Category Archives: News

It’s Working – No More Ebola Cases in Bumpeh Chiefdom

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November 19 update – Ebola-free 32 days and counting

“Things are better, relatively speaking.” Rosaline Kaimbay emphasized the “relatively speaking” when I called yesterday for an update on Bumpeh Chiefdom. But it was the first positive news in some weeks. There are no more Ebola cases in the chiefdom since they embarked on their Breaking-the-Chain-of-Transmission program two weeks ago.

Yet Ebola is raging in Waterloo, a large town on the main highway and the source of recent Ebola cases in Bumpeh Chiefdom. There are reports of over 700 dead of Ebola in the Western Rural area in the last 5-6 weeks, most coming from Waterloo. Ebola “refugees” have been fleeing places like Waterloo and carrying Ebola to rural villages. Places like Bumpeh Chiefdom in close proximity.

Setting up check point.

Setting up a check point.

But today there’s no Ebola cases in Rotifunk or the rest of Bumpeh Chiefdom. Why? The single biggest intervention is rigorously managed checkpoints at the main roads to stop “strangers” from entering the chiefdom and possibly carrying Ebola with them.  There are also checkpoints on the Bumpeh River that traverses the chiefdom and is the main traffic route for many of its 208 villages “downriver” as they say.

Young chiefdom men volunteered to supplement government security forces at checkpoints and monitor all traffic in and out of the chiefdom. They’re the ones rigorously enforcing, keeping chiefdom borders tight, and ensuring outsiders are turned away. They’re the ones sitting up for all night vigils with nothing to protect them from mosquitos except a camp fire. They take turns for naps in a 3-sided palm branch lean-to on hard benches of split bamboo – their improvised shelter.

Rosaline Kaimbay interviewed at chiefdom meeting.

Rosaline Kaimbay interviewed at chiefdom meeting.

Rosaline visits the checkpoints daily to be sure all is going well and lend support. She is Executive Director of Sherbro Foundation’s partner organization, the Center for Community Empowerment and Transformation, CCET, and principal of Prosperity Girls High School. And now, she’s part of the chiefdom’s Ebola task force. Rosaline is a do-er. If you need something done, get Rosaline. If it’s important to Bumpeh Chiefdom, you won’t need to look for her. She’ll be there.

Rosaline said she goes to the checkpoints daily for at least 30 minutes, maybe an hour, to personally assess. She heads out each day with the CCET motorcycle and a driver, the only practical way to get around these days. Maybe the only way.

We have six chiefdom men assigned to each checkpoint, Rosaline said. They rotate through, with five days on and two days off. I talk with people, bring them drinks, something to boost morale.

And the checkpoints are working. I asked what they do if someone tries to enter the chiefdom who doesn’t live there. They send them back where they came from, she said, the way they came in.

Chiefs like Mr. Kamara monitor village families.

Chiefs like Mr. Kamara monitor village families.

It sounds rather medieval. But much of the country is under similar isolation orders, trying to isolate districts, and chiefdoms within districts, that have surges in new Ebola cases. This is Public Health 101 to isolate disease cases and keep them from spreading. It works.

Village chiefs are the next level of defense in the Breaking-the-Chain-of-Transmission program. Bumpeh Chiefdom chiefs are going door to door daily to verify no one has taken ill with Ebola-like symptoms, and there are no new visitors.  Reports are by cell phone real time, wherever possible.  Section Chiefs are responsible to report their village results to the Chiefdom task force.

Imagine if every chiefdom in the country mounted this kind of offensive to fight Ebola for even 21 days – the upper range for Ebola incubation. It would literally break the chain of Ebola transmission and the outbreak would be on its decline.

Identify – Isolate – Treat. If all three legs of the infectious disease control stool were reliably there, Ebola would come under control. Actively engaging and supporting traditional leaders to identify and isolate cases in their chiefdoms is the key. They play a role in getting cases promptly sent for treatment. No one else can do this systematically with cooperation of the people. No one else is already in place in every corner of the country.

There’s still a long uphill battle to eliminate Ebola. But for the first time in a long while, you get a sense the runaway train is starting to be controlled and slowing down.

Sherbro Foundation will continue to support Bumpeh Chiefdom in their Breaking-the-Chain-of- Transmission program. Our donations go to support the checkpoints teams with small weekly per diems, transportation costs and cell phone coverage. Village chiefs receive a $5 honorarium to recognize their service for three months of house to house checks. With gas at $5/gallon, transportation costs are high. Our support enables the Chiefdom task force to get around and ensure work gets done. We continue to supply villages with hand washing stations and disinfectant for public places.

You can make a difference and help eliminate Ebola, too.  Join us and donate at www.sherbrofoundation.org/donate

You’ll know exactly where your money goes, and that it’s actually working to stop the spread of Ebola.

Bonus: 100% goes directly to the chiefdom Ebola program. Every penny. We’re an all-volunteer organization and our small administrative costs are paid by a separate donation.

2nd Bonus: It’s tax deductible for US residents. Sherbro Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization.

Help us even more – forward this to a friend.

Chiefs start to break the chain of Ebola transmission

Chiefs start to break the chain of Ebola transmission

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10699306_749242365144903_1471960234_nParamount Chief Caulker launched Bumpeh Chiefdom’s third and most  comprehensive Ebola control program last week. After two small outbreaks in chiefdom villages, he knew something more was needed. They need to actually break the chain of Ebola transmission. And this is what the chiefdom has set out to do.

Bumpeh Chiefdom conducted “sensitization” campaigns (awareness training) along with the rest of the country. Young volunteers went to public places and door to door educating people on symptoms of Ebola and how to protect yourself. The chiefdom implemented one of the first community-led Ebola prevention programs in August, setting up more than 200 hand washing stations in public places with more education.

But “Ebola refugees” are now desparately fleeing infected towns and cities to hide with family and friends in rural villages. These exposed and some already sick people are carrying the Ebola virus into chiefdoms around the country by seeking care from people they know. Dangerously overloaded city hospitals and treatment centers offer little care or must turn people away. Fifteen people tragically died in quarantine in a small village outside Rotifunk last month after a sick woman fled there and died.

Even though Bumpeh Chiefdom was put under an isolation order with security manned checkpoints, borders are porous. People avoid main roads and walk in. Or talk their way in. More infected people found their way in last week, causing four more chiefdom villages to go under quarantine. If chiefdoms continue to react to Ebola cases after they are visibly sick or die, the entire chiefdom is at serious risk.

Alpha distributes buckets & hand washing messageMore can and must be done to break the chain of transmission of Ebola. The Paramount Chiefs have to date been woefully underutilized and under-resourced by the government in curbing the Ebola epidemic.  But with some support, they are poised to take action against Ebola in every community, down to the smallest villages. Major interventions can be made and they don’t cost millions of dollars.

Paramount Chiefs are a long established institution in Sierra Leone. Independent of the central government, these grass-roots leaders are bound to their people by generations of tradition and family.  Together, they represent every kilometer of the country, urban and rural alike.  They are familiar to their people, and trusted in this fearful time. They are best positioned to quickly identify and isolate new Ebola cases, and arrange for them to be taken for treatment.

Cx-border checkpoint between Bumpeh and Ribbi chiefdoms

Setting up Bumpeh Chiefdom check point.

