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Cocorioko Assistant Editor launches program to help fund education in Sierra Leone

Written by Jacob Sax-Conteh Thursday, 04 February 2010 15:50

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After writing several articles on this newspaper and elsewhere railing against the culture of dependency and promoting education, I am launching a new foundation to help fund education in Sierra Leone.  EduChild Sierra Leone is a grassroots foundation that bypasses the bottleneck and middlemen that prevented many programs from reaching needy children in Sierra Leone over the years.  After spending so much money to pay fees for students, some that were never in school, I can relate to the frustration many have about funding any project in Sierra Leone.  But the need is so great that we have to find innovative ways to help, and EduChild has found a way.

 

Our program brings students, their teachers and sponsors together in a transparent simple way to fund education.  The scholarship process starts with a volunteer teacher that spots a needy student.  The teacher would then visit the student’s home to get detailed information to determine if there is a need for help.   Once the teacher establishes the need, they will develop a story and email it to us, together with the student’s picture.  We verify the story by contacting the school and the child’s parents/guardian before issuing a scholarship letter to the student.  Our scholarship covers tuition, books and uniforms.  As we get more funding, we plan to also provide money for snack.  The volunteer teacher monitors the child’s progress daily and also visits their home once a month and report back to us.

How much does it cost to educate a child in Sierra Leone?  Not much if you live here in North America, Europe or Australia.  For fifty dollars (Le 200,000) one can help fund a secondary school student’s education for a whole year.  Tuition for junior secondary school is Le 60,000 a year, and for senior secondary school it is Le 75,000.  The rest of the money could be used for school uniforms and supplies.  What has happened over the years is that unscrupulous family members and friends have fleeced us by quoting exorbitant amounts of money for school fees, and that has stopped many from helping students who really need help.

At this early stage of our operation, we need partners to help us educate Sierra Leonean children.  We need volunteer developers to help design a professional website for us, school supplies that we can ship to our students in Sierra Leone, sponsors to help pay for our students, and cash to expand our program.  We believe that the best way to eradicate poverty and disease in Sierra Leone is to educate its citizens.  Visit us on Facebook and Twitter or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and give us suggestions on the best way to run this program.  Together, we can change the statistics in Sierra Leone.

  Mbalu Kamara and Christiana Riddle of Richard Allen Secondary School in Freetown, first recipients of EduChild Sierra Leone scholarships.


 


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