Tag Archives: girls education

Plant a Tree and Send Girls to School

Plant a Tree and Send Girls to School

Posted on by • Posted in Blog • Tagged , , , , , , • 1 Comment

 

Paramount Chief Charles Caulker has a vision in which every child in Bumpeh Chiefdom gets a secondary school education. We’ve made big strides with Sherbro Foundation’s Girls’ Scholarship Program.

Now Chief and his community nonprofit CCET are creating the chiefdom’s own sustainable source of income for education from fruit trees. Thousands have been planted. Thousands more are needed.

With Sherbro Foundation’s help, the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor is mobilizing Rotary Clubs and individuals through a Rotary International Foundation grant to plant another 15-acre orchard with 1500 fruit trees.

Sherbro Foundation is striving to raise $10,000 toward a $95,000 Rotary grant that will make Chief Caulker’s plan come to life.

We need your help. Plant a tree. It will fruit for years to come, creating income to keep sending girls to school year after year.  

And the Rotary International Foundation will match your gift by 50% !

Adding to orchards planted in 2017-18, the Rotary grant will result in a total of 45 acres of orchards with over 3000 fruit trees. As they start fruiting in 3 – 5 years, the trees will create a steady stream of income for education for 20 years or more. Give here to plant trees.

Growing trees yields big dividends in fruit income, providing students with these essentials every year:

$35 plants one tree (lime, guava, orange, grapefruit or avocado) that will pay secondary school fee scholarships for 2 girls, or a school uniform and notebooks for 1 student.

$70 plants 2 dwarf coconuts that will pay the monthly stipend for a computer instructor.

$100 plants 3 dwarf coconuts that will pay monthly wages for a lead teacher in after-school tutoring that prepares girls for senior high entrance exams.

$250 plants 8 lime trees that will pay living expenses for a community health nursing student who will return to serve in an area rural health clinic.

$600 plants 17 African plum trees and provides the tuition and living expenses for one year of girl’s college scholarship.

You’ll be doing more than planting a tree. Your gift will first help:

  • Clear 15 acres of wild bush – all with manual labor.
  • Grow 15,000 tree seedlings with seed collected from locally purchased fruit.
  • Plant 1500 tree seedlings (Others will be donated to chiefdom families or sold.)
  • Keep all 45 acres of orchards weeded and watered for 2 years.
  • Create 19 full-time jobs for local villagers where no wage-paying jobs now exist.
  • Grow annual crops for short-term income to maintain orchards as fruit trees mature.

The plan will do much more to ensure the orchard’s long term success.

It will dig a well and install a watering system to keep young seedlings watered; build a storehouse and concrete drying floor to handle all the produce; hire an experienced Agriculture Manager to run the program; buy tools and fund operating a truck. Another goal is to expand the successful Women’s Vegetable Growing project, helping eager women farmers grow peanuts and double their incomes.

This sustainable plan will have major impact on chiefdom families.

By 2023, we conservatively estimate the combined orchards will generate $50,000 a year in income for education. And orchard income will keep growing as trees continue to mature.

Added bonus – 45 acres of fruit trees will help fight climate change. Tropical trees mature quickly and absorb large quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

How you can help

Donate now Give here to plant trees.
100% of your gift goes directly to the project – no overhead expenses.

Checks can be made payable to:
Ann Arbor Rotary Foundation (a 501c3 nonprofit)
PO Box 131217
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48113-1217
Include “Sierra Leone Global Grant” in the memo line.

Give a Holiday Gift – Wouldn’t many on your gift list appreciate planting a tree for them that will educate girls year after year? Donate a $35 gift in their name and we’ll send a gift card describing the impact a tree has for the future of Sierra Leone girls. It’s a gift that truly keeps on giving. Add giftee name and address to the instructions line of your online donation above. For multiple gifts, or donating by check, email giftee info to sherbrofoundation@gmail.com

Ask a Rotary Club to contribute – Are you a Rotarian or do you know one? Many Rotary Clubs are interested in supporting worthwhile international development projects. Contact your local Rotary Club and ask if they would consider this project. We can supply more information.

Questions? Contact: Arlene Golembiewski – sherbrofoundation@gmail.com or Mary Avarkotos, Rotary Club of Ann Arbor – mavarkotos@me.com

Sherbro Foundation will personally thank you for your gift. We’ll direct your gift to the Ann Arbor Rotary Foundation who will coordinate with Rotary International. You’ll receive your tax receipt from the Ann Arbor Rotary Foundation in January.

Plant a Tree. Educate girls. Help the planet. Give a gift.

Where else would $35 accomplish so much?!

And — Rotary International will match your gift 50%! $50 becomes $75. $100 will be $150.

Thank you for investing in the future of Sierra Leone’s Bumpeh Chiefdom children!

— Arlene Golembiewski, Executive Director

P.S. Help us more. Pass this on to a friend.

Celebrating Day of the Girl with Scholarships for 460 Girls

Celebrating Day of the Girl with Scholarships for 460 Girls

Posted on by • Posted in Blog • Tagged , , , , • Leave a comment

Sherbro Foundation celebrates October 11th, the International Day of Girl, by giving 460 Sierra Leone girls the gift of education.

We met our 2018-19 Scholarship program goal! 460 girls in four Bumpeh Chiefdom schools are ready to learn with scholarship awards of new school uniforms and notebooks.

Students at Bumpeh Academy Secondary School assemble for the scholarship award ceremony.

Big thanks go out to our generous donors whose support has grown the scholarship program from 67 junior high girls in one school to 460 girls covering all six levels of secondary school in four schools.

In its 6th year, 1700 scholarships have been awarded, giving over 600 girls the opportunity to continue their education. Girls are staying in school and progressing into senior high with repeat scholarships, many returning for a third or even fourth year.

Enjoy the pictures of so many girls eager to start another year of secondary school.

Bumpeh Academy Acting Principal Daniel Koroma said schools are full to overflowing with students this year after the new Sierra Leone government announced its “free education” program. It paid school fees for all students for the first time and deposited the money before the first day of school.

People interpreted free school as including uniforms, but the government didn’t have the money to cover these.

“What the government could not do, you have done,” Acting Principal Koroma told me. “You are reaching an area the government could not afford.”

For many girls, the uniform they receive as their scholarship award will be the only one they have. They’ll wear it day after day for the full school year. Girls have stayed out of school for want of a uniform.

When the scholarship award gives girls a second uniform, it also helps keep them in school. Many students walk four, five, even six miles each way to school.  If they arrive home at 4 p.m. soaked in the rain or hot and sweaty, it’s late to wash their uniform.

The tropical sun sets quickly and it’s dark by 7 p.m. If the uniform isn’t dry by morning, it’s cold to walk in the chilly early dawn hours in wet clothes. Students have missed school Koroma said because they’re ashamed to come without their uniform.

Two sets of clothes for the whole year isn’t much!

Rosaline Kaimbay, Managing Director of our partner CCET, presents Walter Schutz Memorial Secondary School students with uniforms.

Parents are proud to see their daughters continue in school for another year. I’ve learned it’s a fallacy that Sierra Leone parents favor boys over girls, or don’t want girls to go to school.

