"Building Educational Opportunities in Sierra Leone"

2016 | A Year in Review

2016 has been an extremely eventful year for the world, and nothing is more true than for Sinkunia and the children who have been working hard to achieve amazing results this year!

We wanted to share some highlights over the past year… there have been some great moments.

Seeing Results

Earlier in the year SoS received some incredible news, that Sinkunia’s schools took first position in the national BECE exams. This is an astounding achievement and could not have been achieved without the hard work and support of fundraisers, teachers, and of course the children who dedicated their efforts to this brilliant outcome!

Furthermore we got information that the schools had achieved an incredible 100% pass rate in the July exams! Amazing effort from everyone involved!

Revisiting the Schools

Over the Summer, Greg and family visited once more, to view the fruits of everyone’s labour over the last years…

 

These trips are a fantastic opportunity to see with our own eyes just how well everyone is doing, and forge ever stronger bonds, ensuring further support for the future.

One of the children provided a fantastic welcoming speech;

Donations making a difference

Over $20,000 in donations has been made to SoS in the last 3 years, much of it covering scholarships and supplies, including uniforms. This year some of this money went to helping 30 students in the “Beyond Sinkunia” project, designed to support those who want to attend University after their time in Sinkunia. This forms part of the further 100 scholarships which have a wide range of beneficiaries, including Teacher training, Nurses, Primary, Secondary and Senior Secondary students, University and College Students, as well as Electricians. To maintain this coverage, costs look to be $7000 per annum.

In addition, further building work has been on-going, increasing the capacity of the Secondary school to reach more students. Harris Hall will be completed soon, made possible with donations from the Harris Family of Baker City, Oregon.


Lastly, we were able to ship a range of school equipment from the UK to Sinkunia over the Summer. Most items focused in IT, providing laptops and printing/network equipment to the students, with the hope of improving capability in IT, but also covered reading materials, courseware, writing equipment, calculators, anything we could lay our hands on to assist.

There is however, work to do. We would greatly love for the school to have ready access to Science lab equipment. This equipment is vital to teach children in professions including Doctors, jobs that are chronically lacking in SL. Without this equipment, students are forced to relocate to Freetown, often not any option for so many. If you have any access to this kind of equipment then please let us know.

In Remembrance

It is with sadness that Will Keim, one of SoS’s biggest supporters, passed away in June this year. He will be dearly missed.

Looking Forward…

Looking to 2017 we see plenty of great opportunities ahead… much will go into sustaining what is already proven to be a very successful programme – the children demonstrate this every single day! We will also look to improving capabilities in key areas, like science as mentioned, to open up opportunities to as many as possible.

We thank you all for your support over the last year, it is hugely appreciated, and we look forward to sharing more with you as 2017 progresses.

SoS