For the coming months, Bumpeh Chiefdom is mobilizing to visit every household in the chiefdom daily. Village chiefs are responsible for daily checks and reports on health status and persons residing there, including arrival of strangers and any departures. Fifty checkpoints throughout the chiefdom are being set up to monitor movement in and out of the chiefdom on small roads, frequented footpaths and river traffic. Paramount chiefs can take custody of all deceased bodies until safe burial is arranged. People are being trained and equipped to do safe local burials of highly infectious corpses, rather than waiting for days for a government burial team to remove them from the community for burial. These tasks will all be done by committed chiefdom representatives.

The National Council of Paramount Chiefs, representing all 149 chiefdoms, defined this plan to break the chain of transmission of Ebola, in conjunction with the Ministry of Local Government. Paramount Chief (P.C.) Charles Caulker, Chairman of the National Council of Paramount Chiefs, introduced the plan last week in his own Bumpeh Chiefdom of 208 villages. Other Paramount Chiefs around the country are committed to doing the same.

Many Americans want to help but don’t know how.  We suggest two ways:  1)  Urge our government to translate Ebola aid into quick, practical action;  2)  Contribute to implementing the plan of the Paramount Chiefs through existing nonprofits on-the-ground with effective ties to Sierra Leone communities. Sherbro Foundation Sierra Leone (SFSL) is one.

Sherbro Foundation Sierra Leone is helping fund Bumpeh Chiefdom’s Ebola action plan and working in partnership with the chiefdom Ebola task force. For $5 USD, each of P.C. Caulker’s 208 village chiefs will monitor every village for three months, including daily door-to-door visits, recording all persons removed to quarantine, holding and treatment centers, and recording deaths. Checkpoints to control the movement of sick or “at risk” people into and out of the Chiefdom need similar support for staffing, transportation and cell phone costs. SFSL already funded 200 portable hand washing stations with disinfectant for public places across the Chiefdom as a first line of defense against Ebola. The chiefdom needs 200 more to cover all villages at $20 USD each.

Support is urgently needed by the Paramount Chiefs to implement local level Ebola action plans in Bumpeh and other Chiefdoms. With our support, they will have the ability to break the chain of transmission.

We need your help right now. For information on how to donate, please go to www.sherbrofoundation.org/donate. 

Help us more by passing this on to a friend.  There’s no time to waste.

Thank you,

Arlene Golembiewski,
Executive Director, Sherbro Foundation

Ebola – how life is unnecessarily lost

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Oct 4  Sad update to this story: everyone, save three small children, in the three quarantined houses have contracted Ebola and passed away. 14 adults and the 17-yr old girl pictured here. The 3 children have reached the 21 day point with no symptoms, and are being released.
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I was shocked to hear that all of Moyamba District was put under an Ebola isolation order last week, and Bumpeh Chiefdom was further isolated within the district. And worried about the welfare of my friends in Bumpeh Chiefdom where Sherbro Foundation does our work.

I soon learned more that shocked me, more than four months into the second and more rapidly growing wave of Ebola in Sierra Leone. My heart aches for these people so far away, and there’s so little we can do from here. But one important action is helping.

After a three-day national shutdown to try to contain Ebola cases, it may have seemed that the cities were starting to get a grip on the deadly virus, which is spread by contact with bodily fluids.

But there’s still no full logistical plan nor Ebola-equipped health care in rural areas –the majority of the country — to manage cases in new Ebola hot spots. What are the practical next steps, when there are so few resources, when there are so many obstacles in a subsistence society?

17-yr old gives birth aloneIsolation and quarantine are the government orders. But with no further plan and coordination of services, avoidable Ebola cases can happen — and more unnecessary deaths.

This 17-year old girl is another kind of Ebola victim.

Pregnant with her first baby and quarantined in a village just outside Rotifunk, she got no prenatal care in her last weeks. When the baby came, she was left to deliver on her own. Even her own mother was afraid to come to assist. The baby was stillborn. The young mother got no assistance to ensure the placenta was fully removed and she had no complications. She remains untended in quarantine.

“If there had been the opportunity of suing the state to court, I should have been the first person to do that,” Rotifunk Ebola task force team leader Ben Alpha’n Mansaray said via Facebook.

“Once you are quarantine, you are sentenced to death. They need care! They need hope!”

About 1.2 million people in the country are now under isolation orders in the Sierra Leone government’s efforts to stop the spread of the disease. Isolation means a cluster of new Ebola cases occurred, requiring a more drastic measure.  People can move around within the isolated area, but no one can come in or go out. Individual homes are quarantined to further isolate new cases.

Alpha Mansaray delivers hand washing stations and Ebola prevention message to villagers.

Alpha Mansaray delivers hand washing stations and Ebola prevention message to villagers.

Quick action by Bumpeh Chiefdom’s Paramount Chief Charles Caulker to quarantine contacts of the first Ebola case in early September has kept the disease contained to a small village on the outskirts of Rotifunk. Rotifunk itself, seat of the chiefdom of 40,000, remains safe.

Ten days ago, the dreaded virus emerged in new cases among the quarantined people. Eight people total have died, and two early cases made it to a treatment center.

Quarantine sounds like a straight-forward measure. You restrict people to their house who may have been exposed, and wait through the 21-day incubation period to see if they develop the disease. But in an impoverished rural area like Rotifunk, the logistics are anything but simple.

They are nightmarish.

  • There’s no local holding center to isolate new Ebola cases from those not sick until they can be carried to a treatment center. In close quarters of a quarantined house, the sick can quickly infect those not sick.
  • The few Ebola treatment centers (only in far-off cities) and ambulance service are beyond overloaded. Rotifunk made repeated calls for five days and got no response. With no Ebola-equipped local health care, the sick are left on their own. No one comes near. The sick only got sicker.  Three died waiting for an ambulance to arrive.  Three others made it to the district capital holding center — two hours to go only 17 miles on a pothole ridden dirt road  — but died waiting for a bed opening up in a treatment center.
  • Inexperienced ambulance teams that did finally appear are fearful even with some protective equipment, and wouldn’t assist Ebola patients into the ambulance. If sick patients could drag themselves 25 feet and climb in on their own, they were taken to a holding center. If not, they were left to die at the quarantine house.  One man died the following day.
  • People in quarantine have great difficulty getting adequate food or daily clean water. These are people who rely on their daily labor to buy their daily food. Some are lucky when family or friends send food. Others are at the mercy of generous local residents.
  • Water is especially important to keep the sick hydrated. When a water container is used in quarantine, it must be considered contaminated. Disposables are unheard of. If the quarantined are near a river, they can collect their own water. If not, they wait for a Good Samaritan to bring water and pour it into their container left outside.
  • Other medical emergencies like malaria, typhoid, maternity cases or increasingly common chronic conditions like hypertension get no care in quarantine – resulting in unnecessary complications or deaths.

When new Ebola cases appear in a quarantined house, the 21-day quarantine clock starts again for those showing no Ebola symptoms.  They could end up in quarantine for five, six or more weeks. When left in the same infected house, their likelihood of getting Ebola only grows.

The central government Health Service orders there be no movement of people under quarantine. Security (army or police) are stationed to enforce this. No safe houses have been provided despite repeated reports of Rotifunk’s situation. Some well people, like this pregnant girl, moved to an outdoor bathhouse (just concrete) in an effort to protect themselves while waiting out the remainder of their quarantine.

