Kanga schools project boosts education in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone is a country where 70 to 85 percent of the population is illiterate, education can be seen as a bedrock on which developmental initiatives can be built on. Past glory has recorded that Sierra Leone was once being referred to as the “Athens of a West Africa†but today the fact of Fourah Bay College being the first University to be established in Sub-Saharan Africa by the Christian Missionary Society (CMS) in 1827 has become obsolete as statistics have shown that 70 percent of the Sierra Leonean population remain to be stark illiterate. Sadly, categorical statistics have accounted that out of that 70 percent, women and female children are the most affected.
However, in an ardent effort to cut down on that figure, Government and other educational-oriented agencies have been working assiduously to put education standards straight and subsequently cut down on the number of illiterate people in the country.
In a joint effort to ensure that education becomes a priority, the Kanga Schools project, a philanthropic organization based in Sydney, Australia, has been making gigantic steps in assisting schools and tertiary institutions in Sierra Leone. In the same vein, the Kanga Schools Project has been sending books of all subjects into the country through the effort of other Sierra Leoneans based in Australia. Since the genesis of the Kanga Schools Project in Sierra Leone, huge consignments of assorted books, stationeries, computers and accessories, power generators and the establishment of ten standard libraries to complement the efforts of schools and other higher institutions are no exception to the effort made by the Kanga Schools Project around the country.
Quite recently, the Kanga Schools Project has shipped six 20 ft containers of assorted books and other learning materials into Sierra Leone. Presently, the distribution of these items is ongoing and over 40 schools around the country so far have benefited from the Kanga project.
While the distribution was in progress, this writer caught up with two of the beneficiary school representatives. According to one of them, Mr. Kabbia from the Benevolent Islamic Secondary School in Makeni, he stated to Sierra Express that this was not his first time for receiving such a good will gesture from the project as the first consignment of assorted items sent to them were books and flat screen computers.
The other beneficiary school representative this writer spoke with was Alhaji S.B Kallon of Nyamya Islamic School, Bo. Alhaji Kallon also confirmed to SEM that he was overwhelmed in receiving these items from the Kanga Schools Project and that this was not the first time he had benefited from the project. He further went on to intimate to this press that his school can now boast of having a Senior Secondary School class and a standard library.
In making his final statement, Alhaji Kallon praised and thanked the organizers of the Kanga Schools Project in Australia and most especially the Kanga Project Coordinator Mr. Alusine O. Kamara, for their indelible effort making education part of their first priority in Sierra Leone. He also made a general appeal to the Government on behalf of the Kanga School beneficiaries that the Government should help reduce the high custom rate levied on the consignments of learning materials sent into Sierra Leone as the project is doing philanthropic work and is not a profit making venture.
In an exclusive interview with the Kanga Schools project coordinator, Mr. Alusine O. Kamara (Scorpay) who also doubles as the Environmental and Safety Manager at Queen Elizabeth II Quay, he has told journalists that their effort is done out of philanthropy and no payment is anticipated from anybody, except God. When asked how a school could become a beneficiary of the project, he responded that, this could be achieved by writing a project proposal and sending it to the Kanga Schools Project through him. Mr. Kamara also confirmed that the Kanga Schools project is a continuous project that is ready to incorporate more schools around country, he ended.
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