Return 150 children to school in Gbendembu.

UPDATE ON THE EDUCATION PROJECT “If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people” Chinese proverb.

General Overview In German Kooperation – Sierra Leone (GEKO-SL), our goal is to strengthen our community by supporting education, health, agriculture and skills training primarily for women. They are amongst the most marginalized in our country and our community. We help them cope with the limitations of rural community life in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone in the Bombali District.

The organization has rehabilitated a health centre funded by GEKO Unna in Germany (BMZ) and the British Department for International Development (DIFID). The organization also engaged in upgrading the conditions of women, children and youth. It is engaged in providing micro-credit, skills training and agricultural activities funded by African Women Development Fund. The fight against HIV/AIDS and Gender Based Violence is funded by National AIDS Secretariat (NAS) Sierra Leone. The Education program which is recently introduced has received $5000 from fund raising through Global giving.

GEKO Sierra Leone has the mandate to operate all over Sierra Leone. At the moment Geko Sierra Leone is operating in Gbendembu Ngowahun and Sanda Tainraren Chiefdom.

One Story: Reflecting the Reality for Many Rugiatu Konateh, the daughter of Pa Gibrilla Konateh got pregnant in her third year of high school. After she had the baby, her father would neither support nor allow the boyfriend to assist her to continue with her education. Further she was not allowed to marry the man who got her pregnant as her father’s religion prohibited her from marrying out of wedlock.

Now even though the girl is willing to return to school, her father would not support her schooling anymore. Her mother cannot afford to support her.

This is one real case that is typical of what happens on a daily basis in this culture. This situation, coupled with the fact that poverty prevents some parents from sending their children to school made it imperative for GEKO-SL to step in.

Why This Project Is Important In Sierra Leone • Adult literacy rate of 31 percent one of the lowest across the globe • Primary school enrollment rate in the early 90s dropped to as low as 51 percent • Significant increases estimated at 90.4 percent in 2001 • Many of those who eventually access school dropout as a result of child labour or a lack of a school nearby • By the end of the 2002/2003 academic school year enrolled increased to 121.8 percent but more males than female are afforded education

Our Northern Province is one of two provinces that have the lowest rate of girl-child enrollment in schools. To narrow the gender gap in role of male and female school attendance, the Government of Sierra Leone and its partners have embarked on continuous awareness raising programs through media and community sensitization meetings. Although schools levy other charges, primary education is claimed to be free. Added to this, the government is providing financial support to every girl child in the Eastern and Northern provinces that enters Junior Secondary School.

What Difference Do We Make?

GEKO-SL contributes to educating and strengthening the communities and people we serve. The focus of our education program is to give the children of our communities a better future and alternatives. Our programs have been well received by our communities especially among the children. Most have often been deprived of their education and placed in farms to work for their families at an early age.

Educating Children The community members are aware that their children have been left behind. They are not happy that their children are out of school. Most of the people had their children out of school because they simply could not afford uniforms or school materials or schools were too far away.

To date, through generous donations, we have raised US$5000.00. This is below our budgeted goal of US$20,000. If we were to achieve our goal we could help 150 children.

Today, we are currently supporting 30 children (11 boys and 19 girls). Five of the girls had dropped out of school due to pregnancy. Three others dropped out simply because their parents could not afford. The rest of the children had conditions that threatened their further continuation in school. But because of the generosity of our donors, the children are now assured of continued schooling along with uniforms and learning materials.

A contribution of US$60 can help ensure that 1 child in our community can attend school for one whole year providing all school needs.

Strengthening Women & Their Ability to Provide for Their Children’s Education To further strengthen our communities, we also support the parents/guardians (all women) of the children involved in our education program. Their mothers receive agricultural inputs and micro-credit financing so that they will be able to support the schooling for their children even when our education project phases out.

A contribution of US$20 can help one woman so that she can create income to sustain her children’s education and increase her own self respect and independence.

Building Schools We also intend to erect a two-block school building if funds become available, so as to accommodate some pupils who for the moment are sheltering in a make-shift building as a school as shown above. Some teachers recruited within the community are not trained or qualified. These are often the only ones available within these village settings since the few trained teachers prefer working in the relatively socially endowed urban areas. We therefore intend, with available funds, to sponsor these community teachers such as the one above, to be trained using the distance education program that currently exists in various parts of the country.

A contribution of US$10 can help to buy a bag of cement to build our schools. I can contribute one bag of cement.

A contribution of US$60 can help provide a teacher’s salary for one month.

A contribution of US$20 can help provide school supplies.

Building Awareness of Our Community Context Our people are generally farmers of crops and small hoofed animals with a small minority involved in petty trading. Over 50% of our population is female. With few skills of their own and limited rights to education, women and girls are highly reliant on their male counterparts for support. But for males, there are few jobs in our rural community, so they leave and take menial jobs such as selling coconuts from push carts in larger urban centers. From their humble incomes, men still try to send remittances to their families in the rural communities.

The few educated Loko people are mostly males. The females either never went to school or often drop out of school to get married. The typical Loko believe in giving more chance to the boy child than the girl child in education. This is because, they believed that boys would have to carry the family name while the girls would eventually live their homes and go to their husbands.

Political Context Bombali was a principal former rebel stronghold and experienced considerable displacement, destruction and trauma as a result of the conflict. While progress has been made since the conflict, particularly in restoration of state authority, the level of social services and economic recovery is slow in the district.

WE THANK OUR DONORS AND GLOBALGIVING