Bumpeh Chiefdom’s  isolation order came last week without notice, separating parent from children, farmer from fields needing planting, family from breadwinner who went to market and has the only money or food to feed the others.

When I read of whole villages being decimated by Ebola, I can now better understand why. Quarantine can lead to the sick quickly infecting those not sick with nowhere to go. Villages may self-impose quarantine to isolate the sick. With sick people and no indoor plumbing or easy to access water, houses quickly become filthy. Disease spreads. Mothers delivering babies and small children with malaria get no medical care.

How can this awful situation be improved?  One simple solution is to build temporary makeshift huts and pit latrines as local Ebola holding centers, to separate those becoming sick until they can be moved for treatment. With very minimal funding, these could be locally built. But they’re not forthcoming. Ambulance service calls need to be coordinated, and drivers trained and held accountable for delivering patients.

There is something important we in other countries can do: Help to buy simple hand-washing stations for Bumpeh Chiefdom. Sherbro Foundation paid for 200 such plastic stations and disinfectant in August. Forty stations were set up in public places around Rotifunk in one week.  160 more followed for chiefdom villages in August.  Chief Caulker said, “These have been very, very effective. You see them constantly in use with people washing their hands throughout the day.”

Chief Caulker would like 200 more hand-washing stations to supply remaining villages. Villagers get Ebola sensitization training and weekly reminders from Rotifunk volunteers on the importance of frequent washing to prevent Ebola and other diseases like cholera, typhoid and dysentery. Behaviors on personal hygiene and sanitation are changing.

Sherbro Foundation works directly with the Bumpeh Chiefdom Ebola task force to quickly send all donated dollars so they can buy these life-saving supplies. Please consider donating right now!  $20 buys one hand-washing station and two bottles of disinfectant.  Donate online here.

Nothing is easy about managing the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. But coordination and common-sense local solutions could help. When coordination between the central Sierra Leone government and rural traditional leaders during emergencies is missing, key opportunities are lost.

Innocent people are the losers when critical decisions aren’t made quickly. It means unnecessary and tragic loss of life.

Paramount Chiefs Now Authorized to Enforce Community Ebola Practices

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A systematic way to enforce community Ebola procedures has been missing in Sierra Leone’s Ebola outbreak, enabling the disease to spread around the country. Paramount Chiefs are now authorized by the Sierra Leone government to do this.

The National Council of Paramount Chiefs developed a national template for individual chiefdom byelaws on managing Ebola at the community level.

The “Byelaws on the Prevention of Ebola and other Diseases” were approved by the Honorable Minister of Local Government and Rural Development and made pursuant to the Public Health Emergency declared by the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone and approved by Parliament on Friday 8th August 2014 under section 29 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone Act No. 6 of 1991.

Paramount Chiefs are now expected to adopt these byelaws into their chiefdom byelaws and enforce the provisions.  Beyond imposing fines, chiefdom authorities have the right to pursue legal action in the Local Courts or courts of higher jurisdiction, for flagrant violations of these byelaws.

The Sierra Leone Government had identified many community practices and procedures necessary to stop the spread of Ebola.  But they did not have the ability to uniformly enforce them in all corners of the country, especially once you leave the few provincial cities.

???????????????????????????????Paramount chiefs are a long standing country institution that ensures basic law and order, management of local land rights and maintaining traditional practices. There are 149 chiefdoms that cover every part of the country, with cascading chiefdom authorities down to the village level. But they are an institution separate from the Sierra Leone Government, and were not directly authorized to enforce Ebola practices established by the government.

P.C. Charles Caulker, chair of the National Council of Paramount Chiefs, worked with the NCPC to harmonize byelaws some chiefdoms had started initiating on Ebola. They worked with the Honorable Minister of Local Government and Rural Development to finalize a national document , have it accepted by the Government Cabinet, and then approved by Parliament on August 8.

Paramount chiefs are now expected to introduce and enforce these provisions as chiefdom byelaws.  They include nineteen provisions and authorize chiefs to impose fines of up to Five Hundred Thousand Leones (Le.500, 000) and/or a term of Six (6) months imprisonment for any breach of these provisions.

The provisions include Communication of Ebola, where no one can harbor a person suspected of having contracted Ebola and all strangers arriving in any residential area shall be immediately reported by their host, guest house or hotel to the competent chiefdom authorities.

They continue to Treatment of Ebola  where only personnel part of recognized facilities for the treatment of these diseases can be involved in treatment of any Ebola patient. Provisions for quarantine and receiving recovered Ebola patients back into their communities are given.

Provisions for Death and Burial are defined. Miscellaneous provisions temporarily prohibit public gatherings, including Luma markets and Secret Society activities, and the hunting and selling bush meat. Public places, including those of worship, are encouraged to have hand washing buckets with chlorinated water.

Any chief, including paramount chiefs, found negligent in the application and enforcement of the Bye-laws is liable to a fine of Five Hundred Thousand Leones (Le.500,000) and / or summary suspension from office.

Directly engaging paramount chiefs and authorizing them to enforce community Ebola practices will go a long way to controlling the current outbreak.  This hopefully also represents a new level of working relationship between the government and the country’s traditional leaders.

Rotifunk’s Computer Center: building their future

Rotifunk’s Computer Center: building their future

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Rotifunk’s Community Computer Center structure is now completely up.  Latest pictures are below.  See more of the full construction story here and read about plans for the computing center here.

September 16: The building’s exterior is finished with window frames in place. Ready to paint.

computer ctr sept 16 4     computer ctr sept 16

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

computer ctr sept 16 3Work on the interior now proceeds.  We did a quick lighting and computer use plan 2 weeks ago to devise the electrical wiring plan. An electrician got to work on wiring so the interior finishing with wall plastering can proceed.  The drop ceiling is now in.

 

 

 

 

 

Compare with these pictures taken  June 24 a week after work initially started on from a burned out building shell.Computer Lab 2

Computer Lab 3

 

 

 

 

 

September 1: Rotifunk’s first Ebola cases appear in town.  Five deaths and 35 quarantined in five houses.  But the computer center construction proceeds on schedule.

August 25:  The roof is up on Rotifunk’s community computing center.  Ebola is not slowing down work on this center full of hope for the future.

10634313_720411201361353_1073541016_nThis (now) ugly baby will be beautiful as they plaster the walls and add a coat of paint.

Work has gone on in spite of August being the peak of the rain season. Remember 2011 when here in Cincinnati we got 73″ rain for the year and called it an all time record year. The average rainfall for the month of August alone  in Sierra Leone is 42″.  Throw in July and there’s 73″.

The next stage is raising funds for a solar energy system so the computing center can operate into the evening with classes and community computer access. They’ll offer small business services, too, like typing and copying for those without computers or printers.

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Nine year-old Caitlin raises money for Ebola prevention

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“Just because you can’t do everything doesn’t mean you can’t do something.” Olga Murray, founder of the Nepal Youth Foundation.  Nine year-old Caitlin found something she could do to help fight Ebola in Sierra Leone.

caitlinCaitlin came to me Friday with $18 she earned by making bracelets and selling them in a neighborhood business area.  She kept going until she collected $18 – the cost of one portable hand washing station being used to prevent Ebola transfer in Sierra Leone.

She set up her box of colorful rubber bands in a prominent place in the shopping district and proceeded to braid them into stretchy bracelets for sale. She was selling them for twenty five and fifty cents. When people saw her hand made sign saying she’s selling to help prevent Ebola, some people gave her a dollar.

