Mon, 3 July
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**EducAid supporters – WIN a copy of Sweet Salone and an exclusive Shwen Shwen goods basket **
Food has always been an important expression of cultural identity, and a way to connect people. One of Sierra Leone’s most famous chefs is Maria Bradford; whose work has brought Sierra Leonean food culture to the limelight in the UK and beyond. Maria, who was born in Freetown and learnt to cook alongside her mother and grandmother, shares both recipes and stories of the strong women and communities who have built the beautiful Sierra Leone. Her work fuses innovation with a preservation of traditions and dishes from a country that has a cuisine unlike any other.
EducAid has been working on transforming education in Sierra Leone for nearly 30 years. Maria is collaborating with the EducAid team supporting our Strong Girl Incubator, which aims to empower girls and young women to continue their education. In the programme we share success stories of women who are agents of change and are proud to include Maria as a role model for our students.
In celebration of her debut book, Sweet Salone (available in the UK 13 July: Quadrille Publishing), we have an exciting giveaway for our followers. One lucky EducAid supporter will WIN a copy of Sweet Salone and a Shwen Shwen goods basket. Inside the gift basket are special chili sauces and delicious drinks to travel through your senses to Sierra Leone!
To enter :
- Like this post
- Ensure you are following @shwenshwenbymaria and @educaidsl on Instagram (we’ll check!)
- Tag all of the friends and family you would like to cook for in the comments. Each friend tagged is an entry for you!
- Share this post on your stories for an extra entry making sure to tag us.
Winner will be announced on the 14th July. Good luck!
Full T+C’s below:
The winner will be chosen at random and contacted by this exact account on Instagram. The prize is non-transferable and there is no cash alternative.
EducAid supporters can WIN a signed copy of Sweet Salone and an exclusive Shwen Shwen goods basket! Visit our instagram page @educaidsl for details and to enter!
Tue, 4 July
Instagram – reel on the Behind the Scene Tuesday series
Shared on Facebook
Fri, 7 July
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There’s still time to join the competition and win a copy of Sweet Salone and an exclusive Shwen Shwen gift box!
To enter :
- Like the competition post
- Ensure you are following @shwenshwenbymaria and @educaidsl on Instagram (we’ll check!)
- Tag all of the friends and family you would like to cook for in the comments. Each friend tagged is an entry for you!
- Share this post on your stories for an extra entry making sure to tag us.
Winner will be announced next week on the 14th July. Good luck!
Full T+C’s below:
The winner will be chosen at random and contacted only by @educaidsl account on Instagram. The prize is non-transferable and there is no cash alternative.
Tue, 11 July
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Our Behind the Scenes Tuesday is back! We start this new series with Samson, EducAid’s Head of Arts Department.
Born and raised in the rural Port Loko district, Samson was considered a troublesome pupil and dropped out of school. In 2013, he started classes at EducAid Rolal where he found a new love for learning and became Head Boy in 2015. After obtaining his WASSCE, he started volunteering at EducAid while studying for his Bachelor degree in Education. Today, Samson is not only a Head of Department, but also a student of the Masters of Education at University of Makeni, a loving husband and the father of a baby girl.
Samson’s role is to lead the Arts department to ensure it achieves the highest possible standards of excellence in all its activities. He provides academic leadership and performs staff appraisals. He also contributes to the preparation of teaching and learning material. On a typical week, Samson spends his time between Rolal and Lumley, conducting lesson observations and one-to-one engagement meetings with teachers within his department. Every two weeks, he coordinates the departmental conference call where teachers can discuss challenges and best practices. He also teaches English language at senior secondary level in Rolal, serves as exam officer for BECE and WASSCE, and coordinates our Climate Action programme.
When he imagines his future, Samson knows that he wants to keep contributing to fight poverty and improve the life of people in Sierra Leone through education because “as Nelson Mandela said – Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.
#EducAid #education #SierraLeone #BehindTheSceneTuesday
Wed, 12 July
Promoting girls’ education is a fundamental step toward achieving gender equality, and that not only promotes fairness, justice, and respect for the dignity of every person, but also plays a crucial role in economic growth and development. When women have equal access to education, employment, and entrepreneurship, it contributes to higher productivity, innovation, and economic prosperity.