Time and again I hear adults say, when you educate a girl, you educate the country. Educated women will bring up educated children and they’re the backbone of the country. Girls drop out for the simple reason they cannot afford to continue in school.

Most mothers shown above lost their opportunity to go to secondary school, or even to finish primary school. They’re delighted to cheer their daughters on.

The uniform and exercise books in each award actually cost more than school fees. It takes a big burden off parents, most of whom are subsistence farmers and petty traders. After feeding and clothing their families, there’s little cash to go for school expenses.

We’re especially pleased to welcome Junneth Kamara back to school with her scholarship, left with Bumpeh Academy Principal Koroma.

A 27-year old mother of three and senior high drop out, she returned to school last year with a scholarship.

Junneth picked up in the 10th grade where she had left off four years before, and has now passed into the 11th grade. She’s a woman on a mission to become a nurse, and is a wonderful role model for all.

In schools without text books, students must take notes teachers write on blackboards.

Senior high scholarship awardees get four hardbound notebooks they can refer to two or three years later when studying for their national school completion exams.

“The scholarship program is changing the lives of girls –  giving them direction and ambition.” Bumpeh Chiefdom’s Paramount Chief Charles Caulker

“[Before the program] they didn’t know what their future could be,” he said. “With every year in school, they’re avoiding pregnancy. They’re looking for partners who share their academic vision for the future. … They even look different. They look like people serious about acquiring education for their future.”

That’s a lot to celebrate on this Day of the Girl.

Never Too Late to Return to School

Never Too Late to Return to School

Posted on by • Posted in Blog, News • Tagged , , , • 1 Comment

Junneth is one of the most enthusiastic 10th graders you’ll meet. She confidently said she’ll pass to Sierra Leone’s 11th grade, and she just did.

Junneth is also a 27 year-old mother of three. She’s back in school again in Rotifunk’s Bumpeh Academy with a scholarship and uniform after a five-year absence.

Junneth had passed the senior high entrance exam years ago, but her single mother just couldn’t afford her school fees, and she had to drop out. She doesn’t know her father. Along the way, Junneth married, bore four children, and lost one.

Sherbro Foundation’s Girls Scholarship program makes it a priority to keep young women like Junneth from dropping out of school. We offer scholarships to advance them to senior high and on to graduation. At $25, it’s an incredible bargain.

20180706_155347 (2)

People tell me Junneth is one of the hardest working people they know. She gardens all around the house she lives in. Her landlady, above left, gave her a room rent-free because she works so hard to support herself and her children.

20180706_151933 (3)Junneth grows sweet potatoes, (left), corn, yams and eggplant to eat and to sell in the market for money to live on. You’ll see her in a nearby river after school catching fish to eat.

Her husband is an “unqualified” teacher in another town. He’s not credentialed to be paid by the government, so his income is meager. He has little to offer his family.

As time went on, Junneth became more and more motivated to return to school. “I don’t want to sit down and be a woman who be in the kitchen,” she told me. “If I don’t have education in my head, he [my husband] will leave me and go to another who has learned. So that give me the cause to return to school.”

20180706_152359_Moment(28)She explained, an educated woman can work and improve the community. People respect her. Men respect her. When a woman can earn a living and help the family, it helps her marriage. She said, “If I learn, I also [will] have something. He will give; I will also give.” A two-career couple is needed in Sierra Leone to move away from subsistence farming to a more middle class life, just as much as it’s needed in the US.

It also frustrated Junneth to watch many of her friends who completed high school do well with paying jobs. “Some of my sisters go to college. Some of them are teachers. Some are nurses right now… When I see them, I feel offended. I say, why? Some of them, I beat them [on the past senior high entrance exam].”

Junneth also knew that her children would fare better with an educated mother’s help. “When I learn, my children also learn.”

Last September, Junneth went to Rosaline Kaimbay, managing director of the Center for Community Empowerment and Transformation, which administers Sherbro Foundation’s Girls’ Scholarship program. “I cry to her, please help me. And she did. I really appreciate it.”

20180706_152359_Moment(30)Mrs. Kaimbay arranged a scholarship, asked Bumpeh Academy to enroll Junneth in school and gave her a uniform. She became a proud 10th grade student, in her first year of senior high, picking up where she left off years before.

 “She’s doing very well,” Mrs. Kaimbay said proudly.

Her principal just confirmed that Junneth passed her first year despite her long absence, and is moving on to 11th grade. She’s become a role model for other girls in school – and for her children.

Junneth knows where she’s going.

“I want to do nursing. That is my plan.” 

My grandmother was a nurse and taught me many things. She called me, even during the night, when delivering a baby. I want to be higher than [my companions who are nurses] if I put my focus there.”  With a small hospital in Rotifunk and government health centers in villages around the area, there should be a job for Junneth when she’s ready.

Junneth’s story of determination to get an education despite the odds and life’s cruel detours is not unique. Many Sierra Leone senior high “girls” are really young women, 21 and 22 years of age or more by the time they graduate. Their educations were interrupted – maybe more than once – because their families couldn’t continue to pay. Often one or both parents died, became ill, left the home, or aged and stopped working.

Early marriage and children are the fate of too many young women forced to drop out like Junneth. Sherbro Foundation’s goal is to keep them in school, learning and preparing for careers where they can support their families and help develop their communities.

I’d say that’s a tremendous investment from a $25 scholarship. Paramount Chief Charles Caulker sends his thanks for everyone’s support in sending Bumpeh Chiefdom girls to school. Parents, he says, are taking advantage of the opportunity the Scholarship Program offers to educate their children.

“More girls here are learning and at a higher level than ever before.”

You can return Junneth to school in September and young women like her. Please help here: I’ll send a young woman to school. 

We’ll double your impact. Our matching funds are being claimed. But the Sherbro Foundation Board will match the next $4000 donated.

 Thank you!

— Arlene Golembiewski, Executive Director 

Can $25 Be Life Changing? Send a Sierra Leone Girl to School.

Can $25 Be Life Changing? Send a Sierra Leone Girl to School.

Posted on by • Posted in Blog, News • Tagged , , , , • Leave a comment

Every girl in Sherbro Foundation’s Girls’ Scholarship Program — now more than 600 — has a story to tell. But even in this program for the neediest, Fatmata’s story is heart-wrenching.

We’re kicking off the 2018-19 Girls Scholarship drive, our sixth, with the story of one our first scholarship recipients and how $25 scholarships have changed her life.

Fatmata has received SFSL scholarships for four years, allowing her to finish the 9th grade at Bumpeh Academy. Soft spoken, Fatmata (white headscarf below) enthusiastically attends our partner CCET’s after-school tutoring program, prepping 9th graders for their national junior high completion exams. She breaks into smiles as she joins her classmates, all eager to prepare for senior high. Advancing girls to senior high is one our main objectives.

20180713_171554 (3)

Sherbro Foundation’s scholarship program gives priority to girls who are orphans or with single parents and from low-income families, even by local standards. Many from villages must leave their families to board in town to attend secondary school — another costly expense. Too many drop out after junior high without funds to continue.