"All funds go to help build hand sanitizing stations in Sierra Leone."

“All funds go to help build hand sanitizing stations in Sierra Leone.”

When I asked her why she decided to do this, she said she wanted to give kids in Sierra Leone a good place to wash their hands and not get Ebola.  I was touched beyond words.

I stole the above quote from friend Karen. It says so well what we’re doing with Sherbro Foundation. We can’t save the world, but we can do something to help one Sierra Leone community get through the Ebola crisis.

Frequent hand washing is one proven way to stop spread of the Ebola virus. The money we’re sending now goes for public hand washing stations in  Bumpeh Chiefdom in rural Sierra Leone where there is no running water.

Thanks to Caitlin for joining our effort to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone.  Thanks to many others who also joined in with their donations this month. These helped us place one hundred forty public hand washing stations in Bumpeh Chiefdom in the last two weeks.  They’re already being used.

Villagers are also getting an important personalized education on the importance of sanitation and hand washing in preventing disease.  The leader of our Bumpeh Chiefdom partner organization, Rosaline Kaimbay, told me, These hand washing stations are protecting against more than Ebola. It’s raining now. This is the cholera season, too.

The Ebola outbreak is unfortunately growing at the moment.  We will have to maintain these hand washing stations with chlorine bleach or disinfectant for months to come.  You can help.  Click here to donate.

Fighting Ebola with buckets and bleach

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Buckets and bleach.  This is the most basic – and an effective – method to prevent Ebola.  Frequent hand washing is one necessary step in stopping the spread of Ebola.  Here’s the latest pictures on the community-led Ebola prevention work in Rotifunk and Bumpeh Chiefdom by the Center for Community Empowerment & Transformation (CCET).

Chief Caulker & CCET Exec Dir, Rosaline Kaimbay show buckets ready to distribute for hand washing

Chief Caulker & CCET Exec Dir, Rosaline Kaimbay show buckets ready to distribute for public hand washing

Hand washing stations are needed in public places to make it easy for people to frequently wash. In the cities in Sierra Leone, it’s become standard practice that you must wash your hands at a portable washing station (aka bucket with spigot) before entering a business or restaurant.  Business owners set these up at the front door and position someone to monitor they’re used.

But rural places with tiny local economies have no money to do this.  Public places like town markets, mosques, churches and public health clinics have not been equipped and are at risk.

Forty public hand washing stations were set up last week  in Rotifunk, seat of Bumpeh Chiefdom with Sherbro Foundation funding. With a second SF donation, CCET is out today in Bumpeh Chiefdom distributing another one hundred buckets and bottles of disinfectant to treat the water used.

2nd batch of 100 buckets for Bumpeh Chiefdom Ebola prevention.

2nd batch of 100 buckets for Bumpeh Chiefdom Ebola prevention.

I caught Paramount Chief Caulker today by phone as he was on the road to deliver the buckets to small villages in the chiefdom.  CCET picked up money Wednesday  in a second wire transfer Sherbro Foundation sent to the capital, Freetown.  They purchased the additional hundred buckets and disinfectant, and Chief Caulker drove them down to Rotifunk on Saturday.

Some were handed out there to complete Rotifunk coverage.  The rest were being driven and personally distributed to villages today, Sunday, by Chief and CCET volunteers. He’ll pick up a boat along the way to deliver buckets to the farther flung small villages along the Bumpeh River that transects his chiefdom.

This is how Chief Caulker and CCET get work done.  They do simple projects that can quickly be implemented and have immediate benefit for poorest people in the chiefdom. They collaborate closely and are personally leading the effort. And it’s finished and having the intended effect – quickly.

10565041_719734634762343_5707628134744572684_nThey are reaching small villages down narrow dirt roads that government designated Ebola “sensitization” trainers and NGO’s never get to.  But these village people travel to town markets to sell their farm goods. They have family and friends that travel down to see them, perhaps now to feel they are escaping the Ebola plague. It’s frequent travel that’s been the vector to spread this ebola outbreak compared to past outbreaks.

Bellantine town chief Ali Kamara is getting a hand washing station as he receives many visitors at this house.

Bellantine town chief Ali Kamara is getting a hand washing station as he receives many visitors at this house.

These villages need preventive  hand washing, too.  I asked Chief where he put buckets in a small village like this one.  At the public health clinic, the mosque and the town chief’s house, he said, the places where people congregate.

Chief Caulker and CCET are educating people as they go on how Ebola is transmitted and how to prevent transfer, like frequent hand washing. Then they get the hand washing station from Chief or one of their local leaders, and it’s all reinforced for them.

We talked today about the Ebola epidemic resulting in one silver lining with the country-wide blitz training on personal hygiene and spread of disease. Yes, Chief said, it’s a whole new orientation for people.

It’s also energizing people with positive action they can take to fight Ebola. To not feel like victims. They feel their Chief and their country are supporting them when they visibly see action taken they can understand – like a bucket and bleach. When a trusted chief personally explains it and puts it in their hands, it’s more accepted and likely to be used.

I could feel the energy in Chief’s voice today. It was a far cry from our conversation two weeks ago when we first talked of the need to provide preventive action, but none was there.

In recent weeks, Chief Caulker’s been contributing to a number of district level and national strategies to fight Ebola. Today he was doing what he does best; personally inspiring and leading people to action.  He was clearly being energized, too, to continue the Ebola fight.

This Ebola fight will probably go on for six months. We have work in front of us to keep these hand washing stations equipped with disinfectant. You can help by donating to Sherbro Foundation’s Ebola prevention effort.

 

 

 

 

 

Rotifunk Leads Unique Community Ebola Prevention Effort

Rotifunk Leads Unique Community Ebola Prevention Effort

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Dear Friends,

I thought I would be writing now to ask your support for Sherbro Foundation Sierra Leone’s girls scholarship fund. With the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, school is indefinitely suspended. Instead, I’m asking for your help on getting Ebola prevention supplies to the rural Sierra Leone area we work with.

CCET Exec. Director Rosaline Kaimbay demonstrates the hand washing station.

CCET Executive Dir. Rosaline Kaimbay demonstrates portable hand washing station filled with disinfectant solution.

In the last two weeks, SFSL has had to shift our focus from education to helping Rotifunk and surrounding villages fight the Ebola epidemic.  A second and bigger wave of Ebola is now moving through Sierra Leone.  Neither the Sierra Leone government nor any NGO’s have reached rural areas beyond the outbreak epicenter with Ebola prevention supplies.  Yet, it’s in these kinds of rural places the Ebola outbreak started.

The majority of Ebola cases continue to be in two areas in eastern Sierra Leone. A national state of emergency was declared last week, and these two areas have been blockaded. Everyone is effectively quarantined in place for 21 days, the Ebola incubation period. Only food, water and essential supplies are allowed in.

This is a necessary public health step to control the Ebola outbreak. But the disease had already started spreading around the country.  People who became sick in the hot spot areas feared they would get Ebola if they went to a hospital. Before the blockades went up, sick people ran to the care of relatives in other districts. Some of these sick people had Ebola and transferred it to other parts of the country, including Moyamba district where Rotifunk is.  This district now has four confirmed cases and fifty being tested.  This is how epidemics spread.  A frontline Scots aid worker describes the many direct and indirect effects the epidemic is having on an already fragile country.

