Magbeni - Such very very hard news!

Last week we were celebrating Magbeni's fantastic achievement in the recent public exams.  This week we are in mourning.  Kadija (17) and Aminata (16) were playing in the river while doing their laundry and were caught by the currents.  Jumping from a nearby boat and playing in a river they have known since they were small girls, these two students lost their lives when they lost footing and misjudged the strength of the water.  A classmate saw them and went to call for help but was too late. Familiarity with the river seems to have made them take its power too lightly and despite rules about not swimming in the river, their paddling got out of hand.
The village and the school mourn their loss. We have all committed to hold even higher the light, knowing that as they can no longer carry their own, we must carry ours for them as well as for ourselves.

Our prayers are especially with their families.

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

Public exams - 100% success AGAIN!

Once again, all EducAid's Junior Secondary Schools had 100% pass rates in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). Countrywide, the standards are consistently closer to 40% pass rates.  With some of the poorest and most vulnerable young people in the country, EducAid achieves very very different results.

Magbeni came top of the EducAid stakes and this photo shows, Abu Koroma, Language Arts teacher, who had the best results, proving his right to his prize bag of rice by lifting it up (50kg of rice - that's a lot of rice an it's heavy!)

Fantastic job, as ever, by staff and students in all locations.  With this attitude and effort, we will make a difference in Sierra Leone. We will!

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

Widad Worneh, new Coordinator for Pastoral Care and Behaviour Management, is getting stuck into her role.  A key part of EducAid's positive behaviour management strategy is the peer mediator system.  Students are trained on each site to mediate in situations where students have got themselves in trouble.

The training focuses on listening skills, empathy, being a role model, mediating and conflict resolution.  Being a peer mediator has a high status in the schools and the team plays a vital role in addressing issues of poor behaviour and conflict student to student and even between students and teachers.

Well done Widad on an excellent initiative.

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

Isatu Kanu RIP

Another full on day in EducAid, with its great ups and terrible downs. 

Today we have heard that Jimiyke Koroma has completed his anti-TB treatment and one very lucky young man has come through after being very close to death with TB throughout his brain and body. 

On the same day, we have heard that, completely out of the blue, Isatu Kanu, student at the Rogbere School and sickle cell patient, has got up this morning and dropped dead from unknown causes on her way to the bathroom. To our knowledge, she was not ill and we will never know more than that. What a terrible loss to the school. What an appalling loss to her parents who today lost their 3rd child! 

For those of you who pray, please pray for the consolation of all those near her.

If you would like to know more about EducAid's work with vulnerable young Sierra Leoneans, please go to www.educaid.org.uk

1st EducAidian Professionals Conference - 12th October 2013

Modupe Taylor-Pearce inspiring the young EducAidians

So many good things happening that there is no time to blog about them!

On 12th October, 2013, the EducAid past pupils held their first EducAidian Professionals Conference.

Emmanuel Gaima leading the conference
in drawing up the Charter

The event was organised by Haja Gbla, Fatmata Romalieu Barrie, Yahyah Kamara and Ibrahim Bai Bundu - all past pupils themselves.  Haja is now doing her distance Higher Teachers' Certificate and teaches in the Women's Project in Lumley and Freetown Central Prison.  Fatmata is teaching in the Women's Project in Lumley and pursuing her ACCA studies.  Yahyah and Ibrahim are studying accounting in the same class and they both help out at the Lumley school.

They did a fantastic job, the event was well attended and participants were enthusiastic about the opportunity to get together and to reaffirm their principles.

EducAidian Professionals lining up to sign the Charter

The purpose of the conference was to provide an opportunity for the youngsters who leave EducAid enthused and principled, ready to take on corruption and do their bit to change the world to reaffirm this commitment.  It is hard to be the only person resisting corruption in a working place or class.  It is easier, if you have signed a commitment, if you have others supporting you, if you have reminders from other like-minded people as to why you are taking this stance.