20180712_184638 (3)Fatmata’s not sure how old she is. We estimate she’s 17. Her family was typical of many in Bumpeh Chiefdom. Her mother was the first of her father’s three wives. As the senior wife, she took the youngest wife’s child to raise with her own, a tradition. The child went missing and was found dead with no explanation.

Fatmata’s mother was held responsible and put in prison. Pregnant at the time, she delivered in prison and was released when the baby was a year-and-a-half. Fatmata had completed primary school, but her angry father gave no support for her mother or her children. Fatmata couldn’t start secondary school.

The Ebola epidemic hit when her father was home in adjoining Ribbi chiefdom. He was quarantined in a village with the virus, contracted Ebola and died. Fatmata’s mother now widowed with five children became involved with another man. While pregnant again, she had an uncontrolled infection. She and the baby died.

Fatmata’s father’s family wanted her to live with them in Ribbi Chiefdom. She resisted, “I was afraid in Ribbi I wouldn’t be able to go to school.” Another stepmother had enrolled her in junior high in Rotifunk where she received a SFSL scholarship and a uniform. Ribbi has no scholarship program.

20180712_184459 (2)“She made a good choice to stay here,” said our local partner CCET’s Managing Director Rosaline Kaimbay. “She’s determined to learn. We need to motivate her. I love the girl. So bold. I will follow her progress.”

Fatmata (green beret, left with Mrs. Kaimbay) and her two younger sisters (also left) live with their maternal uncle and grandmother in Rotifunk. I counted at least ten in their small house. Her uncle is very supportive of his three nieces. I never met her hard-working grandmother, always out in her small peanut farm.

20180715_171915 (2)During that tumultuous time, Fatmata had to repeat her first year of junior high. She’s continued to advance to the 9th grade with four SFSL scholarships.

Fatmata, left, at her home’s outdoor kitchen where they cook on a wood fire sheltered from sun and rain.

In two weeks, she’ll take her national 9th grade exams and has a very good chance of moving on to senior high. She’ll be part of a small elite group of rural girls working for high school diplomas.

Fatmata is the kind of success story we work hard to support with our scholarship program.

IMG-20180606-WA0004 (3)Many other bright girls are eager to keep learning, often after interruptions in their educations. 

Girls like Fatmata are the future of the country. A number of men and women alike have told me they support girls going to school: “When you educate a girl, you educate the country.  A boy just looks after himself.”

After telling me her story, Fatmata asked, “After school, who will take care of me?” We’ve helped her this far, but then what? She has no role models to follow.

I paused for a moment, and then told her, “You’ll finish school, go to college and get a good job. You’ll be able to take care of yourself and help your family, just as Mrs. Kaimbay and I have done ourselves.” 

Your $25 scholarship will keep Fatmata and girls like her in school and out of early marriage and teenage pregnancy. It will give them the chance to gain independence after graduating by getting a wage-paying job or entering vocational school or college. Teaching, nursing and the police force are traditional jobs. But we want to encourage girls to go into growing fields with jobs like accountants, IT support, lab technicians, floor tilers and electricians. 

We’re also proud to have started our first college scholarship program in 2017-18 for girls meeting college entrance requirements.

In just five years, you’ve made the Girls’ Scholarship Program a great success with over 600 girls getting the help they need to attend secondary school — and keep advancing. What’s happened to last year’s cover story girls?

IMG-20180529-WA0001 (3)Isatu, an orphan in senior high, just completed 12th grade. She’s awaiting the next national senior high completion exam. She could be a candidate for our new college scholarship program.

Alima, (2nd from left) a motherless girl, walked five miles each way to school from her aunt’s house. Now in the 9th grade and living with a Rotifunk relative, she gets CCET tutoring for her junior high completion exam and is in the computer training class, too. One of her school’s brightest, she was one of two students to represent the school in a local interschool quiz competition.

Our goal for this year is to at least match last year’s results and again award 460 scholarships to deserving girls. We continue to emphasize advancement into senior high. Your support has doubled the number of girls in senior high over the last four years!

We have great news from the newly elected Sierra Leone government. They will be paying school fees for all secondary students as part of their program to improve education.  

Sherbro Foundation’s $25 scholarship award this year will consist of a uniform and notebooks for each awardee. These supplies actually cost more than school fees and are a formidable barrier for most Bumpeh Chiefdom students. Uniforms hand sewn by local Rotifunk tailors help keep costs down.

We hope you’ll help send Sierra Leone girls back to school in September. Yes, $25 can be life changing for so many girls like Fatmata.  Please donate here: I’ll send a girl to school. 

We’ll double your impact. The first $5000 in gifts will be matched!

Thank you! 

— Arlene Golembiewski, Executive Director

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aminata goes to University

Posted on by • Posted in Blog • Tagged , , , • 3 Comments

Sherbro Foundation was thrilled to offer our first college scholarship in 2017-18 for a girl graduating in Rotifunk. We’re now delighted seeing how awardee Aminata Kamara’s first year is shaping up at University of Sierra Leone’s Institute of Public Administration & Management where she’s studying Banking and Finance.

Aminata is the youngest of 18 children of now aged parents who no longer work. She was an exceptional high school student, receiving the highest results for a female student on the national completion exam among Moyamba District’s 40 secondary schools.

IMG-20180224-WA0002 (2)

Moving from a quiet, rural village to the demanding urban environment of the capital Freetown, Aminata has quickly adapted. She shows, given the opportunity, intelligent, eager young people can catch up and perform well. Here’s our recent WhatsApp chat.

Arlene G.: What classes did you take in your first year? How did they go?

Aminata K.: In each year we have two semesters, each with six modules. First semester I took:

  1. Mathematics
  2. English
  3. Elements of Banking
  4. Principals of Accounting
  5. Information and Communication Technology [computer science]
  6. Human Resource Management

In second semester, there are new subjects. The classes are great. I’m doing fine.

AG: I’m glad to see you get an integrated approach with classes with like Human Resources Management from Year One. What are your biggest challenges in starting college?

IMG-20180608-WA0003AK: The high cost of transportation and high Internet cost. I can’t afford a computer laptop and a modem to do the required research.

I had to go to [an internet] café, left, to do some of those things and I pay a huge amount. Most of the tutors just give us topics and ask us to do our own research through Internet.

 

AG: Did you find anything surprisingly easy?

AK: I met new friends who are very hospitable. Some that are staying within the central area allowed me to stay with them during examination week so that we can study as a group, since I am staying in the far east end of Freetown where we experience a lot of traffic. I sometimes have to come down out of the [public transport] vehicle and hurry up on foot for me not to miss my lectures.

 

IMG-20180608-WA0007 (2)

AG: Tell us about the teaching staff at U of Sierra Leone.

AK: We have good lecturers and they teach well. When I started taking lectures, I found it difficult to understand the way of teaching because it is a different way of teaching [lecture and take your own notes] to that of high school [teacher writes notes on board that students copy]. But I am okay with it now as I have just sat to my first semester exams. I am now enjoying the lectures.

AG: Are professors responsive to students and help you succeed?

AK: They will see that the students understand whatever they are teaching and if you do not, they will repeat it again. They counsel students about their education.

AG: I know you lost about a month with classes shut down during the recent presidential election in March-April. How do you catch up?