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CCET, our local partner, prepares to deliver hand sanitizing stations.

There’s a misconception that the Ebola outbreak is being managed for the whole country by large nonprofit organizations like Doctors WIthout Borders (MSF). MSF is heroically fighting the battle to save people’s lives already ill with Ebola in the two epicenters, and tracing their contacts for quarantine there. But they are not involved in prevention activities to stop the spread of Ebola in the rest of country. The Sierra Leone Government’s actions have been limited to reactive steps and mainly within their fragile health care system; not preventive steps across the country.

Sherbro Foundation is equipping Rotifunk and surrounding villages with portable hand sanitizing stations.  This deadly disease can surprisingly be killed with soap and water and hand sanitizers.  People are being trained to frequently wash their hands, especially when in public places like markets, churches, mosques and health clinics.

Hand washing station delivered to the health clinic waiting area.

Hand washing station delivered to health clinic waiting area.

Rotifunk, like most of the country, has no running water.  There is nowhere to wash hands.  Preventive steps like hand sanitizing stations in public places are not set up in rural towns and villages outside the two Ebola hot spots.

SFSL sent money last week to set up over forty hand sanitizing stations like this one and a supply of disinfectant. Our Rotifunk local partner, the Center for Community Empowerment & Transformation (CCET)informed us today they need to reach more villages and have more disinfectant to go around. Prices on buying these portable sanitizing stations have gone up 50% in the last week, as goods are in short supply.

CCET Executive Director, Rosaline Kaimbay informed me today they are being seen as unique in Sierra Leone with this kind of grass roots community-led effort on Ebola prevention.  While towns across Sierra Leone are still waiting for Government and NGO assistance, they are taking charge on the fight against Ebola.

It’s understandable that limited resources are first going to the epicenters of the emergency.  But unless towns in the rest of Sierra Leone like Rotifunk are equipped for preventive actions to fight Ebola, the epidemic can continue to spread across the country – and beyond.  More lives will be lost.

Time is of the essence. Can you help stop this tragic epidemic for the cost of a dinner out or one concert ticket? To donate online, just click here: Donate   We accept all major world currencies. To send checks, contact us at sherbrofoundation@gmail.com.

You can help even more by passing this on to a friend.

Thank you!

Arlene Golembiewski
Founder & Executive Director

It’s our Birthday – one year, five projects

It’s our Birthday – one year, five projects

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It’s our birthday.  In March, Sherbro Foundation turned one year old!  And what a great first year it’s been.

Chief Caulker with village children at his rice farm.

Paamount Chief Caulker with village children at his rice farm.

In March 2013, we started with our commitment to fund a girls’ scholarship program and a pledge for 30 computers from a US corporation.  By year end, we had successfully launched five programs together with our local Sierra Leone partner, the Center for Community Empowerment and Transformation (CCET). 

The spirit and commitment of CCET is matched by their capability to get things done. They didn’t just start implementing programs.  There’s already clear results to show for each one.

CCET inspires us every day. And they keep Sherbro Foundation busy in keeping up with all the projects they’ve initiated in education, agriculture development and most recently, child welfare.

I look at it as the stars somehow aligned at the time I returned to Sierra Leone in 2011 after an absence of 37 years.  I found an old teacher friend from my Peace Corps days was now Paramount Chief of the chiefdom where I once lived. He had been slowly working to develop it from total war devastation to a rural hub for education and agriculture. A new girls school recently brought capable teachers to town who were also interested in community development, and decided to form CCET. I showed up in 2011, and within a year and a half, we were all working together to develop Bumpeh Chiefdom.  The vision and strong local ownership of Chief Caulker and CCET are what makes it all work – and so quickly.

Together, here’s what we’ve done in this first year. 

"Investment in girls' education may well be the highest-return investment available n the developing world." Larry Summers, World Bank

339 scholarships were awarded to over 200 girls in four secondary schools in Rotifunk. These enabled girls from rural villages to attend secondary school who may otherwise not be able to afford the $20 annual school fees.  Scholarships were awarded over two academic school years.

Zainab Kamara 39 yrs, 5 children, friends who can read and write inspired her to come to school; wants to learn to build her business.

Fifty adults began their journey to literacy in September when the Functional Adult Literacy program started.  Classes focus on reading, writing and practical skills to enable these adults to develop their small market trader businesses and farms.  One group started to learn the ABC’s and to write their names, while another group picked up where they left off in primary school.  This program sprang from within, when many women town came forward saying, we want to learn. Help us, too.

Computer lesson

Fifty laptop computers arrived in September through a US corporate donation, and by October, a group of adults became the first computer literacy students in Rotifunk. Only two teachers have the practical computer knowledge to teach others. So we’ve started the first computer class for the other teachers in town. They encouraged more adults to join them in becoming the first core group of computer literate people in town. As one said, we’re now joining the rest of the world.

Arlene and CCET Volunteer, Abdul Foday view palm seedlings.

In October, land was being cleared for a tree nursery where seedlings of income producing trees are now being nursed.  Tree seedlings will be given to villages to grow community orchards that will generate income for community development projects and environmental protection for years to come. Today, 18,000 seedlings are growing in the nursery until they’re strong enough to transplant.  Some will be ready for rainy season planting in June and July that will include training programs on raising tree for villagers.

Baby Abraham is a healthy baby.

In November, a child welfare program was started for newborn babies.  When a chiefdom baby is now born, an income producing tree will be planted for them and the minimum deposit paid for a bank account opened in the new rural community bank in Rotifunk.  Income from the sale of the tree’s fruit or lumber will be deposited in the account, and parents encouraged to add their own money. By the age of twelve, children will have the money for secondary school fees, and hopefully additional money to start life as young adults. Accounts are now opened for nearly 400 chiefdom newborns – and earning interest for their futures.

I visited the chiefdom in November, and I can say every project objective we set for 2013 was delivered by CCET and done with excellence.

CCET’s work in Bumpeh Chiefdom has gained national attention. The Sierra Leone EPA, the Ministry of Agriculture and a mining company were all pleased with the local initiative shown in growing income producing trees for villages and the newborn baby project. They’ve donated towards the projects.

Our work is cut out for us for 2014 in keeping all these programs moving forward.  But with this kind of foundation now laid, the future of Bumpeh Chiefdom only looks brighter.

You can join us. To help in moving Bumpeh Chiefdom to the next level, you can  donate here.

Arlene Golembiewski, Executive Director

Eliminating Poverty One Tree at a Time

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Planting a tree is a simple thing. We plant them for their beauty, and maybe to create shade.  I haven’t thought about trees as a poverty elimination tool. 

Oil palm, teak, citrus, guava and mango seedlings are shielded from the hot sun.

Oil palm, teak, citrus, guava and mango seedlings are shielded from the hot sun in a tree nursery.

But this is what Paramount Chief Charles Caulker and the Center for Community Empowerment & Transformation (CCET) have in mind for Bumpeh Chiefdom.  They plan to plant 15,000 trees in villages each year for five years. In doing so, they will provide economic empowerment for villagers to improve their own lives and escape poverty.

Bumpeh Chiefdom is one of the most rural areas of Sierra Leone and agriculture is their bread and butter.  It’s a subsistence agriculture area where people barely grow enough to eat, often falling short before the next harvest.  With most of the people living in small, remote villages, it’s a place that receives few government and NGO development programs.  The trickle down to their level is small and slow.