Education is the gateway to gender equality. It empowers girls, giving them the knowledge, skills, and confidence to make choices about their lives. Education equips girls with knowledge about nutrition, reproductive health, and disease prevention, enabling them to make informed decisions about their own well-being and that of their future children and families. When girls are educated, they are less vulnerable to manipulation, exploitation, and radicalization. Education fosters critical thinking, empathy, and tolerance, creating a more inclusive and peaceful society. Education plays a vital role in promoting social stability and peace.
Investing in girls’ education requires a multi-faceted approach that strategically addresses issues concerning access, participation and outcomes. EducAid works on these three axes by taking concrete actions to promote gender parity in our schools and programmes, by making a continuous effort to enable safe learning environments wherever we work, and by including sessions about gender-responsive teaching practices in all our teacher training and school improvement interventions. Through community outreach and advocacy at local and national levels, we address systemic barriers to gender equality in education and beyond.
Achieving gender equality requires the collective effort of individuals, communities, governments, and institutions to challenge and transform gender norms, policies, and practices. It is our responsibility as society to create a brighter and more equitable future for our children, girls and boys.
#SierraLeone #education #EducAid #malaladay #girlseducation #girls #genderequality #equality #gender
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Education empowers girls to make choices about their lives. It equips them with the important knowledge to make informed decisions about their own well-being and that of their future children and families. When girls are educated, they are less vulnerable to exploitation. Education fosters critical thinking, empathy, and tolerance, creating a more inclusive and peaceful society. When women have equal access to education, employment, and entrepreneurship, it contributes to higher productivity, innovation, and economic prosperity for all.
Investing in girls’ education requires a strategic approach that addresses access, participation and outcomes. EducAid works on these three axes by taking concrete actions to promote gender parity and gender-responsive teaching practices, and by enabling safer learning environments where girls and boys can succeed and build a brighter future for themselves. Through community outreach and advocacy at local and national levels, we address systemic barriers to gender equality in education and beyond.
Achieving gender equality requires the collective effort of individuals, communities, governments, and institutions to challenge and transform gender norms, policies, and practices. It is our responsibility as society to create a more equitable future for our children, girls and boys.
#SierraLeone #education #EducAid #malaladay #girlseducation #girls #genderequality #equality #gender
Education empowers girls to make choices about their lives. EducAid takes concrete actions to promote gender equality across its programmes and ensure that girls can access, participate and succeed in education. #malaladay
Fri, 14 July : Announce the Sweet Salone winner.
FB/Instagram – animated ovideo
We have a winner!
Congratulations @xxxxxxxx you are the lucky winner of our giveaway and will receive a copy of Sweet Salone and a ShwenShwen gift box! Our team will contact you through @educaidsl account for your details.
A big thank you to everyone who has entered, follows and supports us! Together we are working for positive change and you are a part of this by sharing our stories with the world. Support EducAid, support Education in Sierra Leone.
For those who haven’t yet got a copy – Sweet Salone is available NOW for purchase in the UK from most retailers. Links in the bio.
Thank you!
Tue, 18 July
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It’s Behind the Scenes Tuesday! Today we are very happy to talk about one of our amazing volunteers, Haja.
Haja is a former EducAid student and staff member. She attended EducAid Lumley, then joined our team as a teacher. She also served as coordinator of one of EducAid’s most successful equality interventions, the Women Project (today the Strong Girl Incubator) that supports vulnerable girls and young women to access secondary education. Haja is the mother of five happy children, four of which were adopted, and for that people often call her Mom H.
Haja’s commitment to supporting gender equality in Sierra Leone is strong. She is one of the founders and CEO of the Girls Be Girls – Not Mothers Foundation, an organisation that advocates for the right of girls in Sierra Leone to be protected from early marriages and continue their education. The foundation started operating during the Ebola outbreak, and since then Haja, her brother Thomas Foday and a very dedicated team have been working closely with the communities to identify girls at risk and support them to enrol in formal education or training centres. Of course, some of these girls have been welcomed to attend EducAid’s schools.