AK: In the second semester we have only three months. That is why they give us some topics to research on our own. [Over the summer break, I will] keep studying and doing some research.

10371915_383754195116702_1689531377752587635_nAG: You have a change of government, with the new president making education his first priority. What are you students hoping to see change with the new administration?

AK: The change in government has not affected us in any way. We are just hoping to see the President fulfill his promise and we want the government to reduce the fees for us.

AG: Any new thoughts about the major you selected? Do you plan to continue with Banking and Finance?

AK: Yes, I want to continue if I am given the opportunity.

AG: What do you like about living in Freetown? Or dislike? It’s a big change from small town Rotifunk.

AK: I dislike the traffic. The thing I like about it is you can get good quality education here in Freetown.

AG: What message do you have for the people in the US who helped you go to college?

AK: On behalf of my old father and my blind mother, please help me extend my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all those who in diverse ways made it possible for me to be in the university. I am so grateful to the donors and to CCET-SL for letting my dreams come true and putting a smile on my face and that of my parents.

AG: We are so proud of you and excited to see you doing so well in your first year! Best of luck on your exams.

What’s New for our 2018 Girls’ Scholarship Program

What’s New for our 2018 Girls’ Scholarship Program

Posted on by • Posted in Blog • Tagged , , , • Leave a comment

Education in Sierra Leone is on an exciting new track and we’re expanding our 2018 scholarship program, too. Before our annual scholarship campaign kicks off in July, here’s a preview of the changes.

New government, education changes

First, the new Sierra Leone president sworn in April 2018 has made education his first priority. He is doubling the portion of the government’s budget going to education from 10% to 20%.

President Maada Bio’s first big initiative is to make school free for primary and secondary school students.

He also plans to work on teacher standards, training and pay to improve quality of education.

Our scholarship program will still be needed as much as ever. School uniforms cost more than school fees and that expense is another barrier to girls attending school.

IMG-20171205-WA0002

Last year with your strong response to the scholarship campaign, we supplied uniforms to two-thirds of girls receiving scholarships.

All girls also received exercise books to take class notes — essential for schools with no textbooks.

For 2018-19, a scholarship will consist of a uniform and exercise books. This will actually cost 40% to 50% more than the past school fee only scholarship – or $25 to $30 for junior and senior high girls. Uniforms will again be sewn by local Rotifunk tailors to keep costs down, as Sierra Leone’s high inflation drives prices up year by year.

We made a major increase in scholarships last year. We’ll target for the same number of scholarships for 2018-19 – but at higher value. Sending 410 girls in one rural community to school is exceptional. Senior-high girls will get priority.

With your help, we’d love to send even more girls to school or add additional supplies for each girl. Or do both!

Time to help disadvantaged boys

We’ve gotten a lot of local feedback for several years about why boys never get scholarships. Following Bumpeh Chiefdom Paramount Chief Caulker’s lead, we’ve focused to date on scholarships for girls as a means of achieving parity between girls and boys attending school.

IMG_2705 (3)

Enrollment for junior-high girls is approaching that of boys. And there are many disadvantaged boys who experience the same barriers to education as girls.

So, this year we will offer 10% additional scholarships for boys. It’s important for boys to succeed, too. Boys who struggle to go to school need to feel someone is behind them, offering encouragement and support.

Sending two girls to college on scholarship

You made sure we reached our goal of adding a second college scholarship for another graduate in 2018-19!   

Big thanks go out to all who responded to our request in March-April to fund college scholarships for two deserving girls.

Aminata Kamara, left, recipient of our first college scholarship is in her first year at the University of Sierra Leone’s Institute for Public Administration and Management in Freetown.

We especially want to thank the former Peace Corps volunteer who stepped up with a matching grant to pay for half of a $1,700 scholarship if we could find new donors for the other half.

We did, and this generous anonymous donor upped his match by another $250 for donations by Cincinnati area Peace Corps people.  They responded donating more than double that amount.

So, collectively, the Peace Corps community  is sending one girl to college in full! They know the crucial value of education in developing countries.

This means we can maintain the outstanding young woman who started at the University of Sierra Leone for 2017-18 for another year AND start a second student in her college career. The scholarships cover tuition, fees and a living stipend.

We began five years ago with the modest goal of sending some girls to one secondary school. Your response has been tremendous. The lives of over 600 girls in four schools have been changed by the opportunity to go to school on your scholarships.

And now, two young women will have the opportunity to reach their full potential by attending college.

It definitely took a village to support these girls’ educations — an American “village”.

We’re indebted to all our American villagers for making the dreams of so many girls come true.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG-20180224-WA0000

 

 

Five Years of Sending Girls to School – By the Numbers

Five Years of Sending Girls to School – By the Numbers

Posted on by • Posted in Blog, News • Tagged , , , , • 1 Comment

We’ll soon kick off the campaign for our sixth year of the Girls Scholarship Program for Bumpeh Chiefdom. We thought you’d like to see what’s been accomplished in the first five years —  by the numbers.

Sherbro Foundation was founded in March 2013. We immediately funded scholarships for 67 junior-high girls in the 2012-13 school year already in progress. The numbers have been steadily increasing:

1250             Total number scholarships awarded

Over 600     Number of girls receiving scholarships, some for more than one year

  4                  Number schools participating — 2 Jr/Sr Highs and 2 Jr High only      

6X                 Increase in scholarships given annually — from 67 in 2013 to 410 in 2017

2X                 Increase in scholarship value in 2017 by adding uniforms for 2/3 of girls         

2X                 Increase in number of girls attending Senior High — from 58 to 120 in 2017

100               Percent of girls wanting to attend Sr. High in 2017 who received scholarships

 18                Number of 12th-grade awardees taking National exam (1st in 2016)

  3                 Number 12th-grade awardees meeting college entry requirements

  1                 College scholarship added in 2017

Here’s our five-year trend in scholarships:

 

5 yr scholarship data2 (2)

Only one in three Bumpeh Chiefdom teens have been able to attend secondary school. We started by ensuring more girls made the transition from primary school to junior high.

We focus on the most disadvantaged girls at risk of dropping out of school — orphans or with single parents, low-income families, and students who must leave home villages to attend secondary school in town. Often, a girl meets all the criteria.

The drop-out rate from junior to senior high is typically 50%. Our goal is to advance more girls to senior high and help them graduate. So, we expanded senior-high scholarships, while continuing to increase junior-high enrollment.

The short-term dip in 2015-16 came after the seven-month Ebola crisis, when many students from villages, especially senior high girls, returned to school late or not at all.

With your strong support, we doubled scholarships and the value of the awards (scholarship plus uniform) in each of the last two years.

In 2016, the first three scholarship recipients graduated from senior high.

And in 2017, we reached the ultimate goal by awarding the first college scholarship to one of first girls to meet college entrance requirements.

Now in January 2018, we added extra tutoring classes to help ensure 9th and 12th graders pass their junior and senior high national completion exams and advance to their next level of education. We’ll continue this program for the 2018-19 academic year.

Step by step, we’re reaching the goal we set of girls completing secondary school. And now we’re reaching beyond, to help girls advance to college and become leaders in their community and their country.

