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Sierra Leone-
Plymouth Partnership
Villages passionate
about educational needs

By Jim Leslie

The second Sierra Leone-Plymouth Partnership trip in May to Sierra Leone was for me at times moving, frustrating, inspiring and tiring. As a retired teacher who taught for 34 years in the Roseville School District, I was especially interested in the elementary schools of Foindu, Jokibu and Pujehun, the three small villages that SLPP supports in the eastern part of that country. I soon discovered that I had much to learn.

From the first day of our eight-day stay in the three villages, it was very evident that education was important to all three communities. The SLPP Education Committee meetings held in all three villages were well-attended. Tribal leaders spoke passionately and at great length about the educational needs of their villages. Once I began teaching and observing teachers at the Pujehun Methodist School (first through sixth grades), I quickly found myself engaged in lively discussions about teaching techniques with the school’s teachers and community elders, and most of my evenings were devoted to reading and critiquing the English compositions of fifth and sixth grade students by lamplight. It was wonderful to be among people who cared so deeply about education.

Unfortunately for all involved, providing a quality education is a daunting task. The civil war of the 1990s left the human and physical infrastructure of Sierra Leone in ruins, and even today the national government is not in a position to provide much help to the country’s schools. Thus, small communities like Foindu, Jokibu and Pujehun must rely heavily on support from church and other non-governmental organizations. At Pujehun School, the classes often had as many as 50 students per teacher, the classrooms were lacking in basic school furniture, the few textbooks were badly out-of-date and the younger teachers hadn’t received any training in teaching pedagogy.

In spite of the enormous challenges, progress is being made in improving the schools of the three villages. I participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for a major addition to the badly overcrowded elementary school in Jokibu that was paid for by SLPP. We were also able to take school supplies and textbooks purchased in Freetown to the three communities. Beyond the elementary schools’ needs, the financial support of SLPP has allowed many students from the three villages to attend junior secondary school, secondary school and college on scholarships.

In looking to the future, the SLPP Education Committee’s goal is to make the elementary schools of the three villages model schools, and through SLPP’s Adopt-a-Student program, we want to continue to offer scholarships for educations that can’t be provided in Foindu, Jokibu and Pujehun. With your help, we can make a difference in the lives of the wonderful young people I met. Please consider giving generously to SLPP. For more information, visit www.SLPP.org.

Return to main SLPP page

The Water of Life

Micro loans double farmers' income

 

[February 2008]

$30,000 education goal reached

The Sierra Leone-Plymouth Partnership (SLPP) has met its goal to raise $30,000 to support education in the three villages it works with. The funds have been used to:

 • Grant more than 200 scholarships for students (mostly girls) attending secondary school and college outside the villages ($15,000).
 • Supply hundreds of textbooks, reading books, workbooks and pens and pencils for the students in the three schools ($5,000).
 • Provide food support to village primary school teachers who are not currently being paid ($1,000).
 • Buttress the village primary school lunch programs with bulgur so the kids are certain to have a nutritious lunch every day, instead of perhaps once a week ($4,000).

As part of SLPP’s new Adopt-a-Student program, those who donated receive a monthly e-mail with a student profile, so that during the school year they’ll learn about a variety of students of different ages in different schools. These student profiles can also be viewed at www.SLPP.org.

Three Amherst College 2007 graduates are residing in the villages for three months. They’ve been instrumental in accomplishing SLPP’s educational initiatives, as well as nurturing its new Micro Loan Program.

The three-room school addition SLPP funded last summer is now complete, and the students and teachers in the village of Jokibu are very grateful. Each grade now has its own classroom.