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Sierra Leone Trip Summary
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In late June to mid-July, Cindy, Natalie, and SfS Board Secretery Jennifer Kempf visited Sierra Leone. Overall the team had a very successful and productive trip. This trip was marked by unending support and never ending problem solving, humor, and using each team member’s respective expertise to help move our programs forward and continue to strengthen our ties to our primary partners, Programme for Children and The Learning Foundation. Natalie’s husband Simon joined us on this trip and moved mountains with his computer/IT expertise solving seemingly simple issues for him, but opening up the world of computers and the internet to our SL team members. Larry, auctioneer and fundraiser for the school in Sulehun, joined the team in Sierra Leone as well. Larry, always a source of encouragement, story telling, photo documentation and Starbucks coffee was thrilled beyond belief as he experienced the joy and gratitude first hand in Sulehun, the school that he and his community made possible. Below is an outline of our trip:
While in Sierra Leone, we focused primarily on our Uman Talk menstruation kit program with Programme for Children and our teacher training program with The Learning Foundation. We also traveled upcountry to visit a few schools and attend the opening ceremony of the newly-completed school in Sulehun.
Uman Talk and PFC Team
During the first week, Cindy, Natalie, and Jennifer met with many different organizations about menstruation kit sales and other forms of partnership to make our DfG menstruation kits and reproductive health education available to more women and girls across Sierra Leone. We met with World Food Program, Well Woman Clinic, BRAC SL, Street Child, and Compassion for Peace. We are very optimistic about the collaboration for girls’ health and education that has followed from these initial meetings.
A significant portion of our trip was also spent meeting with Juliet, the program manager for Uman Talk at PFC. We discussed the menstruation kit production and sales program, and outlined some strategy points to expand and strengthen the program moving forward. Our kit production is well-positioned to meet the demand for kits in our school communities and the additional demand that we anticipate from our outreach activities during this trip. We received several large orders while we were there, so we spent some time helping package kits with Juliet and the tailors, who are doing incredible work.
We also had the opportunity to engage in a few diplomatic activities. We met with the new US Ambassador to Sierra Leone at the US Embassy, and the Ambassador joined us at the Sulehun opening ceremony. We also accompanied Hon. Joseph Williams-Lamin, Member of Parliament for district 081, to parliament. It was such an honor to attend a parliamentary session, and to be positioned at the front of the well. There was a festive air in parliament that day surrounding the appointment for the day of a woman speaker, only the second time ever in the history of Parliament.
The Learning Foundation and Teacher Training
During the second part of our trip, we spent more time meeting with Ndye and John from The Learning Foundation. We planned the schedule of activities for our teacher training program for the coming school year. We also solidified and built upon our strategy to train up stand-out teachers to become part of the teacher training team. These teachers are passionate about education and looking forward to sharing their knowledge and expertise with other teachers across Sierra Leone.
We also made a visit to the Education for All school. We cannot say enough about Mamusu, the headmistress. She has risen to the top of all our teachers, making her school a model school for all of Sierra Leone. She will be working with Ndye and the Learning Foundation to assist with upcoming teacher trainings and is ready to take it all on. Once Ndye feels she is ready to soar on her own, Mamusu will take the lead on trainings so Ndye can step back a bit from the upcountry travel and school-based visits to focus on other aspects of their programs.
Mamboma, Gbama, Jomborhun, Sulehun Site Visits
On July 8th we visited the Mamboma library and met with the librarian about how the library is working and how the children are using the books. We then went on to visit Gbama, a new school currently under construction. The Gbama school is funded by Bob and Julie Granger, two RPCVs from the 1960s, and Garry Jenkins from England. After visiting Gbama we went to Jomborhun, a village in need of a secondary school to keep their students safe and able to continue school. We were met with festivities and ceremony and wonderful food. This is a potential next school project, if and when we can find funding.
July 9th was the big day- the opening ceremony for the school in Sulehun. We met the US Ambassador at her hotel in Bo and traveled in an eight-vehicle military/US Embassy motorcade to the tiny village of Sulehun where we were greeted with dancing devils and massive security – and lots of rain unfortunately which cut the dancing and celebrating a bit short. It was an honor to say the least to have the Ambassador and her nine-year-old daughter join us for the opening ceremony in Sulehun. The village was truly thrilled and honored by her visit. After the festivities we left Bo to return to Freetown.
We are so grateful to our incredible teams in Sierra Leone for all their passion, hard work, and dedication to the well-being and futures of the children of Sierra Leone.
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