 

Preparing Sierra Leone Girls for Success

Preparing Sierra Leone Girls for Success

Posted on by • Posted in Blog • Tagged , , , • 1 Comment

Girls can’t go to college or get jobs if they don’t successfully graduate from high school. And they won’t complete high school if they don’t first learn what they should in junior high.

75 Bumpeh Chiefdom 9th grade girls are completing a new tutoring program designed to help them pass their junior high completion exam. In its first five months, it’s exceeding our initial expectations.     

IMG-20180409-WA0003 (2)

The chiefdom’s drop-out rate from junior to senior high has typically been 50%. It’s a combination of inability to continue paying for school and not being well prepared academically for senior high. Many families just can’t pay beyond junior high. If students don’t pass their junior high exam, it’s that much harder for parents to pay for them to repeat a grade. Even if they pass, they may still struggle with senior high subjects.

With your support for the Girls Scholarship Program, Sherbro Foundation has been addressing the cost problem.  We want to remove inability to pay as a barrier to girls continuing into senior high.

Now we’re tackling the knowledge deficiency problem.

The tutoring program is the brainchild of Rosaline Kaimbay, Executive Director of our Sierra Leone partner, CCET, the Center for Community Empowerment & Transformation. She’s using the same technique she used as the highly successful founding principal of a secondary school.

IMG-20180409-WA0002 (2)She’s brought the most qualified local teachers together to provide evening classes that complete and intensively review the school curriculum. 9th graders in schools without qualified teachers now get the chance to be fully prepared for their national proficiency exam.

75 of the 80 9th graders who started evening classes in January have continued and will soon be taking their national proficiency exam in late June. They also received computer training as part of the program. Gibril Bendu, above, an award winning local science teacher, has been leading the program.

The first group of nine 12th grade girls received four months of remedial classes before their final proficiency exam in April. CCET immediately engaged 11th graders to start the tutoring program. They plan to continue classes over the summer holiday.

Boys are invited and starting to join girls in the program. They need the chance to succeed, too.

IMG-20170927-WA0000 (4)Mrs. Kaimbay is focused on the success of the chiefdom’s teens.

Left, she finds the most disadvantaged girls like the one on the right, and tells them, come to school. If you can’t pay for a uniform, we will help you.

“I want to get results.”

That’s Mrs. Kaimbay, referring to the students passing the national exams. “And then I will be proud.”

Proud she should be. The tutoring program is among the best spent money in our organization’s five years, in terms of impact and number of students affected.

Since its January start, over 100 kids are getting help to assure their success at the most critical junctures in their education – making the transition to senior high and to higher education.

At about $50 per child, including computer training, this is high value. And it’s an investment that will continue to pay back through their future success and their impact on the chiefdom.

Mrs. Kaimbay is now ready to “camp” the 75 9th grade girls by turning the CCET building into a dormitory / classroom for 3 weeks before and during their proficiency exam.

IMG-20180305-WA0002 (3)

The girls will live and sleep there 24/7, getting intensive prepping with sample test questions and keeping them focused & energized for their exam. All tutoring teachers participate. Mrs. Kaimbay will sleep there herself – on the concrete floor – as chaperone, coach and to supervise cooking to feed the students three meals a day.

With this technique, she got 100% of her former students passing the exam three years running. These girls are coming from other schools with more of an academic deficit. After 5 months of evening classes and with this last boost, Mrs. Kaimbay hopes to get 80% to 90% passes.

The diligence shown by everyone in the tutoring program has been impressive. It’s free to students and teachers get modest stipends. But I wondered if the commitment and enthusiasm for extra evening classes would be flagging now five months into the program.

It hasn’t. These girls are focused on succeeding and advancing their education. Their tutors look at the girls’ success as their own success.

Huge thanks go out to the Beaman Family for funding the tutoring program’s first 10 months and now stepping up to cover cost of feeding the girls for the three-week review camp.

We also send our deep thanks to everyone contributing to the scholarship program. It’s your support that brought them this far and gave them the opportunity to succeed.

I’m confident the girls will do us all proud. I can’t wait to see the next incoming senior high class in September filled with girls ready to continue learning.

What Better Way to Celebrate Five Years of Sending Girls to School. Send them to College!

What Better Way to Celebrate Five Years of Sending Girls to School. Send them to College!

Posted on by • Posted in Blog, News • Tagged , , • 1 Comment

Sherbro Foundation Sierra Leone celebrated our 5th anniversary as a nonprofit on March 14, 2018!

We started with a simple goal: educate girls and improve overall literacy in rural Bumpeh Chiefdom. With literacy, people make better choices, boost their livelihoods and improve their lives and those of their children.

In 2013, our first scholarship program sent 67 7th and 8th grade girls to one secondary school. Today, over 600 girls have advanced their educations at four schools with 1250 Sherbro Foundation scholarships – some receiving scholarships for two or three years.

Help celebrate this 5th year milestone. Join us now in sending the first girls graduating to college.

First college scholarship   Last fall, you helped us step up to this next challenge with a big response to our secondary school scholarship campaign. We added a college scholarship.

Meet Aminata Kamara, the first awardee for 2017-18. Her story is one of focus and perseverance against all odds. You’ll see why this exceptional scholar was chosen.

IMG-20180224-WA0001 (2)Village beginning  Aminata, left, is the youngest of 12 children. Her parents scratched together a living in the Rotifunk area. It’s typical of the chiefdom, with mud houses and where most earn a dollar or two a day as small traders at the weekly market. Her father was a primary school teacher, a low paying job, and her mother a trader. Now, her father is retired and her mother blind.

High ranking scholar  Aminata was among the first local girls who made it to senior high.

Then in 2016, she ranked highest of the first three Rotifunk students to pass the national graduation exam at the university requirements level. All three were girls with Sherbro Foundation scholarships. Her scores were Rotifunk’s best in 40 years.

Aminata was also the highest scoring girl in Moyamba district, one of 12 administrative districts in Sierra Leone with 40 secondary schools.

It’s uncommon to get high scores in seven subjects, when most students don’t pass the exam the first time, even in Freetown. This propelled Aminata forward with a college scholarship to study in China.

Happy news ran out  The China scholarship fell through when the Sierra Leone government did not prepare her passport in time. She sat out a year pondering her fate at home taking care of her mother.

Although Aminata had no reason in her world to think her education would continue, she persevered, and in October 2017, became our first college scholarship recipient. “Since I started primary school, I have got that intention to go to college. Never mind I don’t have the hope that I will, because we are poor,’’ she said, via text message.

IMG-20180224-WA0000.jpgProud college student  Aminata, left, is now a first year student at the Institute of Public Administration and Management at the University of Sierra Leone in Freetown – thanks to Sherbro Foundation’s first college scholarship award of $1700, paying her first year’s tuition, fees, books, transportation and a stipend for living expenses.

She’s good at math and wants to study banking, and eventually become a bank manager. “I kept on studying, hoping one day God will send me a helper in my education.”

She is already dreaming of earning a master’s degree. “I would like to further [my education] overseas with a masters and become a college lecturer,” she said. “And I also want to help my colleagues in the village.”

