course adopts a completely new approach. It is a skills based course which attempts clearly, for the first time ever, to address the real needs of the nation at this time and in the current context. It is a very exciting project for the development of the whole country if implemented well.

Tutors and mentors of the new Higher Teachers Certificate Course think through the implications for teacher training of a skills based curriculum.

Another interesting aspect for us is where EducAid staff have been able to participate in various ways. This week, Brima Will and next week Emmanuel Bailay, members of the EducAid Leadership Team, are observing the training so that they can serve as monitoring and evaluation officers of the residential courses.

It is interesting to see how, thanks probably to the regular EducAid training, they are more than able to hold their own in the company of the country's teacher training lecturers.

Brima Will of EducAid attending the training of tutors and mentors.

For more information on EducAid's work see www.educaid.org.uk