Programme for Children, Sierra Leone

Past and present events have created overwhelming obstacles for access to education in Sierra Leone. Programme for Children, with support from their US based non-profit, Schools for Salone, has built over 65 schools, countless latrines and water wells for children to access education. Programme for Children (PFC) is a registered Sierra Leonean NGO held in high regard in Sierra Leone for the work they do to support communities and build educational opportunities. Since 1980, Joseph Williams-Lamin and PFC have constructed over 65 schools, countless latrines and water wells, and provided scholarships for thousands of children to go to school. Programme for Children has worked with partners in Denmark and the United States, Schools for Salone, on social, education, water, sanitation and human rights issues in Sierra Leone. The 10-year civil war, ending in 2002, destroyed most of the country’s infrastructure. Sierra Leone has made small successes to rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, governance, and worked to reinstate peace, but development has proved slow. It is challenging at best for students to continue their education past primary school in the more rural areas due to lack of a nearby middle school. Families must often decide between sending their student off to live elsewhere, closer to a middle school, or walk significant distances to go to school. Programme for Children (PFC) works together with local villages that identify a need for a school, the village donate and clear the land. The overarching objective is to improve access to education in Njomborhun by working with the community to build a four-classroom school with a rainwater collection handwashing station and a latrine with three private stalls. The school will need a water well to assure access to clean water for drinking and sanitation and hygiene. Additionally, PFC will help establish the school with the tools and resources it needs to get off the ground, including furniture, books, bookshelves, learning materials, and school supplies. In 2019, Mona Foundation committed to helping Programme for Children build a four classroom middle school, providing 150 children safe access to education. This project directly relates to Mona Foundation’s mission of reducing poverty through universal education because it will significantly increase the number of students who can further their education past primary school, especially girls, in this impoverished area of Sierra Leone. This project directly responds to needs that originated in the community and will change the future of an entire generation.