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The Song Agricultural Youth Training Centre (formerly known as the Songo Agricultural Training Centre for Ex-Child Combatants)
This facility was established in 2006 by SLWT in partnership with a local organisation, Kids Action. The initial purpose of the Centre was to provide a training school for ex-child soldiers. The 2008 renaming of the Centre replaces the term Ex-Chid Soldier with Youth. This change was implemented as part of an effort to:
(i)create a more positive outlook for the project participants; and
(ii)to embrace other disadvantaged youth who would also greatly benefit from attending the Centre although they may not be ex-child soldiers.
The Agricultural Training School is located in an area called Songo which is approximately 32 miles from the capital Freetown. Due to its proximity to a significant intersection on the road into the provinces, this area was repeatedly attacked throughout the 11 years of the war and many children from this area were captured and forced into a horrendous life as child soldiers, sex slaves and load carriers for both the rebel forces and the civil militia.
The Songo Agricultural Youth Training Centre project is reaching out to these ex-child soldiers and other disadvantaged youth and offering them the opportunity to gain valuable farming and livestock rearing skills. The project director, Donald Ola Smart, is an agriculturalist with many years of valuable experience in his field and he is supported by a staff of 3 Njala University trained agriculture graduates. As a team, Donald and the teachers spent several months of 2006 developing a curriculum that would be appropriate to the needs of the project participants, as well as overseeing the construction of the Training School which comprises 4 classrooms, 1 office, a staff room and a store, a poultry pen, pig pen and a small ruminant’s pen. A water well for the supply of potable water and for irrigation purposes has also been dug at the school. The school and all the facilities are built on 6.3 acres of land which was leased from the local chief at a favourable rate in recognition of the chief and community’s support for the project.
2007 Graduates and Farming Co-operatives
The farming co-operatives have been a fantastic success! Having graduated in March 2008 (the course ran for 15 months instead of 12 months in the first year), the 2007 graduates were organised into five farming co-operatives (four groups of five and one group of six). The co-operatives were each given loans worth Le 2 million (£465); 70% of the loan was in the form of crop seeds and the remaining 30% was in the form of cash to enable the graduates to buy whatever tools, fertilisers and other inputs they required for their farms. Each co-operative entered into a loan agreement with the Project and each graduate signed the agreement personally and as part of their co-operative. Land for the farms was made available to them by the community elders and each co-operative was given between 2 to 3 acres of upland and swamp land. The swamp land is used by the co-operatives for farming in the dry season and the upland is used for farming in the rainy season when the swamp lands are flooded.
The 2008 graduates have worked very well together over the past year and have been able to convert what they learnt on their course into practical and impressive results. The five farms have thrived and have produced enough of a return to enable the graduates to partially repay the SLWT loans that they were given to establish the farms. The transformation in the lives of the graduates is striking; they have truly moved from being disenfranchised and marginalised ex-child soldiers to becoming successful farmers who now support their families and inspire the community that previously shunned them.
 The 2007 graduates are using their initiative to determine which crops or combination of crops they choose to plant (typically okra, peppers, potatoes, cassavas, sorrel) and many of them are demonstrating incredible entrepreneurial talent. Planting dates are carefully recorded by a nominated member of each group and we were startled at the accuracy with which they were able to tell us the harvest dates for their different crops. A record of the cost of inputs and the money made from the sale of their produce is kept by a nominated treasurer for each group. The produce from the co-operative farms is sold at the local weekly market (the luma) that is held along the main road that leads to Songo.
At the start of, and through out the duration of their training course in 2007, this first set of project participants were ridiculed and teased by their contemporaries, other ex-child soldiers and local youth, for signing up to the programme. They were heckled and mockingly called “gardeners” and “agriculturalists” and sneered at for doing “demeaning” jobs like washing pigs and tending to goats. It was with some satisfaction that the 2007 graduates reported that they have been able to employ some of those who were mocking them as casual labour on their co-operative farms. Additionally, those hecklers are themselves now keen to enrol on the training programme.
The 2007 graduates have come a long way on their journey. Each one has a moving story and it is so encouraging to see the remarkable progress they have made. Rape victims and former sex slaves like Humu and Aminata whose stories we first recorded in 2007 (see link to excerpts) and young men who carried guns as boys like Gibril and Joseph are now working hard and constructively to build a bright future for themselves.
