What are they growing in the fields this year?

by Alison | Mar 11, 2024 | News, Projects

What are they growing in the fields this year?

They are growing rice, peanuts, sweet potatoes, cassava, and green vegetables. Rice is the most important staple crop in Sierra Leone, with cassava second. Rice has been grown in this area of Africa for more than 3000 years! Cassava is one of the drought-tolerant crops, capable of growing on marginal soils.

This combination of crops was chosen to ensure that the produce would provide a good mix of nutrients – protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

The most recent harvest produced 65 bags of rice – after a proportion was given out to recipients, the rest is in storage to ensure availability during the rainy season (hunger months).

Update on the Ann Hay Vocational training centre

by Alison | Mar 11, 2024 | News

Update on the Ann Hay Vocational Training Centre

As we know, the students here have the contract to make school uniforms for the local schools. We have also seen the beautiful items made using sewing, weaving and tie dye skills. In addition, they produce reusable sanitary towels.

Pre-cut washable sanitary towels are sent by Rosie Hutchinson of the Stratford on Avon Soroptimist club, which they then sew and attach fastenings to, such as Velcro or buttons. Reusable towels, which can be washed, allow women to have hygienic sanitary protection which is also better for the environment.

Customers for these towels include students from the agricultural college seven miles away, who come to use Taiama library as it has solar lighting and fans, allowing them to study later in the day. The vet from the college also keeps an eye on the pigs.

The college is part of Njala University, which is the agricultural university of Sierra Leone. Agriculture is the mainstay of the Sierra Leone economy, contributing over 36% to the GDP and employing over 70% of the rural population, so this expertise and knowledge is extremely important for the country.

The Rose Hutchinson Library is now completed

by Alison | Mar 11, 2024 | Bob Simson Secondary School, Developments, Education, News

Rose Hutchinson Library

The new library at the Bob Simson school in Bai Largo is named after Rose Hutchinson (Rosie) who raises a lot of money for Kori by making lovely handmade craft items sold at events and via the Kori website.

Until recently many children had to be sent away for secondary education. Now there is a suitable school locally for them to attend, large numbers are returning to their home area! The popularity of the school has meant there is great pressure on teaching space.

Initially therefore, the space will be used as a classroom, so that the large influx of students can be provided with education. We are aiming to raise funds to build three new classrooms. This is estimated at £18000 – reflecting the increasing costs of construction – but fortunately there is already land available for the building of the new classrooms.

The library is a big single room close to the school, with a toilet inside. The roof will be made of corrugated zinc, which is much more resistant to rust than other metals. A solar panel for the roof will be attached once security has been sorted out.

Another new classroom/library under construction…

by Alison | Aug 24, 2023 | Bob Simson Secondary School, Developments, Education, News, Projects

A new multi-purpose room for the Bob Simson Secondary School

This rural secondary school was planned for 150 students , but already has over 200 and growing . It is impossible for these pupils to get to the Sandy Raffan library in Taiama due to the distances involved. The trustees decided that an additional room was needed at the Secondary school. This room will be used as both a classroom and branch library. It will be know as the Rose Hutchinson library.

Rose Hutchinson (a trustee) has raised thousands of pounds from her beautifully made craft items . For some of them she uses material dyed by the trainees at the Ann Hay training school in Taiama. She is undertaking to help fund the building of this extension , to ease the overcrowding. It will have a library area at one end.

We have already sent the extra tables and chairs which will be needed . They were donated by Bourne End community centre in the U.K. The building is currently under construction, with completion dependant on donations from our generous supporters.

The area where the new classroom will be built

The new classroom – building in progress

Chairs, donated by Bourne End Community Centre on their way to the new classroom – when completed

Teacher Accommodation finished

by Alison | Aug 24, 2023 | Bob Simson Secondary School, Developments, Education, News, Projects

Newly completed Teacher Accommodation

This is the newly completed teachers’ accommodation at the Gill Curry Primary School in the village of Gbunhehun in the very rural chiefdom of Taiama in rural Sierra Leone . They have been living for nearly two years in a leaking wooden hut . There are now six members of staff , plus a part time advisory headteacher . I am pleased that Alice is a student training at the school , but she lives with her family. The facilities have access to a water pump and long drop toilets . They will cook on an open fire round the back of the building . They plan to put up hammocks under the verandah , a good idea!

Three small ‘flatlets’ have been completed at the Gill Curry Primary school at Gbunhehun. There are two young teachers who have been working in this very rural hamlet for a couple of years . They were living in a leaky wooden hut , but now they are housed in a newly built watertight bungalow . The third one is for the volunteer Headteacher (retired) who spends a few days each week helping out with the school’s organisation and admin . He gets a lift on the motor bike taxi , also provided by Gill Curry , for the ten miles each way journey . All the teachers use this taxi to attend meetings with teachers from other schools . We hope this will encourage them to enjoy their time in this isolated location . They even worked in their spare time as volunteer labourers for the builders, to speed up the completion . We have already sent them domestic goods for their new homes .

These children now have the possibility of continuing their education at the Bob Simpson technical secondary school about three miles away . From the age of five they are used to walking miles along bush paths to get to any possible form of education .

We have sent lots of text books and furniture over the last few years

The Bob Simson Technical Secondary School – going from strength to strength

by Alison | Feb 16, 2023 | Bob Simson Secondary School, Education, News

Student sucess

We have heard about how the Bob Simson school has been rebuilt and strengthened against damage by future storms. We also supplied classroom furniture, such as strong tables with metal frames, and metal and plastic chairs. These cannot be bought locally, and will last for years.

The number of students has gone up significantly – by October 2022 we had almost four hundred young people in the school. Many of them have come from surrounding villages, and some had actually been sent further away to school, but are now returning to continue their education much closer to their homes.

The academic performance has also been impressive. Twenty-two students took the Basic Education Certification Examination for 2022. Not only did every one of them pass, but the highest mark was achieved by a girl! In a country where at the age of 15, over 50% of boys are literate, but only 39.8 % of girls, this success is particularly notable.

This exam is taken at the end of junior secondary school, after three years of a broad general education. Recently issues such as environmental protection have been included in the syllabus. As we know from experience, Sierra Leone is vulnerable to climate change, and extreme events including floods and severe storms, so this is a very important topic for the young people to learn about.