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EducAid Timeline:

1961 - Sierra Leone gains independence from Great Britain

1991 - Rebel war starts

1993 - Swithun Mason & James Boardman go on a university exchange to Sierra Leone and gather some friends, on their return, to start sending some money to pay for a handful of Sierra Leoneans to go to school

1994 - EducAid is registered with the UK Charities Commission

1995 - 2000 - EducAid sends money to Sierra Leone to pay for a growing number of students in schools across Freetown and Kenema.

1996 & 1997 - Swithun and then James and Miriam visit Sierra Leone to see how the sponsorship programme is going and realise that, to control the quality of what we are paying for, we need to have a local presence.

2000 - EducAid starts its own junior secondary school in Lumley, Freetown with 20 students (although the number quickly grew) on the back veranda and back yard of a rented house. 

The school uses an innovative and flexible methodology which we have devised to achieve high standards and provide for individual needs in a post- conflict situation.

2001 - the civil war officially ends and peace is declared.

2002 - EducAid continues to develop and starts a 2nd junior secondary school in a borrowed house in Rolal, in the provinces.

2003 - EducAid starts another junior secondary school in a rehabilitated school building in Magbeni and a small primary school in Maronka. 

2004 - EducAid starts a senior secondary school in Lumley, Freetown.

2005 - EducAid Lumley loses the rented building and we build next to Alhassan and Miriam’s house.

2006 - EducAid builds school in Rolal, funded by donations from the Catholic Church in Harpenden.  EducAid gets funding to dig a well in Rolal.

2007 - EducAid starts a women’s project in Lumley and later in Rolal to increase numbers of girls in the schools

2008 - EducAid starts a women’s project in Magbeni.

The numbers of girls in the whole project have increased from around 10% to 30% +.

Leadership Team is established and succeeds wonderfully in day to day running of the programmes.

EducAid loses their first student, quickly followed by two more.

2009 - Girl Power Groups starts to help girls achieve their potential

All the Junior Secondary Schools are in the top ten in the northern district in the public exams.

Malikie Barrie of EducAid achieves the top result in the country in the senior public exams.

3 EducAid students gain scholarships to study abroad thanks to excellent public exam  results.  Issa Fowai is studying engineering in China.  Musa Koroma is studying engineering in Russia.  Balla Turay is due to go at any time to Venezuela to study ICT.

Holistic education & community service become important aspects of the education provided by EducAid Sierra Leone. 

Maronka gets a well!

Alhassan Sesay dies as do 4 more students needlessly due to poor medical decisions and facilities.

2010 - EducAid Maronka has a new building built for it by Norwegian funded Forut.

EducAid Rolal has built a new senior secondary school, funded by friends of EducAid, the Furlonges.

EducAid is contracted to run a new school in Rogbere taking its total to six.

Another EducAid student gains an international scholarship to study engineering in China.

2011 - new girls and female staff quarters are built in Magbeni.  New Girls’ Safe House is built in Maronka. 

Makeni Trust Fund fund the construction of the second floor of the Rolal SS building to house a teacher training facility so EducAid can support the quality of teaching and learning in local schools.

Balla Turay finally gets the go ahead to go to Venezuela for his ICT studies.  The Sierra Leone government have not provided the agreed grant so it is a struggle even though he is pleased to be there.

Steve Sinnott Foundation fund a study trip for 12 staff to go to the UK for training and observation.  The purpose is to train leadership team and middle managers as teacher trainers so they can run the courses in the new teacher training centres.

CriSeren fund the construction of a teacher training centre for primary school teachers in Maronka.