#AfterEbola

From the high pitched wailing from the throngs of mourners throughout the day, to the drumming and singing throughout the neighbourhood on the night before his burial, to the enormous crowds that turned up to his actual funeral, it was clear that I was not the only one to have appreciated Alhassan. I will not…

Alhassan died this morning of an infection that overcame his system and caused renal failure. I was privileged to see a special side of Alhassan. Everybody knows his smile, his laugh, his locks but not everyone saw underneath. Alhassan laughed and talked all day. I have rarely known anyone so popular and so well known…

It is my regular cry to my students that alone, standing against the constraints of poverty and the ruthlessness of corruption, they will almost certainly fail, but together they cannot be ignored and overrun so easily. Together they can constitute an army for peace, an army for change and it is their responsibility to sharpen…

Day three and Alhassan is now recognisable if not beautiful. The malaria we blamed for the initial black out turned out to be malaria with other nasty infections thrown in, hence the severity of the reaction. He will get better and the swelling will go down but he will not be himself for several more…

[Photo – Fatmata, Kofi & baby Alhassan] Fatmata [Maronka teacher] & Mani Abu [Rolal teacher] had their first son and Mrs & Mr John O’Niel [Lumley teacher] had their 2nd daughter this week. Both were safely delivered in the Lumley health centre [very very scary place!] by C-section. I could not help but compare and…

The last day of the 9th year since EducAid Lumley started. Exams are over for better or for worse. Bags are being packed as students get ready to rejoin their families across Sierra Leone then Alhassan has a bright idea …… always one to enjoy the merits of ‘white man dancing’ Alhassan takes it upon…

This week I paid a visit to the Female Section of the Kenema Prison.  I found myself having to hold back tears as, before we had our little meeting, they un-self-consciously sang chorus after chorus about Jesus forgiving them their sins and how prison was not for them any more!   32 inmates with four…

Often I am asked what our students do after leaving school and if they can get jobs.  I always answer that we are able to help a few get sponsorship and that some find work but that whatever they go on to we have at least helped open some doors for them and also they…

Huw PW, son of long time friend of EducAid, and his old school mate Ollie have been in Sierra Leone filming positive stories across the country. Such stories are not as hard to find as you might think, bearing in mind our recent experiences! They spent several days in EducAid and got some good footage.…

And so the bad news keeps rolling in…. Aminata Kabia joined EducAid last summer when the Women’s Project started in Magbeni.  She had been out of school for many years as it had not been a priority or a possibility for her parents for her to continue her education beyond a few years of primary…

Citizenship Education Week is over.  This year the focus was building self-esteem. All students spent the week compiling their self-portfolios: self portrait collages, CV, my dreams, my hopes, my past, my achievements, my favourite music, poem, pictures, books; how I see myself etc etc Why?  Because ‘Self’ is undermined in so many ways here.  In…

Teachers aren’t supposed to have favourites but somehow it is hard not to sometimes…. I have one in particular who I find humbling to work with because of how he is despite all he has been through.  He finished his final exams on Wednesday having very nearly lost his life to unspecified abdominal infections a…

The Freetown school building now holds 700 students although things are quite tight. Definitely progress from under the tree in 2000.