You need a mentor Aminata’s role model is Rosaline Kaimbay, a dynamic Rotifunk native who returned to start the first girls’ secondary school in Bumpeh Chiefdom. She watched Rosaline as principal and now as managing director of the Center for Community Empowerment and Transformation, our local nonprofit partner, overseeing CCET’s seven programs. Rosaline mentors many girls, and helped the first graduate by making her home a dormitory for senior girls.

Aminata Kamara 1st college scholarship (4)“She is a woman, but she does [so much] good and all the people in the community admire her,” Aminata said. Rosaline shows girls a woman born in their chiefdom can get a college degree and take leadership roles usually filled by men.

Aminata, left, is now becoming a role model herself and has advice for younger girls at home watching her successes.

“I want them to forget about their present status; hope [instead] to use their future. Let them forget about material things, about men — these things will pass. Let us focus about education,” she told 460 girls receiving secondary school scholarships at last fall’s award ceremony, left.

“Let us know that our tomorrow will be greater than today.”

You can make Aminata’s tomorrow greater. Help send her to a second year of university. If you’re a new donor, you’ll double your impact. A former Peace Corps Volunteer will match the first $850 from new donors. $1700 will pay Aminata’s second year in full. Pass this on to friends and family who want to see girls succeed.

AND this donor will match $250 from Cincinnati area Returned Peace Corps Volunteers!

More girls in Rotifunk are ready for college. With your help, we’ll also start a second girl on her college journey in 2018-19.

Transform a girl’s life. Send her to college here.  

Any excess funds will go to our annual girls’ secondary school campaign planned for this summer. We’re keeping the pipeline full of girls getting an education and ready to change the world. 

Thank you!

Arlene Golembiewski, Executive Director

 

Getting Kids Ready for Senior High and Beyond

Posted on by • Posted in Blog • Tagged , , , • 2 Comments

 

It was a Wednesday night, the first week of school in January, and our partner CCET-SL’s Community Learning Center was thronged with Rotifunk-area kids. Over 80 9th and 12th graders returned to a classroom at night because they’re eager to continue learning.

IMG-20180122-WA0007 (2)

Come July, they’ll be sitting for their senior high and college entrance exams. They are intent on using their education as a path to a better life. But first, they must pass the West African standardized school completion exams, and they want to pass the first time.

Eighty-three students quickly signed up for CCET-SL’s new Tutoring Program. These 9th and 12th graders attend evening classes three times a week to review the full junior high or senior high curriculum, and make sure they’re prepared for the school completion exams.

Alima Kanu JSS3 tutoring student (2)Alima, left, is one student who signed up. We introduced Alima last year and the formidable challenges she’s faced to stay in school. When her older parents couldn’t pay for any more schooling, they sent to live with her aunt. She had to walk five miles each way to her Rotifunk school.

With a SFSL-funded scholarship, the bright 14-year-old has progressed to the 9th grade. We were delighted to see she’s joined the tutoring program.

Alima was able to move from her aunt’s village into town this year. She’s determined to go to college and told us here why she comes for extra evening tutoring.

 

IMG-20180129-WA0013 (2)Thanks to a $5,000 Beaman Family Fund grant, the Tutoring Program is being offered free of charge to both girls and boys.

The grant pays for five part-time local teachers, a sixth full-time teacher to coordinate the program for 2017, and teacher and student learning materials.

Gibril Bendu, above, the only Science teacher in town, is leading the Tutoring Program for CCET-SL.

Introducing computers — All participating students must also complete an introduction to computers. By the end of term, they will have learned basics of Windows, Word for Windows and Excel.

IMG-20180131-WA0012Paramount Chief Charles Caulker visited the first week and immediately called us in Cincinnati. We heard all the noise in the background of kids getting into the preloaded computer games, as their first effort in learning how to navigate a PC and use the mouse. He said it made him so proud.

“Just think, there are 80 children in my chiefdom now learning how to use a computer!”

Rural education challenges — The unexpected Beaman Family Fund gift is giving rural children the opportunity to succeed in the modern world, just as city kids have.

For over 20 years, no Bumpeh Chiefdom student passed the West African standardized junior high or senior high completion exams, the BECE and WASSCE, or met university entry requirements.

In 2016, the first three candidates (all with Sherbro Foundation scholarships) passed the WASSCE senior high exam with university requirements, and are currently attending college.

More Bumpeh Chiefdom students now are progressing to junior high, many with Sherbro Foundation scholarships. But they face serious limitations in advancing to senior high and beyond. Schools have inexperienced teachers, many unqualified in their subject matter, especially at the senior high level. It’s difficult to get teachers with four-year degrees to live in a rural community.

IMG_2038 (2)Students don’t have textbooks and must copy limited notes teachers write on the blackboard.

Poor school policies advance students who fail exams to the next grade, where they don’t catch up. Poor discipline may mean students don’t complete the full curriculum.

When students go home after school, they don’t have a suitable study environment. Most live in crowded conditions with distractions, noise and no lighting. They lack the support and coaching important to reach goals no one around them has achieved.

Filling in the gaps — Kids will never make it to college or vocational school if they don’t first learn what they should in junior high.

IMG-20170927-WA0002Working to fill this gap is CCET-SL’s Tutoring Program, the brainchild of Managing Director Rosaline Kaimbay, left. As a former school principal, she ran year-end study camps where 9th graders had intensive all-day review classes for four weeks. The result was 100% of her students passed the junior high BECE completion exam, uncommon for any school, let alone a rural school.

At CCET-SL, Mrs. Kaimbay is turning her approach into a three-day-a-week evening program open to students from all Bumpeh Chiefdom schools. With the Tutoring Program, kids can achieve the knowledge level needed to be successful in senior high. Dropouts are reduced and the likelihood of advancing to college or vocational school improved. Graduating seniors will get prepped for their college entrance exam.

Pride of the chiefdom — Chief Caulker said the program is already much admired in the chiefdom.

Adama Kamara JSS3 tutoring student (2)Girls like Adama, left, feel pride that they’re joining a group of chiefdom academic elites, studying with the best local teachers in a first-class environment complete with solar light and computers.

They arrive early and leave talking with their friends in English about what they just learned. Chatting in English doesn’t normally happen in a rural environment, Chief said. It’s strictly Krio, the country’s vernacular.

Parents are overwhelmed by all the efforts being made for their children, he said, and that it’s all free of charge. For a chiefdom with 70% illiteracy, moving 80 kids to academic proficiency at the senior high level is a very big deal. A real source of pride.

 

More needs — Still, there’s more to do. Some students attending the program live in villages 3-6 miles away, and were valuing their education over even food.

IMG-20180122-WA0003 (4)It’s too far for them to walk home from school for their main (and sometimes only) daily meal and return again for evening classes. Some had not eaten since heading to school at 7 a.m.! And it’s too dark for girls to be walking home that distance at 7:30 p.m.

CCET-SL arranged to feed these students in the short term, and teachers taxi them home with CCET-SL motorcycles. Most students are inadequately fed and will perform better with an evening meal to fuel their brains.

Our next goal for these dedicated students is to raise additional funds for a meal program for the whole class and fuel costs to ensure girls are safely taken home at night.

In the meantime, classes are on and it’s a full house.

