#AfterEbola

Quite a few Santas then! Triumphant! Alison and Megan post ‘dash’.Alison Walsh of Lambeth Academy and one of her students, Megan, participated in a 6 kilometre Santa Dash around Battersea Park, sponsored for EducAid. Alison is a long-term supporter of EducAid’s work and has visited the project twice. To learn more about EducAid’s work see…

Sean [British teacher] and I have been working like mad things on writing up the distance learning modules for a brand new teacher training programme. At present, approximately 40% of Sierra Leonean teachers are trained and qualified so this programme does have the potential to make a real difference to the quality of education in…

4 months ago today, we lost our beloved Alhassan, needlessly to medical negligence and being in a poor country that is riddled with corruption. For more information about our work, see www.educaid.org.uk

This year, EducAid senior secondary students came 5th in the country in their public exams. On the face of it, fantastic. In reality, however, I was mad as fire at the horrible underachievement of some of our students. Many of them did not get anything close to their potential. Some did, but far too many…

My recurring problem: how to get strong women to teach the girls and provide a positive role model. The women who should be teachers by now have not been invested in at the appropriate ages in the past. Accordingly, finding women to recruit as teachers is a real problem. Sadly, even when we find and…

Still out of breath after the whirlwind tour organised by Jan and Anne [my long-suffering diary arrangers] Kofi and I are now back in Sierra Leone. It was hectic, but it needed to be and there are many positives from the trip in terms of new fund-raising initiatives and support. There was a very encouraging…

The ‘Welcome Jimiyke to UK’ fireworks in Battersea Park! At long last, Jimiyke is in the UK ready to be assessed for treatment. Thanks to the hard work and generosity of many. He was given a horrible time in the airport. His ticket had somehow or other bypassed the system and there was no boarding…

Just to share a little taste of our tropical joys….. Fancy a bit of this on your shoulder? ‘Champion’ is the local name for a little black and red acid fly. Kofi has a little scrape on his shoulder too and they have been walking on my face as well. How delightful. It may be…

The sun rising over the Malama Hills – the view from EducAid Lumley [Freetown].A couple of weeks ago, I posted Juldeh’s success and consequent plight on the blog. He had gained a place at Fourah Bay College, successfully saved £250 over the year [almost unheard of here] and was in the happy position of needing…

The Women’s Project started in Lumley, Freetown in March 2006. Its target beneficiaries were girls who wanted to go to secondary school but, for whatever reason, were not at an appropriate academic standard. The project started with 18 girls and Henrietta Sandi [lead women’s project teacher] and her colleagues went looking for more every afternoon,…

While kids are kids and we would not pretend that our students are universal saints who always thirst for knowledge, it would certainly be fair to say that we see far greater willingness to put themselves out for education than we would from the average UK teenager. I do not remember, while teaching in a…

Newspaper cutting from ‘Awoko’. It doesn’t matter where our staff go at the moment, they are congratulated at every turn. Once again, we have 100% pass rates in the junior secondary [key stage 3 equivalent] public examinations [BECE] and Magbeni, in particular, are right at the top of the whole Northern area. Our aim now…

EducAid at night with it’s new electricity provision. I met someone from World Bank in June. I was simultaneously outraged at the impunity with which, those who can, blatantly steal donor funding and at the incompetence of the aid agencies who unquestioningly hand over large amounts of donor money; amused at the woman’s naivety and…

Sitting up in their bench beds.3 years ago or so, we realised that the one room in Alhassan’s mum’s bungalow which was for the live-in girls, was just not sufficient, in comparison to the need. We put steel doors on the top floor of the school to secure it at night, found space for a…

Some of our youngsters have the most harrowing tales from the war. A few of them interviewed each other as part of the BBC ‘Hunger to Learn’ series. Although, the versions they told in the interviews were quite calm, it gives a little taste of what they have been through. The courage and determination of…

A month or so ago, Issa Fowai, our second student to achieve international scholarship, set off across the world to study engineering in China. This was a fantastic achievement and was, surprisingly, done entirely on merit [Sierra Leone not being known for its meritocracy!]. He has kept us posted with news of the ups and…

Today, the family held the 40 days’ ceremony for Alhassan. Lots of money was spent on lots of food and lots of people came and said some prayers and then ate lots. The family and friends came from near and far once more. I struggle to find much meaning in the whole thing. More meaningful,…