Blog

Project Leaders: Alpha Kallon and Jane Cole

The women’s project is a success. This is a result of materials being available and also good team work. The periods of lockdown during COVID has been difficult and the economic situation in Sierra Leone. There is no price control on food and basic staples, like rice, can have some big price increase.

THE ROGBONKO TEN [10] FOREST SCHOOL

 PUPILS SUPPORTED PROJECT ARET. 2020-2021        ACADEMIC YEAR REPORT

CORDINATED AND SUPERVISED BY ABASS FONNAH

This project is successful simply because the few students who were enrolled in a voluntary classroom of extra-curricular studies in my community from Primary to Secondary can now speak and write better English. Currently the pupils have progressed to Junior Secondary School (JSS) and Senior Secondary School (SSS).

 ADONKIA ADULTS’ EDUCATIONAL TRUST    

SUPORTED BY ALEC RUSSELL EDUCATIONAL  TRUST (ARET)

 END OF YEAR REPORT July 2021

Fatu is my name.  As a young girl I had so much ambition to go to school. Unfortunately at the age of 14, I was forced into an early marriage by my parents. I had no experience of life.

Michael from Shetland designed and built a Noah’s Ark with animals for the children at Shieldra School. Naminatu an assistant classroom teacher at Shieldra School worked, studied and dreamed about becoming a fully trained teacher.

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When we are unable to travel to Sierra Leone and visit our friends and projects it is exciting to receive photographs showing progress and good news. Jane sent some very encouraging photos.

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Afri-Scot is a small shop sitting at the junction at Amputee Village, Sierra Leone, West Africa. Its purpose is to meet the needs of the community. Originally the shop was stocked with basic provisions but like most ARET projects in Sierra Leone it has grown.

It was inevitable that Covid 19 would eventually hit Sierra Leone. Lockdown, health and safety measures, social distancing, emergency food supplies, housing and income support that were available to us in UK were either not practical or simply not available in Sierra Leone.

We, Chris, Rachel and myself, planned this trip in November 2019 not knowing that a global pandemic would be declared by mid-March 2020.  Before we left Scotland, travelling via France, we were asked by our hosts about the virus. There was, at that time, nothing to report. The focus was not on Europe. Sierra Leone was the country most badly hit by the Ebola crisis in 2016 and had learned from the experience and knew how to respond. As we stepped from the plane the precautions and screening in place were visible. Temperatures taken, details registered, hand washing, hand washing, handwashing.

Shieldra, the school that started under a mango tree. Shieldra the project that grew wings and flew. Shieldra, the project that shouts, ‘I am not finished yet.’