Sherbro Foundation is awarded a P&G Alumni Foundation 2016 grant

The $12,235 grant is awarded on behalf of our Sierra Leone partner, the Center for Community Empowerment & Transformation (CCET), and will help expand their computer center.

Left, Oliver Bernard, CCET volunteer facility manager at the Center

Former Procter & Gamble employees fund their alumni foundation with the mission of economically empowering those in need.

Sherbro Foundation Executive Director and P&G Alumna Arlene Golembiewski, left with Sulaiman Timbo, submitted the proposal. She said, “CCET’s new Center offers practical education programs, before unavailable in this community, that improve student earning potential, like computer training and adult literacy.

“They are preparing impoverished people to find wage-paying jobs in the formal economy. And providing skills to develop small businesses.”

The Computer Center has a slate of education programs and community services that satisfied all three Alumni Foundation objectives for the grant. 

High school students like Zainab, left, get practical job skill training on computers. 

She wants to become an accountant and knows she must be able to use a computer to get a job.

Adults develop small business skills. Left, Francis Senesie teaches petty market traders and farmers math and business basics like computing profit.

Adult computer students apply their own small-business examples with instructors available to guide them.  

The Center itself is a new entrepreneurial venture, offering previously unavailable services like copy & printing that fund its nonprofit education programs.

The grant will pay for adding new computers to the Center and a color printer for the new printing service. CCET will buy remaining equipment the Center needs, like a generator to back-up their solar power service and a chest freezer to expand a canteen service.

The grant will also be used to pay initial operating costs while the new Center develops its customer base for copy and printing and other Center services.

The Computer Center is bringing the first and only IT technology access and training to rural Bumpeh Chiefdom’s 40,000 people. It’s the only place in Moyamba District with 300,000 people to get an IT certificate covering all Microsoft Office software programs.

The grant required a P&G alum to participate in the project. Arlene Golembiewski, Sherbro Foundation founder and Executive Director, was a 30-year P&G employee and is a member of the global Alumni Network.