Hundreds of Girls Scholarships Thrill Bumpeh Chiefdom

Posted on by • Posted in Blog • Tagged , , , • Leave a comment

We thought this year’s Girls Scholarship Campaign was highly successful. More than doubling donations over the previous year is definitely a success.

How do the 460 scholarship students and their community see it? They are thrilled.

IMG-20171205-WA0013 (3)

After the recent Bumpeh Chiefdom scholarship awards ceremony, “parents were singing and dancing with happiness because their girls can stay in school,” reported Rosaline Kaimbay, managing director of our local partner, The Center for Community Empowerment and Transformation – Sierra Leone.

IMG-20171124-WA0010 (3)And special guests repeatedly said they’ve never heard of a larger – or more complete – scholarship program anywhere in the country. Ibrahim Coker, left, area supervisor of schools for the Sierra Leone Ministry of Education said: “I’ve never seen such a number of scholarships together with a total package including uniforms, exercise books and solar study lights.”

With $US17,900 from Sherbro Foundation donors, CCET was able to provide 460 school fee scholarships to young women in four secondary schools. And this year, we added 310 uniforms for girls entering junior high and all 120 senior high students.

PLUS, for the first time, 100 students studying for 9th or 12th grade graduation exams received portable solar lights – never seen before – so they can study in Africa’s long dark evenings. AND, we started the first college scholarship.

Scholarship awards CCET bldg 2 (3)“It’s very impressive. I’ve never seen any organization giving so many awards and paying for so many things,” said Alice Conteh Morgan, left, managing director of Reliance Insurance Risk Co. in Freetown. Conteh Morgan, a Rotifunk native, attended to encourage the girls: “With your educations, you can achieve everything.”

In comparison, Plan International, a large UK-based charity, awards fewer than 50 scholarships annually in Bumpeh Chiefdom for girls already enrolled in an older program. Most of our awardees don’t qualify. That’s why Sherbro Foundation’s work is so appreciated.

Scholarship money, like any school fee, goes into the schools’ operations and to make school improvements.

“CCET-SL has paid for all (160) girls in our school. We appreciate it so much. May god richly bless you and all the donors,” was the message from Daniel Koroma, vice principal of Bumpeh Academy Secondary School. The school immediately began applying scholarship funds to build classrooms, since many of its classes are held in partial structures with no walls.

IMG-20171127-WA0000The awards ceremony was covered by the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Co., the country’s only TV station and a regional radio station. Paramount Chief Charles Caulker said he continues to receive phone calls congratulating him on Bumpeh Chiefdom’s big news.

Likewise, Rosaline Kaimbay’s phone kept ringing. “It made me so proud to hear from friends around the country saying they saw news of our impressive program.” Above, she presents an Ahmadiyya Islamic school student with her uniform, exercise books and solar study light, together with school principal Mr. Tarawallie.

Inspiring girls to come to school

Posted on by • Posted in Blog • Tagged , , , , • Leave a comment

While we were busy wrapping up this year’s successful Girls Scholarships campaign, CCET-SL’s Rosaline Kaimbay was making the rounds of the four Bumpeh Chiefdom participating secondary schools.

IMG-20170927-WA0006

She’s been visiting each school to check their enrollment of girls. And telling girls to tell their friends at home who didn’t report to school to come back. If they can’t pay school fees or buy a uniform, we will help them.

Mrs. Kaimbay is an inspiring role model for these girls, having been born and raised in the chiefdom. We’re fortunate to have her at the helm of CCET-SL.

Mrs. Kaimbay and Bumpeh Academy Secondary School students, left. BASS has both junior and senior high classes and their enrollment of girls is growing.

We doubled our scholarship campaign goal this year!

Our partner, CCET-SL, is now distributing 466 school fee scholarships to the girls that need them most. We added uniforms this year, and have 360 to combine with scholarships.

We expect that every Bumpeh Chiefdom girl who wants to attend senior high will receive a scholarship and a uniform! Helping girls progress through senior high is our goal.

IMG-20170927-WA0000

When girls see such a successful woman as Mrs. Kaimbay coming from among their ranks, they think, I can do this, too. And it starts with going to school.

Rotifunk’s Ahmadiyya School, left, is a junior secondary school.  Mrs. Kaimbay’s visit is motivating and encourages girls to come to school.

We asked you to send girls to school. And you did!!

We asked you to send girls to school. And you did!!

Posted on by • Posted in Blog • Tagged , , • Leave a comment

IMG-20170713-WA0002 (8)

We are excited to announce the results of the Girls’ Scholarship campaign. Thanks to your generosity, the campaign collected $15,800, including the Foundation Board’s $6150 matching funds. Nearly double our original target!

We can help our local partner CCET greatly expand the program. We’ll support more Bumpeh Chiefdom girls – and offer more to make it easier for them to stay in school.

410 girls will receive school fee scholarships for a full year of junior or senior high.

We’re also adding to this year’s awards.

  • All 410 girls will receive notebooks and pens. In schools without textbooks, students copy notes teachers write on blackboards – another student expense.
  • 260 of these girls will also get a school uniform – those entering 7th grade at new schools and girls in senior high.

We believe we will be able to offer every chiefdom girl who wants to attend senior high a scholarship, a school uniform and notebooks!

One campaign goal is to keep more girls in school and help them advance through senior high. We need to confirm actual enrollment numbers this month at the two participating senior highs. But we’ve targeted for our estimate of covering all 120 senior high girls!

Your gifts effectively more than doubled the number of awards girls will receive compared to last year. Uniforms cost a little more than school fee scholarships, so this doubles the value of the award for 260 girls receiving both scholarships and uniforms. With 150 additional school fee scholarships, that’s equivalent to 670 awards this school year compared to 300 school-fee-only scholarships last year.

Sewing uniforms Aug '17Uniforms are being sewn locally.

This keeps costs down. And it keeps money in the local community.

Our local partner CCET engaged Mr. Jalloh, left, a Rotifunk tailor, to sew uniforms production style. He started in August to have them ready when school opens.

 

There’s more good news. As your donations continued to come in, we recognized we could do still more. There are two other needs we’ve been wanting to address. Now you’ve provided the funding to start filling both.

We just shipped 100 solar lanterns for upper class girls – 9 th and 12 th graders who will study for graduation exams this year. Passing will allow them to enroll in senior high or college, respectively.

Girls informed us of their dilemma of no lighting when I was in Bumpeh Chiefdom last February. The sun goes down quickly by 6:30 p.m. year-round in the tropics. With no electricity in the chiefdom, girls have no lighting to study at night. Constantly replacing batteries for LED lights is a costly burden for students and their families.

Women Veg snip d10 (2)The solar lights we sent were designed for just this kind of developing country environment. They are simple, reliable, durable and even water-proof.

I brought some on my last two trips as gifts. Two years later, people report they work great.

Left, Arlene presents an Imam a solar light for a village mosque.


Here’s perhaps the most exciting news. We are awarding our first college scholarship for a deserving girl!

The first chiefdom girls in the scholarship program are now graduating from high school. After carrying them this far, we want to keep the doors of opportunity open for girls to enter college.