So, Paramount Chief Caulker is taking on poverty reduction himself by building on his chiefdom’s strengths of rich land, good water sources and agriculture know-how.  With the chief as their sponsor, CCET has started a tree nursery to raise trees with economic value.  Oil palms, coconuts, teak and a range of fruit trees – orange, grapefruit, lime, guava, mango, avocado, banana. 

Tree nursery now holds 8000 seedlings.

Tree nursery now holds 8000 seedlings.

They are purchasing small seedlings for trees that are more difficult to start, like oil palms, coconuts and teak.  Others they are starting themselves from seeds, seeds you literally spit out when eating an orange or grapefruit, or pits collected from avocado and mangoes.  They’re planted in deep polythene bags with rich swamp bottom compost, and they quickly germinate and thrive in the tropical heat and humidity.

The nursery is set up on land donated by the chief, made of local materials and set up with volunteer labor.  The ground was brushed with machetes and bamboo stakes cut to make long pergolas.  When covered with palm branches, the pergolas provide the right amount of filtered light for young seedlings. 

Arlene and CCET Volunteer, Foday Fofanah view oil palm seedlings.

Arlene and CCET Volunteer and teacher, Abdul Phoday view oil palm seedlings.

The plan is that each year for five years, 30 villages will set aside ten acres of community land for their own orchard. Come planting season with the start of the next rains in June, each of these villages will be given 600 trees to plant.  It’s their job to plant and maintain their community orchard.  In five years, 150 of the chiefdom’s 208 villages will be covered.

The village will get the income from selling the fruits of the trees, and eventually the teak lumber, to use for development projects of their own choice. 

I asked how much money is to be made with fruit trees like this.  I found it’s quite a lot.  Using an orange tree as an example, the tree will mature in about 4 years and it commonly produces at least 1000 oranges a year, often more. 

If 600 orange trees are planted and reach maturity, they will yield enough fruit to fetch in Freetown Le500,000 ($120) per tree – or Le 300,000,000 ($72,000) per year for the whole community orchard. Trees continue to bear fruit, so this is Le 300,000,000 for the community year after year.  Even if not 100% successful, or if fruit is sold at lower upcountry prices, the orchards will generate a lot of much needed cash for these communities.

Chief Caulker's father planted grapefruit trees fifty years ago that continue to bear a lot of fruit.

Chief Caulker’s father planted grapefruit trees fifty years ago that continue to bear a lot of fruit.

Multiply by 30 villages and the tree nursery’s first crop of seedlings and this is a big income stream that continues each year. Individual farmers can build small businesses. Money can also go to build village schools and health clinics, dig wells, start community cooperative stores and set up internal microfinance programs at little to no interest.  Villages choose what they each need. 

This is transformation from the grass roots level.  With self-managed programs and almost no overhead costs, it all goes to the community.

As the tree nursery program expands, more villages will get their trees and the net value of this program to the chiefdom will only grow. 

Newly planted coconut orchard a few months old.

Newly planted coconut orchard a few months old.

At an initial project cost that today equates to Le1000/seedling, or Le 600,000 per village orchard, this is a 500% return on investment within four years when trees reach mature fruit bearing capacity.  Not a bad return from polythene bags and bamboo shelters.

This return on investment – and the sustainability of the program – is possible because of a very important program element: local ownership.  This program is conceived and led from within the chiefdom.  No outside organization is coming to implement an outsider’s program. 

Chiefdom leaders and rank and file gather to hear about CCET projects, including the tree project.

Chiefdom leaders and rank and file gather to hear about CCET projects, including the tree project.

CCET identified their own community needs and designed the program to be managed across the chiefdom using existing chiefdom administration as the most reliable vehicle to reach the people.  By using traditional chiefdom leadership roles and communication systems, they can quickly cascade down to the small village level and be readily accepted.  

Village headmen are responsible to organize their own community orchard.  They get direction and oversight from their section chiefs.  These are traditional chiefs who are chiefs for life, and well known and trusted by their people. The paramount chief oversees the whole program in the course of his normal chiefdom business, and using his established chiefdom council.

I asked Chief Caulker how does he know the program will be managed as conceived.  We’ll write practices governing the planting and harvesting of trees into chiefdom and village bylaws, he said.  If people don’t follow them, they will be fined.  People have little extra cash, so they fear getting fines and abide by the bylaws.  The chief has also embarked on a formal and informal educational program to positively reinforce the value of trees and encourage people to plant their own.

Paramount Chief Charles Caulker

Paramount Chief Charles Caulker

The chiefdom bylaws will include environmental practices that designate water catchment areas where trees are to be planted to protect the water table.  People and the environment are inseparable, Chief Caulker said.  Any attempt to improve one at the expense of the other will ultimately fail.  We have a desire and responsibility to protect the environment, but our approach is different.  Instead of targeting an environmental program, we integrate environmental protection into everything we do.  The tree planting program will do our part to fight global warming and will protect our water resources.

Programs led by the chiefdom eliminate the need – and cost – of introducing new staff and bureaucratic systems subject to failure.  The pride of local ownership has stimulated people to participate and volunteer.  They want to be involved and to help each other.  And because these are simple, transparent programs, they can.  The work goes quickly, at low cost and with ready acceptance.  This is empowerment from the bottom up.

Many government and NGO led programs either take a long time or never reach the small village level where the need is the greatest. Within one year from its conception, CCET is doing this.  With a blend of modern technology and traditional practices, it is already paying dividends and promises to only lead to more success.  

Chiefdom men learn about the promise of planting trees.

Chiefdom men learn about the promise of planting trees.

I asked a young man what he learned from the launch meeting where the tree program was introduced to people in the chiefdom.  He said, young men learned about their future and what they can achieve with planting trees.  In five years, they can improve their future.   Planting trees is a common thing.  Anyone can brush their land and do this in one week.  Young men downriver have land to plant 10 to 20 trees for themselves.  Now they have the zeal to do it.

Using agriculture and planting trees is an interesting thing, he said.  A tree is your child and you must take care of it like a child.  It will give you its children – its fruit – to eat.  It’s not ungrateful like your own children.  A tree will always be there for you. Tree planting will be the support for all other programs we do – for our children, for education, for environmental protection.

I later heard the Paramount Chief telling a young section chief, I wasted my time as a young man without planning for my future.  You need to plant trees now for your retirement and for your children to inherit.  Every man and woman in Bumpeh Chiefdom should be planting trees.

Poverty elimination by planting trees.  At the program launch meeting Chief Caulker said to his chiefdom, I’m a farmer and I take this challenge personally.  I believe it will make a big difference in peoples lives.  By building on traditional agriculture practice and social norms, we can be proactive in empowering the vast majority of people down to the small village level and get started quickly.

Treating agriculture and tree orchards as a business is indeed a practical and achievable way for Bumpeh Chiefdom to lead its people out of poverty, and into a middle class existence in the not too distant future.

You can help accelerate the process by donating to buy tree seedlings for Bumpeh Chiefdom.  Only $10 will buy 50 citrus and guava seedings!  $20 will buy twenty coconut seedlings.  And you will do your part to fight global warming by helping plant trees.  To donate, go to the website’s Donate tab:  https://sherbrofoundation.org/donate/

Joining the Rest of the World – Rotifunk’s First Computer Students

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Joining the rest of the world – this is how two of Rotifunk’s first computer literacy students described the way they feel about starting computer lessons.  They know the world is computerized, and they have, to date been left out of the opportunities and the knowledge afforded by computers.

