Jimiyke – bad news!
For those following Jimiyke’s visa and health saga [For those new to Jimiyke’s story please read the post on 22nd May 09, 8th July & 16th July and/or follow the link to: https://www.educaid.org.uk/EducAid_Sierra_Leone/Abu_Bakarr_Koroma.html], we have today received very bad news. He has been refused his visa as the consular representative seems to have completely misunderstood…
Read MoreIssa Fowai – the shortest engineer in China
Great News – Issa Fowai, who finished his WASSCE [West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations] last year, has gained sponsorship to go and study in China. He has served as one of the most energetic and committed [if shortest!] members of the ‘junior staff’ for this academic year. Two years ago, ex-EducAidian Kema Gondo gained…
Read MoreTwo new additions to the EducAid family
[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…
Read MoreJimiyke – good but incomplete news
Headboy, Jimiyke, who nearly lost his life in March due to unidentified abdominal infections, is awaiting a visa to go to the UK for full medical assessment as it is unavailable here in Sierra Leone. [See 22nd May and 8th July posts or https://www.educaid.org.uk/EducAid_Sierra_Leone/Abu_Bakarr_Koroma.html for more background]. Despite having two sets of results showing that…
Read MoreEnd of term
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…
Read MoreJimiyke – the latest
Head Boy, Jimiyke, locally assessed as needing urgenttreatment in the UK; huge response from donors and Addenbrookes. Jimiyke received a notification from the consular section at the British High Commission yesterday saying that his application for a visitor’s visa was still under consideration. His fate is still therefore uncertain. We hope for more news and…
Read MoreJustice for the poor!
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…
Read MoreCatch 22
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…
Read MoreWe are on the tube!
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.…
Read MoreCurriculum Revolution
Wow! Relevant, cutting edge, suited to the needs of the youth of 21st century, post-conflict Sierra Leone. For once Sierra Leone might not be last on the index for something! A new teacher training curriculum for Sierra Leonean secondary school teachers is being written. Dr Sean Higgins [British teacher and long term volunteer with EducAid]…
Read MoreAminata Kabia [16] RIP
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…
Read MoreBritish Volunteers taste the realities of life in the poorest country in the world
It has only been possible to start having volunteers from the UK in the last 12 months or so. Previously, the situation just felt too unstable and unpredictable to take the risk. This term we have no less than 6 volunteers aged between 16 and 22. They have been thrown in the deep end:…
Read MoreCitizenship Education Week
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…
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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…
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The Freetown school building now holds 700 students although things are quite tight. Definitely progress from under the tree in 2000.
Read Morewhere are we now
Where to start…… Since coming back from the last fund-raising trip on Easter Monday, it has been incredible how besieged and battered we have been. It feels up close that we have never had such a difficult time since I arrived in 2000. Maybe it is because we are in the middle of it ……
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