Humu’s life has changed
The following quotations from the 2008 graduates during our trustees’ visit in March 2009 clearly attest to that transformation:
 Lucy – “What I have learnt on this course no-one can ever take away from me. No matter where I go now, I will always be able to make a living”
Samuel – “This course has changed our lives completely”
Abibatu – “People were laughing at us but now they can see that it was really worth it”
Ibrahim – “Those of us on the project don’t need drugs anymore, but we want other youth to join the project so that they can get off drugs as well”
Kadiatu – “Women have been really empowered by this course, we are now independent”
Anonymous – “I don’t have to take my handbag out at night anymore (i.e. be a prostitute), I can feed myself and my family now”
Gibril – “My life has changed and by 2012 I will be a commercial farmer”
 Gibril and Albert on their co-operative’s farm
Gibril’s ambition was echoed by all the 2007 graduates whose resounding request was that SLWT support them in further expanding their farms so that they can move into larger scale farming within the next 3 to 5 years. SLWT has committed to doing this and so has increased the loans made available to each of the 2007 co-operatives by 50% with effect from April 2009. We are confident that an investment in these young people will reap long term benefits for them and the wider community that will be sustainable and life changing.
2008 Graduates
The second set of 25 graduates completed the 12 month agricultural training course in December 2008 bringing the programme’s total number of graduates to 51. As with the first set of project participants, there was an even distribution of males and females and a very low drop out rate. Of the 30 young people who started, 25 successfully finished the 12 month course which covers crop science, animal husbandry and agro-business.
As with the 2007 group, their routine during the course involved arriving at the Training Centre at 8am each day and spending the first 4 hours doing practical work in the field before the sun got too hot. Field work was followed by a cooked lunch provided by the Project, the only meal that most of the project participants would have in a day. After lunch the trainees would move into the classroom for their formal lectures. The trainees were regularly given homework and tests and have thrived on the high expectations set of them. Having not had the opportunity to finish school, being in an educational institution such as the Training Centre has resulted in an improvement in their literacy levels and confidence.
Significantly, one day of each week on the course was devoted to trauma counselling and conflict management (expect during the rainy season when the Training Centre is difficult to access from the capital city). This counselling was delivered by one of two specialist trainers who travelled to the Training Centre from the capital on a weekly basis. This weekly intervention has had a dramatic impact on the young people and is sited repeatedly by them and by the 2007 graduates as a major benefit that they gained from the programme. We are very pleased to report that as of April 2009, one of the counsellors, Mr. Harrison Tucker, has joined the Songo Project team on a full-time basis as Assistant Project Director and therefore the counselling and conflict management sessions will be provided to the 2009 trainees throughout their 12 month course.
Although the 2008 graduates completed their 12 month course in December 2008, SLWT had decided not to issue loans to them until an evaluation of the success of the 2007 graduates’ farming cooperatives had been performed. This evaluation was originally scheduled to take place in January 2009 but due to logistical problems, was not performed until March 2009. This meant that there was a three month gap between when the 2008 graduates completed their course and when they would be formally supported in the creation of farming co-operatives like those of the 2007 graduates. This of course raised the risk that some of the graduates might have become de-motivated and might have drifted away.
Such concerns were misplaces as the 2008 graduates were so highly motivated and inspired by the farms of the 2007 graduates that they had over the course of the 12 months, been saving part of the monthly allowance of Le 40,000 (£9) that SLWT provides them, and had started small vegetable gardens of their own. As of April 2009, the 2008 graduates have now been organised into five farming co-operatives and provided with loans and community lands to enable them to establish their own farms. A good natured rivalry has developed between the 2007 and the 2008 graduates with the latter wanting to out-do the results of the 2007 graduates.
The following quotations from the 2008 graduates summarise the effect the project has had on their lives:
Martha – “this project has taken girls away from prostitution and begging”
Igmatu – “I started school but I wasn’t able to continue. Now I can make a living for myself”
Emmanuel – “I used to steal and cause havoc locally but I am now “a man” and I am looking after my younger sister and sick mother”.
Emmanuel had to leave school at Form 3 (year 9). He used part of the allowance that he got from the project to help his younger sister through school. He has also been using the skills he has learnt on the course to help other community members improve their farming techniques. Emmanuel’s story is similar to that of many of the other 2008 graduates who have started a new life with the help of this project.
What Next
There is an overwhelming case for SLWT to continue to support the delivery of the 12 month agricultural training course to more disadvantaged young people who live in Songo as well as to provide loans to the farming co-operatives run by 2007 and 2008 graduates. This means that our financial commitment to the Songo Agricultural Training Centre Project this year has increased to £33,000 from £25,000 last year.
