Academic Award Foundation Donates to Freetown Primary Pupils
The Academic Award Foundation, a non profit organization based in UK has donated school items, including school fees and lunch allowances to primary school pupils from various municipal primary schools in Freetown as part of effort to help in the development of education in the country.
The occasion which took place at Constituency 107 Community Center in the Ark at Robert Street in Brookfields, Freetown was witnessed by community members and several dignitaries including the special representative of the deputy Minister of Gender and Children’s Affairs Mr. Ndehungeh Siaka, President of National Union of Students Mr. Felix Koroma, Miss Kaddi Turay representing the UK branch of the Academic Award Foundation and the president of the Children’s Forum Network.
Among the items donated include school bags pens, pencils, exercise books, erasers, rulers, set of uniforms and school shoes. The sum of Le150.000 was also presented as allowance and school fees.Â
The lucky beneficiaries of the award were Hawa Conteh of UMC Primary School at Bright Street, Kandeh Musa of Rural Education Municipal School, Adama Kamara of Wesleyan Primary School at Ginger Hall, Edna Kamara of Tower Hill Municipal Primary School and Ishmael Fofana of Dwarzack Community Primary School.
In his opening remarks, the chairman for the occasion, Mr. Andrew Benson acknowledged the strides taken by those whom he said, offered their resources to cater our young ones and commended the organizers for the contribution to national development by recognizing the abilities of the recipients in catching them when they are young.
He sited himself as an example of people who have taken chance of scholarships in order to transform their lives into meaningful citizen of this nation and admonished the beneficiaries to emulate the same attitude by taking their school work seriously.
In his statement, Mr. Siaka advised Sierra Leoneans to take the development of their country as their own responsibility adding that Sierra Leone can be better developed through personal involvement in the improvement of our human resources. Mr. Siaka further noted that the award is for primary school kids in order to ensure that the country has a good foundation in human resource development index. He said that the development pattern in Sierra Leone has always been back and front due to the fact that little attention is paid to education at the Primary level.
Speaking on behalf of the National Union of Students, Mr. Felix Koroma extended sincere gratitude to the members of the Academic Award Foundation in Sierra Leone. The number of needy pupils might be too numerous in the country but the effort of the Academic Award Foundation is a big stride in solving such problems.
In his contribution, the National Coordinator for the Academic Award Foundation in Sierra Leone, Mr. Patrick Kabba admonished the beneficiaries, their families and guests about the aim of the Foundation, which he said is to reduce illiteracy and poverty the level in Sierra Leone. Mr. Kabba further stated that their Foundation will always endeavor to promote education as a tool towards the improvement of the socio-economic situation of our beneficiaries,
Poverty and illiteracy are responsible for most of the violence that has besieged this nation, he said and admonished the dignitaries, the representatives of students and children’s serving organization and parents of the beneficiaries that their organization will continue to give more awards not only to primary school pupils but also to university students by next school year .
He said their foundation is networking with other organizations in and out of Sierra Leone in order to execute programs for sustainable human resource development and promoting student. The national coordinator of the Academic Award Foundation promised that by next year the scholarship award will cover up to 50 direct beneficiaries disclosing that the Foundation has already started several projects not only in Freetown but also in the Provinces. These projects, he said, include an adult education project in Bandajuma Sowa, and the construction of a school at Ginger Hall.
Mr. Edison Paul Banister, Minister of Constitutional and Presidential Affairs of the Njala University College Student Union helped to distribute the prizes.
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