Besides the work with her foundation and being a mum of five, Haja finds the time to volunteer with EducAid because “helping people is a fulfilling experience and the opportunity of a unique exchange”. She remembers how she struggled as a child because her parents could not afford her schooling, and she is determined to contribute to EducAid’s mission to provide free high-quality education to children and young people in Sierra Leone. Her engagement with EducAid includes facilitating conversations to sensitise our pupils on sexual and reproductive health, teenage pregnancy and other gender-related topics. Recently, she also donated books to the EducAid Maronka primary school and Rolal secondary school.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you Mom H!
#EducAid #education #SierraLeone #BehindTheSceneTuesday #volunteers #volunteering #thankyou
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It’s Behind the Scene Tuesday! Read about one of our amazing volunteers here – links
Thu, 20 July
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“Learning about how to make a lesson plan was the most interesting part of the training for me. I have also understood that the class should be part of the lesson and not the teacher doing all the talking” M.Kamara, SLEIC training participant.
The Sierra Leone Education Innovation Challenge (SLEIC) is designed to improve learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy for children in government primary schools nationwide. EducAid is working with 65 schools, training more than 500 teachers not only in literacy and numeracy, but also in classroom management, gender-responsive practices and strategies to improve the learning environment.
#EducAid #education #SierraLeone #SLEIC #literacy #numeracy
“Learning about how to make a lesson plan was the most interesting part of the training for me. I have also understood that the class should be part of the lesson and not the teacher doing all the talking” M.Kamara, Sierra Leone Education Innovation Challenge (SLEIC) training participant.
Fri, 21 July
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EducAid is working with Imagine Worldwide in a project to provide tablet-based instruction to improve literacy and numeracy skills. Using the tablets, children can learn at their own pace, and engage with activities that make learning more enjoyable.
Using interactive learning alongside traditional teaching methods allows pupils to access additional educational resources, such as e-books and video tutorials, to strengthen their areas of weakness or explore their individual interests.
EducAid is currently working in 5 pilot schools in the Port Loko district, including Maronka, which will double to 10 schools in September.
#EducAid #education #SierraLeone #TransformingEducation #literacy #numeracy #edtech
EducAid is working with Imagine Worldwide in a project to provide tablet-based instruction to improve literacy and numeracy skills. We are currently working in 5 pilot schools in Port Loko district, including Maronka, which will double to 10 schools in September.
Tue, 25 July
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It’s Behind the Scenes Tuesday! Lights on Ibrahim, a.k.a. Organiser, our Finance Officer.
The nickname Organiser dates back to 2007, when young Ibrahim was a pupil of EducAid’s Magbeni Junior Secondary School and used to help out organising the school supplies. His passion for careful planning and tidy workspaces earned him the nickname we still use today.
Like many of our team members, Organiser has been working for EducAid since he graduated senior secondary school. He started as a teacher in Rolal, to then become a deputy Head of Department, a Head of Department and a Quality Assurance Officer. Since November 2022, he has been our Finance Officer. His responsibilities include keeping accurate financial records, preparing and monitoring budgets, and drafting financial reports.
Based in Lumley, Organiser travels regularly to EducAid’s school and project sites to support the work of the various teams. Of his various tasks and responsibilities, what he enjoys the most is the strategic part of the work, including planning to meet all deadlines across sites and programmes. “We are growing, establishing new partnerships and increasing the number of our interventions. It is a very exciting time to work for EducAid!”
Organiser’s ambition for the future is to continue pursuing a career in Finance. He is currently writing his final thesis for his MBA in Finance at University of Makeni.
#EducAid #education #SierraLeone #BehindTheSceneTuesday #finance
It’s Behind the Scene Tuesday, don’t miss the latest story! – link
Thu, 27 July
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Do you want to make a donation and really make a difference?
We provide free high-quality education, run school improvement and research projects, and work to improve gender equality, social inclusion, and community resilience.
Help us by setting up a monthly donation to EducAid here: https://www.educaid.org.uk/get-involved/#donateInfo
Support EducAid, support Education in Sierra Leone!