Computer class at CCET office.

Computer class at CCET office.

Computer literacy and regular access to using a computer are among the most coveted resources in today’s Sierra Leone.  People know this is their link to gain valuable job skills, better manage their work, and communicate with the rest of the world.

The Center for Community Empowerment and Transformation received 50 laptop computers in August from American donors Schneider Electric and TIP Capital. They lost no time in building tables and benches with local lumber and creating a practical manual for students who have never used a computer.  Lesson One started in Sept – October with how to turn it on and find the Word software.

The first students are community teachers and other adults with a need to use a computer.  They will form the core group to serve as trainers for high school students and others in the community. Only three or four of the 30+ secondary school teachers in area had any computer proficiency.  Some had been exposed in college to manuals with screen shots of computer monitors as introduction, but never had access to using one themselves.

Here’s a profile of some of Rotifunk’s first computer students.

Samuel Caulker at his computer lesson.

Samuel Caulker at his computer lesson.

Deputy Paramount Chief – Samuel Caulker stands in as the ranking chiefdom authority for his brother, the Paramount Chief when both the Chief and his Chiefdom Speaker are out of town.  Samuel says the world has gone computerized, but until now, Rotifunk was not part of this.  This is his first opportunity for computer lessons and he wanted to take advantage of it.

He was embarrassed when going to training workshops outside the chiefdom, and he had to say he did not know how to use a computer.

Soon he can see computers in the Chiefdom Administrative Office.  Records can be kept and accessed when needed on computers, like amount of taxes collected for the year and who paid in each Section.  They can maintain land transfer records and avoid land disputes; they can keep names of all 208 villages in the chiefdom and the responsible headmen. Importantly, they can maintain minutes of Chiefdom Council meetings and other key chiefdom events.

Samuel is not finding using a PC as difficult as he may have thought.  They have excellent tutors from CCET committed to teaching them.  It would go faster if they had more time to practice. They come at 5:00pm at the end of their work day.  Lack of electricity and cost of running a generator limit the time of the class to 6:30pm when it’s too dark to see.  Today they had to stop when the battery on the computer ran down.

Samuel wants to thank Schneider Electric and TIP Capital for the opportunity to learn to use a computer and will make good use of his class. He also appreciates the low cost of CCET classes.  They are paying Le30,000 (~$7.50 USD) for classes that would cost Le150,000 in Freetown.

Secondary School Teacher – Emanuel Mbasy teaches at Walter Schutz Secondary School.  Emanuel sees technology quickly changing and wants to be part of it.  With computer literacy for himself, he can then also teach his children.  He can create his own documents and quickly find them, like class lessons, exams and other documents.  Files get missing at school, and he could better maintain them.

Practical computer instruction manual designed by CCET.

Practical instruction manual designed by CCET: how to boot a computer.

The CCET teachers are good and he’s not finding it too hard to learn, if you concentrate and practice.  Practice is unfortunately limited to a few hours of classroom time each week, and students like him do not have their own computer to practice on at home.  They do have a good manual CCET prepared for them they can take home and review.

Emanuel wants to give his special thanks to Schneider Electric and TIP Capital for allowing him to join the rest of the world with learning computers.  May God bless them.  More computers for their personal use would be great. 

Muslim Missionary and Imam – Osman Sesay is a young Imam with the Amaddiyah Islamic mission present in Rotifunk. Technology is improving, and the Amaddiyah mission has a computer, but he didn’t know how to use it.  He’s glad for the chance for lessons now.  He wants to be able to keep speeches on the computer, as well as lessons and exams for the Amaddiyah school.  They conduct marriages and need to issue marriage certificates. 

Imam Sesay really wants to learn to use a computer. It’s difficult, but he will learn.  He’s not fortunate to have his own personal computer, and would really like to have one.

Computer lesson.

Computer lesson: teachers give 1:1 help.

Construction Contractor – Abu Bakar Conteh is a contractor building new buildings at the Prosperity Girls High School.  As a contractor, he needs to give bids and estimates and keep them. Offices with files are a luxury in rural Sierra Leone, and his work keeps him on the move anyway.  A computer would help him organize his work and keep it available, as well as make calculations easier.

A computer would also allow him to advertise his business through the internet.

Abu Bakar enjoys computer lessons very much and is finding it easy, despite this being his first class.  He’s learned to write and save some documents, and he’s become familiar with the keyboard.

He would like to thank Schneider Electric and TIP Capital so much.  They find it difficult to get computer lessons in Sierra Leone, especially in a rural place, and these companies have made it so easy and inexpensive for him.

DSTV Satellite Dish Operator – Sembu Fallah maintains DSTV service for the area. We are living in a computerized world where knowledge has advanced, he says, and he would like to know it better.  He wants to be a perfect man and learn enough to teach others as an additional job.

He could also use a computer to join the DSTV signal to a computer for viewing sports games here in Rotifunk as an additional source of income.

Sembu wants to thank Schneider Electric and TIP Capital for what they’ve done for them.  He really appreciates it, and prays they will bring more.  If he had his own computer he would continue to practice at home and not be limited to three 90 minute classes a week at the CCET office.

**************************

August 28, 2014 update: I see people continue to read this post, so I wanted to direct you to the latest up on Rotifunk’s computer program.  We are turning a town tragedy into a triumph.  A community computer center is being built as I write this from the ashes of a rebel burned building. You can read about it here: https://sherbrofoundation.org/2014/08/25/computing-center-roof-is-up/

 

Rebuilding Bumpeh Chiefdom after Sierra Leone’s civil war

Rebuilding Bumpeh Chiefdom after Sierra Leone’s civil war

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Rotifunk, the seat of Bumpeh Chiefdom, was devastated in Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war.  About 55 miles southeast of the capital, Freetown, Rotifunk was hit hard as rebel soldiers burned and looted their way to the capital.  Every building in the town of about 10,000 was burned except for a church and a mosque, and its people forced to flee. The town abandoned for several years.  The result:  total collapse of the socio-economic fabric, and a once bustling town found itself in abject poverty.

Rotifunk's busy Saturday market.

Rotifunk’s busy Saturday market.

The war ended in 2001. Now a safe, peaceful, country, Sierra Leone is still, however, one where 70% of families struggle to survive in the aftermath of the civil war on $2 a day or less.   This is true for the rural community of Rotifunk and Bumpeh Chiefdom where agriculture is the main livelihood.

Back on its feet, Rotifunk has rebuilt itself to once again serve as the center of trade, education and health care for the area. Rotifunk is known for its lively Saturday market, where farmers and small traders from across the chiefdom come to sell their wares.  Fish from local  rivers are plentiful, as well as locally grown fruit and vegetables.   Rotifunk is preparing for its future by educating its children.  Four secondary schools are now operating, including all-girls and Islamic schools.

2013 was a milestone year for Rotifunk.

IMG_0352 - CopyMore girls are going to secondary school in Bumpeh Chiefdom than ever before. With four secondary schools open in Rotifunk and Sherbro Foundation’s girls scholarship program, village girls who previously couldn’t afford it are advancing into a secondary school education.

