Nutritious Foods for Sierra Leone Students

Due to torrential summer rains, the Diamond School is officially closed for the summer.  

However, we are proud to announce that 50 of our students took the National School Primary exam and PASSED this rather difficult test allowing them to continue their eduation on the secondary level.  *See pic above

We also have our teachers on a flexible, alternating schedule to offer tutoring to those students who need it most.  Students attend review classes and receive a small snack to help them through the day.  Attendance fluctuates according to how much the rains hamper the schedule.

One Diamond Child shared:

"My name is Musa, I am 10 years old, I did very well in the last school term so I have just been promoted to Class 6. I am a girl with passion for learning.

Now I am unable to go to school because we have closed down for the raining season. I really miss playing with our friends on our school compound. My parents already made my uniform for the new school term, I am very proud as my uniform looks very nice and I am ready as soon as we reopen to take my books and meet all my friends at school."

In closing, we would like to once again thank our GlobalGiving supporters.  We could not do this without you! 

 Due to the recent devastating devaluation of Sierra Leone’s local currency, the price of local basic commodities, has skyrocketed. This, coupled with a drastice increase in imported staples  such as rice and the gas needed to cook a meal, has greatly affected our students.  

Sadly, some Diamond Child School families have pulled their kids out of school and sent them to work menial jobs or beg in the streets in order for the family to survive. The psychological effects of such abrupt interruptions of a child’s education are both hard to quantify or easy to eradicate. Other  repercussions could include acquiring various potentially debilitating vices such as stealing, drug abuse and sexual harassments; the dangers associated with street hawking.   

Thanks to our feeding program, funded by your kind donations, many parents consciously prefer to have their children attend Diamond Child School where their youngsters are assured that they will receive a nutritious meal daily. For the family it is really a win-win situation: receive an education while avoiding the burden of having to struggle to feed the child at least one complete plate of healthy food during the school week. Diamond Child’s staff have observed since the onset of this “Nutritious Foods” program, a significant improvement in their student’s level of attention in class.  As the institution’s founder recently quoted, “this accompanies greatly a child’s joy of learning”.   

We’d like to end on a very positive and encouraging note: Diamond Child will be sending 40 students (up from 30 in the last edition) to sit for the National Primary School Examination (NPSE) set for May. Convinced that this feeding project has again had a direct impact on the number of students whose goal is to enter secondary school, this selective entrance test will indeed host many healthy “Diamonds” in 2023. Congratulations students!  We wish you all the best. Thank you, GlobalGiving. Thank you, Airline Ambassadors.  

For the second year in a row, Diamond Child School has granted over 95 additional students the possibility to attend Secondary Education. This has created the need to hire more teachers for their guidance and instruction as well as continue to honor the school’s obligation to provide all children with a nourishing meal daily.  Soaring inflation has increased considerably the cost of purchasing basic food to feed all of these hard working “Diamonds”. The enrollment rate has nearly surpassed 500 students and we’ve been forced to turn away students due to such relevant maintenance fees.

Your past and continued support is greatly appreciated and needed. As we begin the New Year, Diamond Child would like to sincerely thank all of the support that we continue to receive through GlobalGiving. Securing the much needed nourishing meals definitely helps the entire community shine.

One student in particular wants to express her appreciation:

My Name is Sarah.

I started school in Diamond Child at the age of 5, now I am 13.

I am one of the students that did the National Primary School Examination (NPSE) last year. Me and all of my mates passed these examinations. We were 51 companions in total. We are so joyful to continue in Diamond Child school with our Secondary Educational programs. As for all students, now including those at JSS1 and JSS2 Secondary level, there is also food provided every mid-day and we can also use the big play ground.

Tenky tenky, (Thank You).

Sarah

Diamond Child School Director Mr. Gbankay Kamara gratefully acknowledges the real impact the Nutritious Foods for Sierra Leone Students program is having on his students this year. "The children come to school so excited in the morning, knowing that they will be served a nutritious meal freshly cooked at school. They are truly happy as this nourishes their bodies and minds, and they all pray that this program will continue." 

On a "good day", many of our student’s families are lucky to put on their dinner table little more than a plate of "Garri", traditional cassava (yucca) powdery meal made of dry flour granules, mixed with water.  

Thirteen-year-old Ibrahim Bendu echoes the sentiment: "I want to thank the program for providing the actual food nutrients our body needs for the day.  I remember at first, I was so thin. Since this food started to be served at school this has made my life more healthy. It always gives me joy whenever I come to school in the morning."  

Other interesting news and updates include collaborating with the prestigious American International School of Freetown (AISF), with whom Diamond Child has had an ongoing relationship since 2018. AISF has offered to conduct a general inventory of Diamond Child before the year is out.  This in-house index will help us gauge more efficiently the daily operation of our center. Aware of this vital feeding program they applaud the donations made to keep the "Diamonds" healthy. 

As we come to the closing of this academic year, we can honestly directly attribute the overall progress of Diamond Child to GlobalGiving’s generous contributions. Being that this is the first academic year that our institution has been granted the status of an official secondary education institution by the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE), we can proudly claim that 52 "Diamonds" sat for the official National Primary School Examination (NPSE) exams last weekend. We expect the majority will continue to the secondary level at Diamond Child in the fall of this year.  All our pupils benefit from GlobalGiving’s endowment. “Good nutrition equals results”.