Apart from the excitement of seeing friends they had lost sight of for many years, the youngsters were enthused by the appeal from exciting speakers: Harriet Gaima, Ibrahim Tommy and Modupe Taylor-Pearce.  Later, Emmanuel Gaima, facilitated a session when the participants put together their Charter: Vision, Mission, Commitments and Mutual Accountability Mechanisms.

Keen to commit themselves to a life with integrity

We had great media coverage on African Young Voices (AYV radio), SLBC, and Voices of the Diaspora.

Our hope is that, through ventures such as this, we can start to have a significant impact on the country more widely.  We are starting to position ourselves so that we are able to have an impact more broadly in Sierra Leone.

We aim to re-inspire each other to live and work well.  We aim to encourage other likeminded people to believe it is possible and to join forces so that the habits of corruption and greed get left behind.

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

Monitoring and Evaluation with Dr Rebecca Horn

Standard practice across all sorts of projects, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is the bane of many project workers lives.  In large part, this is because the dreaded logical framework (logframe) ends up dictating what has to be done, so activities are undertaken because they will satisfy the needs of the M&E strategy rather than because they are good things to do.

EducAid to date, has escaped doing any further self assessment than has been provided for by the public exams and we are very clear they don't measure half of the things we think are important.

I have been so relieved and impressed by the fantastic work done by Rebecca and the team of staff and students she has been working with this last week.  Working up from scratch using stories written by all students of their 'most significant change' since joining EducAid, they evolved 10 objectives and worked out how we could measure them.  They worked hard, debated thoroughly and have evolved something really excellent.

The team presented their work to me on Thursday and were clear and enthusiastic.

We now have a clear structure to help us assess ourselves on all the key criteria we see as important and we will be able to demonstrate to supporters, donors and critics alike exactly how well we are doing on our various goals.

Thank you Rebecca - it would have been completely impossible without you being willing to give us your time and expertise - and thank you to the staff and students who worked with her.

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

Corruption corruption.... no!.... Integrity Integrity!

Transparency International published their statistics on bribery, this week:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23231318

Sierra Leone is head of the league once more.  And this time it is for the highest percentage of the population that has paid bribes for goods and services.  In Sierra Leone 84% of the population has paid a bribe in the last year.

When discussing with people, even intelligent, kind, apparently good people, there seems little clear thinking about what is acceptable and what is not and even less of the possibility of staying clear of corruption as an individual.  It is expected that people will give a little something to smooth their way.  It is expected that you will help your family and friends get jobs when you are in recruitment positions.  It is expected that you will 'use' your position to sort yourself out.  Siaka Stevens' 'Wherever you tie a cow, that is where he will eat' idea is still tying us into habits which are fundamentally corrupt.

The role models for straight forward, upright living with integrity are few and far between.

Parliament Building, Freetown.

At EducAid, we put a lot of time and energy into stressing the importance of integrity, honesty and love.  Our Augustinian motto: 'Love and Do as you will' is used as a frequent reminder. If we love, then we will want to do all the right things.  It is impossible to truly love someone and cheat them or love someone and lie to them.  Our youngsters are very proud of having different values and want to be part of the much needed change in the country.  However, when they get out into the big bad world, the challenges are enormous: lecturers telling them blatantly that they need to pay up if they want to pass; colleagues who treat them as idiots if they are not ready to cooperate with a little cooking of the books; girls who are put under pressure to sleep with their bosses or lecturers in order to progress and so on and so on.

EducAid building, Freetown.  If the inspiration
 for change doesn't come from the political leaders,
maybe we can ensure it comes from the youth leaders.

To support all committed EducAid past pupils, a group of them have decided to run an EducAidian Professionals Integrity Conference in October.  The idea will be to think together about what living and working with integrity looks like; about the real life costs of corruption and most importantly how we can support each other to hold on to the values gained in the EducAid schools but not so easy to find elsewhere.  We will establish a support network and a charter to be signed by the end of the day so we can commit to working well and with integrity and so be part of a revolution in attitudes that is so needed.

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