Greetings from Sierra Leone! I am pleased to share the following updates:
PDIA
-Today was picture day! The model of our school is to accept school fees from community members so that the children from the orphanage and other families in poverty can attend for free. Of the 120 students registered, 10 come from PDC. Since the school opened in 2021, the community is warming more and more to the value of education.
PDC
-I was able to travel to Makeni to visit Hannah and Abigail, two students from PDC who are now in their second year of college. A part of your regular, monthly donations provides these girls and three others a small monthly stipend while they study away from the orphanage.
I found out these girls are also working hard to find ways of becoming financially independent:
-While Hannah (left) was on vacation and staying at the orphanage, she involved herself in a bread-making business to earn extra income to support the small stipend she is provided.
-Abigail (right) has befriended her neighbour in Makeni who used to be a tailor. Every afternoon and weekend that she is free, she is gaining tailoring skills to be able to start producing products she can sell in the market.
-We are still lacking $2150 USD in tuition fees for the five, PDC college students who are studying in Makeni and Freetown if you have anything extra to give!
Flexigester
-We have worked with a plumber to insert a y-connector with a valve that can divert sewage from the orphanage to the Flexigester once we’re ready to use it.
-A second pipe is in place that will be connected to a basin we will need to construct to be able to also feed the flexigester kitchen scraps.
-Our next step over the next few days is to pump it up given the small foot pump that came with the installation kit. This should be a fun exercise for the students!
Tec Voc Training
-As of today, our carpenter finished crafting all the tables, benches, chairs and stools that are required for our training classrooms.
Agriculture
-The peppers have sprouted and one section of the land has been planted with watermelon seeds. Another section of the land has been prepped for planting cucumbers. Given the mining activities in the area, the land is very sandy so we had to amend the soil with compost and manure. We are also continuing to build compost piles using the grass we cleared from the area.
Tailoring
-we have found an enthusiastic instructor who spent all of Saturday at the school training three groups of 9 students with some basic tailoring skills. He has also been back three evenings after school hours to continue working with any of our senior and post senior secondary students who were available. We are using this as an opportunity to test out our space and supplies before extending the course to community members.
Soap-Making
-We have begun negotiations with possible instructors as we have collected nearly all the needed supplies to get our program started. We aim to do so by next week.
The Community
-We held a town meeting this evening to introduce our training program to women in the community and to begin collecting registration fees (just like PDIA, while children from the orphanage will receive training for free, we will use fees from others to help sustain the program). So far 15 people have signed up and more said they will come tomorrow with their registration fee!
This will be my last two weeks in Sierra Leone! I am so grateful to be on the ground to witness the integrity with which your donations are used to support such beautiful people and meaningful work. A lot of NGOs come and go, but the community here is impressed with the sustainability of our orphanage which is a testimony to your faithful support. Thank you!