Our Approach
Five Organizations. One Shared Mission
For twenty years, we’ve worked exclusively through five trusted Sierra Leonean organizations. They build relationships with the teachers, families and communities to make lasting change possible.
Programme for Children
Partners since 2005. Builds and maintains schools across Moyamba, Bo, Tonkolili, and Western Area.
Uman Tok
Founded with SfS support in 2020. Leads sexual reproductive health and menstrual health education and distributes reusable menstrual hygiene kits to keep girls in school.
The Learning Foundation
Partners since 2014. Trains teachers in early literacy and runs reading clubs across Northern and Southern Provinces and Western Area.
Last Mile Learning – SL
Partners since 2019. Constructs and supports schools in Falaba and Koinadugu Districts in the North.
Sierra Leone Book Trust
Partners since 2012. Supplies books, builds library spaces, and trains teacher librarians to build a love of reading in young people.
Three Pillars, working together
Our partners work across three interconnected areas. A child needs a school to attend, a well-trained teacher to learn from and the health support to show up every day.
Access to Education
We believe every child deserves the opportunity to learn — no matter how remote their community. We expand educational access by investing in school infrastructure and removing the practical barriers that keep children out of classrooms. From constructing new school buildings and libraries to distributing bicycles so children can safely reach their schools, our goal is to ensure that a full twelve years of education is within reach for every child in the communities we serve.
Quality Education
A school building is only the beginning — what happens inside the classroom matters just as much. Through our partnerships with The Learning Foundation and the Sierra Leone Book Trust, we equip teachers with the training and resources they need to help students truly thrive. From professional development and literacy training to reading clubs and well-stocked libraries, we work to build a culture of learning from the ground up — because when teachers are empowered, students flourish.
Girls’ Education
Ensuring that girls have an equal opportunity to succeed is at the heart of everything we do. Through our partner Uman Tok, we address the physical, social, and cultural barriers that too often push girls out of school. By providing menstrual hygiene resources and delivering sexual reproductive health education to students, parents, and community members alike, we create environments where girls feel safe, supported, and equipped to stay in school and reach their full potential.
Local leadership creates lasting change
For twenty years, we’ve seen that programs designed and run by people with roots in their communities outlast those imposed from the outside. Our partners don’t just deliver services — they build and sustain relationships with the teachers, families and communities who make education possible.
Schools for Salone’s role is to provide the financial resources, strategic guidance, and accountability infrastructure that lets our partners do more of what they already do well.
Education Access
Explore Our Work
Our first step toward keeping kids in school is making sure they have a school to attend.
We work with local partners to build schools and maintain and improve existing school
infrastructure to make it easier for students to attend regularly. This includes solar panels
to provide light for evening study, libraries, and other amenities. We also build septic
latrines and rainwater collection handwashing stations at all our schools to keep our
students healthy.
We provide scholarships and other forms of basic support to at-risk children who need
extra support to stay in school and learn.
Between 2005 – 2025 we built 49 school buildings and three libraries across Sierra Leone.
Education Quality
Explore Our Work
Once students have a school to attend, we focus on the quality of education children receive in that school. We work with communities to develop a basic system for tracking student attendance and performance as well as teacher qualifications. We work with local partners to implement a comprehensive teacher development strategy that includes Ministry of Education certification training, literacy instruction workshops, library training, and math and science instruction. We train and support teachers in our schools to become the best teachers they can be!
In response to the lack of teaching and learning materials readily available to our teachers, we deliver a variety of resources for teachers and students to use in the classroom. These include locally written, illustrated, and produced stories at varying reading levels, curriculum books, teaching tools, and more. We are in regular communication with our partners to develop effective resources for teaching and learning.
Education Equity
Explore Our Work
We keep girls in school. In Sierra Leone, menstruation is a significant barrier to education. In our schools, girls who have started their periods miss 20% of school when they are menstruating. Menstruation and menstrual hygiene is not talked about to girls in Sierra Leone, so many are surprised and afraid when they start their periods, and have no
supplies to manage it. In our schools, 93% of girls who have started their periods did not know what menstruation was before they had their first period. Providing menstrual hygiene tools and reproductive health education is a direct way to keep girls in school and support their healthy growth and development.
Schools for Salone conducts reproductive health education with girls and boys in our schools, and distributes Days for Girls menstruation kits to girls who have started their periods. Uman Tok is a partnership between Schools for Salone USA, Uman TOK Sierra Leone, and Days for Girls. The purpose of Uman Tok is to make menstrual hygiene management and education available to women and girls across Sierra Leone so they can overcome the barriers of menstruation and achieve their dreams.
Since reproductive health education and kit distribution began, there have been zero cases of teenage pregnancy in any SfS partner schools, and the incidence of girls missing school because of their periods has dropped to near zero and remained there. When girls have the menstrual care they need, it empowers them to go to school and pursue a promising future.
Education Access
The first step to expanding education is making sure there is a school to attend.
Education Quality
Only well-prepared teachers can provide quality instruction. We train teachers.
Education Equity
Girls must have the healthcare resources they need to stay in school. We empower girls
Expand Education One School at a Time
We build schools. Our first step toward keeping kids in school is making sure they have a school to attend. We work with local partners to build schools and maintain and improve existing school infrastructure to make it easier for students to attend regularly. This includes solar panels to provide light for evening study, libraries, and other amenities. We also build septic latrines and rainwater collection handwashing stations at all our schools to keep our students healthy.
We provide scholarships and other forms of basic support to at-risk children who need extra support to stay in school and learn.
Between 2005 – 2025 we built 49 school buildings and three libraries across Sierra Leone.
Expand Education One Teacher at a Time
We train teachers. Once students have a school to attend, we focus on the quality of education children receive in that school. We work with communities to develop a basic system for tracking student attendance and performance as well as teacher qualifications. We work with local partners to implement a comprehensive teacher development strategy that includes Ministry of Education certification training, literacy instruction workshops, library training, and math and science instruction. We train and support teachers in our schools to become the best teachers they can be!
Teaching & Learning resources. In response to the lack of teaching and learning materials readily available to our teachers, we deliver a variety of resources for teachers and students to use in the classroom. These include locally written, illustrated, and produced stories at varying reading levels, curriculum books, teaching tools, and more. We are in regular communication with our partners to develop effective resources for teaching and learning.
Expand Education One Student at a Time
We keep girls in school. In Sierra Leone, menstruation is a significant barrier to education. In our schools, girls who have started their periods miss 20% of school when they are menstruating. Menstruation and menstrual hygiene is not talked about to girls in Sierra Leone, so many are surprised and afraid when they start their periods, and have no supplies to manage it. In our schools, 93% of girls who have started their periods did not know what menstruation was before they had their first period. Providing menstrual hygiene tools and reproductive health education is a direct way to keep girls in school and support their healthy growth and development.
Schools for Salone conducts reproductive health education with girls and boys in our schools, and distributes Days for Girls menstruation kits to girls who have started their periods. Uman Tok is a partnership between Schools for Salone USA, Uman TOK Sierra Leone, and Days for Girls. The purpose of Uman Tok is to make menstrual hygiene management and education available to women and girls across Sierra Leone so they can overcome the barriers of menstruation and achieve their dreams.
Since reproductive health education and kit distribution began, there have been zero cases of teenage pregnancy in any SfS partner schools, and the incidence of girls missing school because of their periods has dropped to near zero and remained there. When girls have the menstrual care they need, it empowers them to go to school and pursue a promising future.
Learn more about the kits, what’s included, and how you can contribute to their production.