A Community Bank opened that treats account holders as members and shareholders.  Accounts can be opened for as little as Le15,000 (<$4 USD). This enables low income people to save in a safe place that invests bank holdings and pays interest, instead of charging steep fees. Saving small amounts of money for the future has long been a problem in rural areas.

Computer class at CCET office.

Computer class at CCET office.

The Center for Community Empowerment and Transformation was created in 2013 as a “community based organization” to lead community development projects for the chiefdom.  This volunteer group focuses on education and economic empowerment.  It has partnered with Sherbro Foundation to establish adult literacy and computer training programs, as well as manage a girls scholarship fund.  A major drive is underway for chiefdom reforestation by planting 90,000 income producing trees over five years and setting up environmental management practices for the chiefdom.  Villages will plant and manage their own orchards, with income from fruit and lumber going into community development projects at the small village level.

Growth Center bakery prepares to bake bread.

Growth Center bakery prepares to bake bread.

A UN funded Growth Center also opened in 2013 with equipment for small cottage industries.  A wood fired oven bakes French style baguettes and a welding shop repairs motorbikes and other metal work.  Still to be set up are a tailoring shop with routine and industrial sewing machines and a town cinema using a big screen TV for sports and other programs.  A canteen is to provide drinks and refreshments. Individuals get job training in operating each service and small fees are charged that go into managing and later expanding services.

The Rotifunk  hospital, once the envy of the whole country and destroyed in the war, has been reconstructed thanks to Norwegian donors.  Plans are underway by the United Methodist Church mission to staff the hospital with health professionals in a range of disciplines and to outfit with up to date medical equipment.  The UMC relationship and original mission doctors date back to the 1890’s.  Sierra Leonean health professionals will now expand and run the hospital in 2014.

Rotifunk is indeed back on its feet and actively working to regain its place as a hub of services and excellence for rural Sierra  Leone.

We work as Partners

We work as Partners

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CCET volunteers starting the Tree Nursery

CCET volunteers starting the Tree Nursery

As a U.S. based all-volunteer nonprofit, we partner with Sierra Leone community organizations to complete projects.  We support locally based groups in achieving their goals to strengthen and develop their communities.

Sherbro Foundation works closely with organizations to first understand community needs, and then define clear and achievable project objectives we can work on together. By partnering with well regarded local organizations to deliver projects, Sherbro Foundation is able to avoid overhead and ensure every dollar we receive goes directly to grass roots rural development in Sierra Leone.

We need trusted partners on the ground who share our objectives and can effectively deliver the nuts-and-bolts work, and do it with integrity.

The Sherbro Foundation is fortunate to have found such a partner in The Center for Community Empowerment and Transformation.  CCET is a local, all-volunteer group of Sierra Leoneans who organized as a nonprofit for the development of Rotifunk and Bumpeh Chiefdom as a whole. They are teachers and other people living and working in Rotifunk.

CCET is a group with a strong vision, and the capability and commitment to deliver on that.  Sherbro Foundation is fortunate to work with them and support their excellent lead.  Read more about them:  The Center for Community Empowerment and Transformation

We enable development

We enable development

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In an area still dominated by subsistence agriculture, we provide seed money to help rural people turn agricultural projects or other economic opportunities into thriving businesses that will create sustainable local jobs.  We also aim to support community development projects that provide improved services to rural communities.

Scholarship program celebrates girls’ education in Rotifunk

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I admit it. I sometimes thought my sister Arlene was a bit crazy for trying to start a non-profit organization all by herself to help people with such great needs on the other side of the globe.

But when you look at what’s been accomplished in its first six months, I’m amazed and proud – and my faith is being restored in the generosity of people coming together to improve life for others. We are linking with strangers around the world, interested in what is happening. (And of course, I volunteered to help.)

The Sherbro Foundation’s first round of scholarship awards to young women in Rotifunk’s four secondary schools is the latest point of pride.

2012-13 Girl Scholarships awards - Prosperity Girls High School (blue shirts), Walter Schutz Secondary School (white shirts)

2012-13 Girl Scholarships awards – Prosperity Girls High School (blue shirts), Walter Schutz Secondary School (white shirts)

First, it’s amazing that Prosperity Girls High School, a four-year-old school, achieved an impressive feat last fall when 100% of their students who took the West African standardized senior high entrance exam passed it – a feat for which they received special recognition from the national Ministry of Education for exceptional results!  Each girl passed on her first try AND the school had complete success on its first time sending girls for the exam.

It’s amazing that an impoverished rural community created its first all-girls secondary school. It’s amazing that Rotifunk’s new nonprofit, the Center for Community Empowerment and Transformation, voluntarily formed by teachers at the new Prosperity Girls High School, is administering the scholarship program as a foundation partner. It’s amazing that 138 girls benefited from this year’s scholarship program ranging from 7th to 10th grades.

So it was time to celebrate. To read Teacher Osman Kamara’s account of the recent scholarship presentation ceremony for the young women is heart-warming. It would convince anyone that the Foundation must keep growing.

“The activities of Sherbro Foundation have become visible and the people of Bumpeh Chiefdom are hopeful and have the belief that their lives (are improving) and the burden of their children’s education has been lessened with the involvement of Sherbro Foundation,” he said.

“The people of Bumpeh Chiefdom were very happy and appreciative of the scholarships.”

The celebration was attended by 200 parents and guardians and many community leaders of Moyamba District. Master of Ceremonies S.P. Gibril pointed out that it was the first time in the history of the District that so many female students in all the secondary schools of Bumpeh Chiefdom received scholarships.  He also thanked Paramount Chief Charles Caulker for connecting Arlene with the community.

Chief Caulker and Arlene were fellow teachers more than 35 years ago, when she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Rotifunk.

2012-13 Girl Scholarship awards - Bumpeh Academy (green) and Ahmaddiya Islamic School (white)

2012-13 Girl Scholarship awards – Bumpeh Academy (green) and Ahmaddiya Islamic School (white)

Principals of each school nominated their own students from the junior high and senior high levels. It was decided that female students at all of the community’s schools should benefit. The count:

* Prosperity Girls High School, 41 students

* Bumpeh Academy Senior Secondary School, 20 students

* Walter Schutz Memorial Secondary School , 30 students

* Ahmadiyya Muslim Secondary School, 30 students

* Children of adult literacy students, 17 students

Four categories of students were awarded scholarships:

* Vulnerable students (low income, single parents, orphans, students who had to leave their village and board in town to  attend secondary school)

* Academic achievers

* At least six female football (soccer) players from each school

* Pupils whose parents are students themselves in the new adult literacy program operated by CCET, who are mostly single parents

Home visits were required in most cases, in order to verify economic status and school enrollment.  In a remarkable approach to trimming red tape and ever-present bureaucracy, parents were directly awarded the scholarship money. This was done because this first round of scholarships was awarded for the just-completed 2012-2013 school year. Most of the parents and guardians anxiously awaited the funds because either they could not afford to pay the school fees, or had taken loans for which they still owed.

The nation’s Education Ministry for Moyamba District was also represented at the scholarship event.  Abdul Karim Kanu, who is the Moyamba District Inspector of Schools, commended the Sherbro Foundation.  He promised to report the CCET’s successes to the Education Ministry in the capital of Freetown. The foundation’s partner on the ground has the potential to become a model for the country.

Wish I could have been there.

— Chris Golembiewski