We’re working out the costs for 4-year and 2-year college degrees in Sierra Leone. We plan to award one girl now for her first-year costs for tuition, room, board, books and transportation. This is about $1700 a year for a 4-year university. We have this first year covered, and will add college scholarships as a goal for future campaigns. Look for more on this year’s awardee in a future newsletter.

We can’t thank everyone enough who contributed to make all of this possible. You are amazing!

Donations came literally from across the country. From Alaska to Key Largo, Florida. From Maine to Los Angeles, and many places in-between.

We hope you’ve come to agree that educating a girl is one of the most important things we can do to make this world a better place.

On behalf of the girls of Bumpeh Chiefdom and our local partner The Center for Community Empowerment & Transformation, we all say – Thank you!

— Arlene Golembiewski, Executive Director

 

 

 

 

Why not them? Young mothers want to return to school.

Why not them? Young mothers want to return to school.

Posted on by • Posted in Blog • Tagged , , • Leave a comment

“Hawanatu is 22 and the mother of two children, but she is desperate to go back to school.”

Bumpeh Academy Vice Principal, Daniel Koroma told me about girls and young women, many now mothers, forced to drop out of school. They come to him looking for help to return. Hawanatu, left,  dropped out after the 8th grade.

The picture Daniel sent of Hawanatu shows her with a plaintive look on her face and a T-shirt emblazoned with “School” across her chest. People buy discarded used clothes from piles sold in the market, and I thought her choice was not coincidental.

Hawanatu is typical of girls pushed into early marriage by the age of 16 or 17 by parents who can no longer feed and care for them. Few local men go beyond primary school. Girls marry someone of their own background, and soon they’re pregnant.

Sherbro Foundation has helped 450 girls go to junior and senior secondary school with school fee scholarships over the last four years.

Many girls had repeat scholarships keeping them in school. Now, we’re emphasizing helping girls stay in senior high – when drop-out rates are highest – so they can graduate.

We include young mothers who want to return to school and improve their lives.

Young mothers like Hawanatu soon understand the way to make a better life for their kids is to complete their own education. They also want to be able to help their children with their studies.

IMG_4224 (2)Hawanatu’s husband, an “unqualified” primary school teacher, didn’t complete high school. He has the opportunity now to get basic teacher training, but it means he’ll be away from home and can’t support his family.

Both Hawanatu’s parents are dead and she stays with her in-laws in a village outside Rotifunk. To earn money, she makes coconut cakes and a treks five miles each way to sell them in the Rotifunk market.

Bumpeh Academy is happy to accept young women like Hawanatu back into school if they can find the money for school fees. But there isn’t much to spare selling coconut cakes for pennies apiece.


Bumpeh Academy 11th grade class, left

Local young women who are drop-outs and mothers see a few professional woman visiting Rotifunk, like government officials and nonprofit organization workers. And they see Rosaline Kaimbay, former high school principal and now managing director of our local partner, CCET.


“They admire them so much, “ Daniel says. “They know they themselves are intelligent, and say ’if this woman can do this, why not me.’ ”

Exactly. Why not them?

There’s more young mothers like Hawanatu anxious to return to school who need a second chance.

You can help these young women get back into school for a full year and put their lives back on track with a $17 scholarship. Amazing.

They’ll be expanding their lives. They’ll raise healthier children and see they are educated. And they’ll break the cycle of subsistence living that’s held their families back for generations.

Add a school uniform to the scholarship for a new 10th grader and it’s only $35 to let a young woman return to school for a whole year.

It’s easy. Just click here: I’ll send a young woman to school.

What your scholarship buys — it’s so much more than you think

Posted on by • Posted in Blog • Tagged , • Leave a comment

Sending a girl to school will change her life. And she will give you one of the biggest returns on investment you’ll ever make — for years to come.

A $17 scholarship amazingly pays a girl’s school fees for the whole year.

“I am happy and delighted when I got this scholarship which every girl wish to have this opportunity.”

— Emilia, 9th grader in Bumpeh Chiefdom

$35 pays for a scholarship AND a new school uniform for a 7th grader or 10th grader.

We asked how can we do more this year to help girls go to school — and stay in school. The answer was, “Add a school uniform.” We’re targeting 7th and 10th graders entering a new junior or senior high school with a new uniform. They cost a little more than school fees. Girls will wear the same uniform for a year or more.

$50 will send three girls to school for a whole year. Giving has never been a bigger bargain.

No, we’re not offering a 3-for-1 sale. The leone has lost 25% of its value since Ebola, and the cost of school fees has been held flat. So, our dollar buys much more than it did two years ago.

This is only the beginning of a long cycle of good a scholarship brings to a girl, her community, and her country.

A girl can stay in school and focus on her studies without fear of dropping out. A burden is taken off her family. Girls spend less time working to earn money for school, and more time studying.

“If not for your support, definitely I would have become a drop-out. My father is dead, and my mother is a gardener. She could not afford paying my fees. I can boast of going to school now because of your support.” 

— Hellen, 8th grader

Girls avoid the life-altering event of pregnancy and becoming a teenage mother.

Teen pregnancy in Sierra Leone is one of the highest in the world at 12.5 for every 100 girls age 15–19. The pregnancy rate is down drastically among Bumpeh Chiefdom girls with scholarships. Girls work harder in school in order to keep their scholarship. They know there’s competition. Girls now have bigger goals and pregnancies are reduced to only a few. Many young mothers return to school after their child is born.

Reduced teen pregnancies mean fewer girls dying while giving birth and infant mortality is lower.

Sierra Leone has had the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world. One-third of all pregnancies are among girls age 15-19. Their young bodies are not ready to carry and deliver a child, and health care is too far away from villages when emergencies arise.

Schooling eliminates illiteracy – probably the single greatest factor feeding the cycle of poverty.

Only 1 in 3 Sierra Leone girls are enrolled in secondary school. In Bumpeh Chiefdom, it’s more like 1 in 4, making this one of the poorest chiefdoms and districts in the country. We fight poverty by putting more girls in school.

Educated women greatly increase their incomes – and invest them in their children & communities.

Women increase incomes 10% for every year of schooling they receive and triple their lifetime incomes, according to the UN and World Bank.

Educated women have fewer, healthier, better educated children, breaking the cycle of poverty.

With education, women learn how to limit the number of children they have. They learn about health and hygiene to protect their children against common illnesses that claim too many under-5 kids. And with greater incomes, women make educating their children a priority.

A country’s development and economic growth shifts into higher gear when half the workforce is no longer illiterate and untrained.

“Invest in girls and you invest in the whole nation. We will fight poverty in our country by educating girls. It’s a means of development.” 

— Daniel Koroma, Bumpeh Academy Vice Principal

Educating women accelerates a trend to greater gender equality and less violence.

Education makes women more empowered and less vulnerable to bullying and harassment their illiterate peers fall prey to. It also informs women of their legal and human rights. “You can’t assert your rights if you don’t know what they are.” Educated women are eager to enter roles of leadership at the village and district level, as well as in national government.

Who knew a $17 scholarship could buy this much value?

You can open up a girl’s world. Give her a scholarship. Do more – add a school uniform.

We want to do more, too. Sherbro Foundation will match every gift. That means you’ll have double the impact.

It’s so simple. Click here: I want to send a girl to school.