WOMEN ROLE MODELS

At CAUSE Kids we are fortunate to have a very dedicated team to be looking after the welfare of all students and implementing innovative programs that will benefit them far into the future. Rugiatu Tarawalie and Mariama Jalloh are two young ladies who are working to coordinate our sponsorship program as well as to monitor and support our partner schools. Rugiatu is currently going to school (on the weekends) to complete a program in Business Administration as well as hosting a community program on the local radio station and leading a youth group in her church. Mariama has a diploma in Business Administration and brings us accounting and administrative expertise from her previous work with a local NGO. Along with their enthusiasm and strong work ethic, these two young women serve as positive role-models to the many girls in our primary schools – real examples of the potential of women to be leaders in Sierra Leone.

Pictures: Mariama Jalloh and Rugiatu Tarawalie visiting students in their homes. Teachers and staff visit the homes to ensure students have good living conditions, share news about the program and to promote the value of education.

National Tree Planting Day

National Tree Planting Day was held in June in Sierra Leone. CAUSE Kids helped our schools to plant over 100 trees throughout their school yards. Not only did the students learn about the environment, but as the trees grow they will provide shade and fruit to all the children.

SPORTS DAYS

Nothing is bigger than Sports Days in Sierra Leone primary schools. Not just an exciting day for students, these gatherings are well-attended by everyone in the community. This spring CAUSE Kids provided funds so that three of our schools (two for the first time) could plan a sports day.

The planning begins weeks or months ahead of the event where students are divided into four different “houses” and then the training begins. During Physical Education classes and after school, students can be seen running, jumping and preparing to lead their house to victory. On the field itself, teachers and students build booths out of bamboo where the houses will gather (there is even a prize for the best-made booth). The event is usually two-days long and begins with a parade and grand opening, as well as the attendance of dignitaries who oversee the proceedings. Festivities begin with the typical running, wheel-barrow, relay and three-legged races, high and long-jumping and also the unique eating contests, egg-carrying, tug-of-peace and the biggest event of all – musical chairs. Girls and boys of all ages compete against their peers. Even though these young athletes run with no shoes, high-jump with no mat and don’t have equipment that is taken for granted in Canada, it is easy to see how their skills and abilities and incredible enthusiasm transcend their circumstances.

Supporting sports is one way that CAUSE Kids promotes positive lifestyles, healthy competition and community development. Everybody wins when we work together to support quality education!

The Promise of Education

Numerous studies from around the world have proven that education is one of the most effective ways to help a country develop. When more girls and boys go to school, we see that incomes, health, life-span and basic human-rights are increased. Children, families, communities and countries are all better off. While these many statistics are impressive, it is the individual educated women and men in Sierra Leone who have made me realize how important CAUSE Kids’ work is.

Joseph Bangura is the Engineer for CAUSE Canada and oversees our partnership with the World Bank and UNICEF to build schools and associated wells and latrines throughout Sierra Leone (CAUSE has built over 50 such schools). He also goes beyond his technical engineering position to coordinate the distribution of thousands of textbooks throughout the country, and the training of “School Management Committees” which ensure that the schools are sustainable.

Along with his education in Sierra Leone, Joseph received scholarships to pursue an undergraduate degree in Geophysics in Russia and a Masters of Engineering in Germany. After his time in Germany he was offered several jobs that would have offered him both a salary and a “comfortable life” that could not be rivalled by Sierra Leone. However, his passion was with his people and the potential of this beautiful country and he tirelessly works to develop that potential.

I had to persist past Joseph’s quiet nature and modesty, but his guess was that he has built over 40 schools and 150 wells throughout Sierra Leone. And finally, as a testament to this man’s character, one day over some groundnut stew we were talking about some of the engineering accomplishments and pursuits of this decade (including the building of the largest mall in the world in Dubai) and someone asked him what his dream project would be. He commented that he would love to build a youth centre where young people in the trades could improve their skills and advance in their professions. Of course.

There are many Josephs – and Josephines - in our schools and I can’t wait to see what they will build!

Pictures:
1.Joseph in the middle of a bunch of students at the openning of one of the schools he built with CAUSE
2. Our new school in Koromansiliai that Joseph oversaw the building of
3. A girl pumping water out of a well at one of our schools

Holiday Celebrations!

Who says that our schools are all work and no play? This Christmas we had parties for all of our schools complete with music, dancing and good food and drinks! The kids danced away the afternoon and even had some speeches and skits to perform.

Thanks to the sponsors that made this day possible and to all the teachers who worked so hard to put it together.

A SYMBOL OF HOPE

In Sierra Leone it is custom for all the students to wear uniforms and matching shoes. I believe it is a practice they inherited from the British who colonized Sierra Leone for many years and ultimately initiated their formal education system. While I understood the reasons for CAUSE Kids to provide these items to the students, it wasn’t until I was in a classroom that I understood their significance. Surrounded by grade one students, who like grade one students everywhere can barely contain their energy, we began to call out names to come receive the new uniforms and shoes. Mr. Bangura had carefully measured all the students and local tailors had sewn the small blue and white outfits to fit each individual child. While both the uniforms and shoes were bright and very cute, it was the students who walked carefully to the front of the room that really touched me. As soon as both items were checked to fit, the small grade one kids would clutch them closely to their chest, hurry back to their seat and show their friends. And the next day as the kids wore their new gear to school, their pride was obvious and beaming – especially with the girls. New uniforms and shoes alone will not make a difference for these children and their country, but they are undoubtedly a symbol of the hope and confidence that education provides.



Photos: A few of our future leaders, proud of their new uniforms and ready to take on the world

ALL THE CASAVA YOU COULD EAT

As I stood in the middle of one of our school gardens, surrounded by cassava plants that came up past my shoulders and the beautiful hills of Sierra Leone, I felt an immense optimism for this fertile country. Two months before I came to Africa, the “Global Food Crisis” had hit and the foods and grains that are typically treated merely as a commodity in the West were decreasing in supply and increasing in price: Simple economics in a well-developed market economy. While people in Canada had to reach deeper into their pockets at the supermarket, higher prices of grains in Sierra Leone forced families to buy even less – often resulting in not just smaller meals, but fewer of them.

In a country with a vast and untapped agricultural potential, it is upsetting to know that it imports more food than it exports and that its people are malnourished and dependent on a market that they are rarely a part of. A systemic mix of poor infrastructure, lack of technology, politics and other factors that come with poverty have stunted the growth of agriculture in Sierra Leone and has kept its people from obtaining the “food sovereignty” they deserve. The potential is here, however, and our school gardens are a small and important step in the right direction. Our students are learning about agriculture and science and also get to eat what they grow when the crops are harvested. And as CAUSE Kids grows, so will the number of well-educated future farmers who will both feed and free their country. As always, a big thank you to all our supporters who are helping to nourish young minds, bodies and spirits!

Photos: A student waters some of the vegetables in the school garden and one of the mothers dishing out a big bowl of casava and sauce for lunch at the school.