#EducAid #Education #SierraLeone
Do you want to make a donation and really make a difference?
Help us by setting up a monthly donation to EducAid here: link
Support EducAid, support Education in Sierra Leone!
Fri, 28 July – Fb/Instagram organic repost (AC)
World Nature Conservation Day
post about Nature in SL using the # WorldNatureConservationDay
Photo – @tacugama
Reel @adamjano (shared by HSL)
Sierra Leone is home to astounding natural beauty and biodiversity. It boasts some of West Africa’s most beautiful pristine beaches and has wide spanning forests home to diverse wildlife. The Gola rainforest is among the most important areas in Africa for conservation, with numerous endemic species. This incredible nature also ensures important livelihoods for many, and more recently has put Sierra Leone on the map as the next emerging global destination in tourism.
Unfortunately, wildlife and natural habitats in Sierra Leone are under extreme threat. Our nature is disappearing before our eyes due to various human-made problems such as deforestation, mining, habitat loss, and overfishing and many species are now globally threatened.
EducAid is working with our students, local communities and partners to advocate for the importance of conserving our natural world and becoming the next generation of change makers in actively protecting it. All of our model schools are Green Schools- having conservation and respect for nature in and out of school, organising clean ups, recycling, green energy, tree planting and community mobilisation so we work together to protect our environment. We are also working with local partners on enhancing our conservation work, and ensuring our natural world and its inhabitants have a safe future.
# WorldNatureConservationDay #conservation #nature #sierraleone #rainforest #golarainforest #westafrica #education
Sun, 30 July
At EducAid we encourage group activities because they teach children how to collaborate effectively with others towards a common goal. Group work in school prepares children for future academic, personal, and professional situations where teamwork is essential. It also allows children to interact with their peers and form friendships that are incredibly important as they play a significant role in a child’s development and overall well-being.
Friendship at a young age provides opportunities for social, emotional, cognitive, and physical growth, while also offering emotional support and a sense of belonging. Interacting with peers helps children develop essential social skills, such as empathy, communication, cooperation, and conflict resolution. Through friendships, children learn to understand others’ perspectives, express their emotions, and build healthy relationships. Friendships provide a sense of belonging and acceptance, helping children shape their identities. Being part of a peer group boosts their self-esteem and confidence, as they feel valued and appreciated for who they are. Friends provide a safe space for children to share their feelings, fears, and joys. This emotional support helps kids cope with challenges and stressful situations, fostering resilience.
Interacting with friends involves problem-solving, imaginative play, and creative thinking. These activities stimulate cognitive development and encourage critical thinking skills, boosting intellectual growth. Playing with friends is not only fun but also essential for physical development, as active play helps children build motor skills, coordination, and overall physical fitness. Interacting with peers allows children to practise their communication skills, including active listening, expressing ideas clearly, and understanding nonverbal cues. Children who form friendships early on are more likely to feel integrated into their school and community environments. Feeling connected to others enhances a child’s sense of belonging and overall happiness.
#SierraLeone #education #EducAid #InternationalDayofFriendship #friendship
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At EducAid we encourage group activities because they teach children how to collaborate effectively with others towards a common goal. Group work in school prepares children for future academic, personal, and professional situations where teamwork is essential. It also allows children to interact with their peers and form friendships that are incredibly important as they play a significant role in a child’s development and overall well-being.
Friendship provides opportunities for personal growth. Interacting with peers helps children develop essential social skills, such as empathy, communication and conflict resolution. Through friendships, children learn to understand others’ perspectives, express their emotions, and build healthy relationships. Friends provide a safe space for children to share their feelings, fears, and joys. This emotional support helps kids cope with challenges and stressful situations, fostering resilience. Children who form friendships early on are more likely to feel integrated into their school and community environments. Feeling connected to others enhances a child’s sense of belonging and overall happiness.
#SierraLeone #education #EducAid #InternationalDayofFriendship #friendship
At EducAid we encourage group activities to teach children how to collaborate with others and lead them to form friendships. Friendship helps children develop essential social skills, and build healthy relationships.
#InternationalDayofFriendship