Additionally, the trustees’ evaluation visit in March brought to our attention the absence of medical facilities in the community. A number of graduates were unable to meet with us because they were unwell and whilst we were in the community, the one year old daughter of one of the graduates died from a simple ailment.
Following discussions with the community elders, the project graduates and a Freetown based doctor, SLWT has decided provide some health assistance to the community. The cost of a health clinic would be in excess of £25,000 and we are unlikely to be able to fund that in the short term. However we have agreed to provide training for between 15 to 20 community members to become volunteer Community Health Workers. These volunteers will promote health within the community, provide first aid care for minor health issues and serve as a link between the community and the nearest health clinic. The budget for this training will be in the region of £2,000 but we hope that the result of having these Community Health Workers will be that more preventable illnesses will be avoided and more primary health knowledge will be made accessible to the young people and others within the community.
Winston's Reflections on the Songo Agricultural Training Centre (SATC)
In April 2005, SLWT made a visit to Sierra Leone to evaluate our main project – The Thuan Mathinki Community Rehabilitaton Project (TMCR) – a five year project in a 27 village community focussing on Education, Self sufficiency, Health and Water sanitation and Psychosocial counselling.
Another objective of our visit was to identify another project which SLWT can embark on. This was no easy task as any project we embark on must meet our four stage assessment framework especially, that it must be community based and lead to self sufficiency.
So it was rather fortuitous when Ola Smart, the current Project Director of SATC, presented his proposal to us for opening an Agricultural Training Centre in Songo with the following proposed benefits:
The life chances of ex-combatants in the community will be improved through this skills training
The community will become self sufficient through the increase in agricultural and food security.
On our return to London, this proposal was further evaluated by the Trustees and subsequently approved to start in 2006.
It wasn’t all plain sailing from January 2006, when the project started, to March 2009, when we visited the project. We spent the whole of 2006 constructing infrastructure on a six acre site such as classrooms, a well, pig and ruminant pens and a poultry house. In addition, a detailed curriculum had to be developed to start the training in 2007 whilst concurrently going through the process of selecting the students who will be taking part.
Our only insight into the progress of the project was through monthly status updates from Ola and photographs of the infrastructure and graduation ceremonies.
As such, in preparing to visit the project, our anticipation was tinged with apprehension as to what we will meet on the ground.
However, whatever apprehension we had evaporated rapidly as we were shown round the infrastructure and during interviews with the Graduates. The best was yet to come when we were taken to see the farms that the 2007 Graduates have planted with the help of Loans given to them by SLWT, land provided by the community Leaders and ongoing support from the staff.
There was a glint, a spark, in the eyes of these people. Their enthusiasm was infectious. Their self esteem has been boosted because they now are in possession of skills that is enabling them to provide for their families. They are able to see the link between this self sufficiency and the prosperity of their community in areas such as job creation and crime reduction.
They therefore want more. They spoke about empowering others in the community to become like them. They wanted bigger and better farms to produce more. Kadiatu said, “I want to be a Master Farmer supplying not only locally but the whole Western Area”
This visit left an indelible thought with me – how a little bit of help can go a long way to changing the lives of individuals and as a consequence a whole community.
   
The first set of young people (28 ex-child soldiers) has successfully completed the 15 month training course in March 2008. 30 young people started the course in January 2007 but one young man took ill and could no longer continue and one young woman was married off by her family and was sent away from the Songo area. This very low drop out rate was far better than any predictions given the history of many of the youth who had signed up for the course and a testament to the impact that the course has had on their lives already. Among those who finished the course are Aminata and Humu whose stories you may remember reading about in last spring’s newsletter (see below).
There will be a formal “graduation ceremony” for Aminata and the other project participants in May 2008. It is our intention to get television coverage of the graduation ceremony as an inspiration to other young people and also as reward to the project participants who have worked so hard over the past 15 months to learn new skills and to put these into practice.
Our Class of 2007 are full of enthusiasm for the future. 19 of them have begun work on their own farms having organised themselves into 7 co-operatives of between 3 and 8 members. SLWT has provided each member of the co-operatives with plantings and seeds (including rice, potatoes & greens) as well as fertilizers. Additionally each member of the co-operatives has received a chicken and a goat or sheep. The co-operatives will be provided technical and moral support by the staff at the Centre.
Strong relationships have developed between the staff and the project participants and these have been critical to the success of the course and the retention of the students.
One of the lessons learnt from this year has been that not all the graduates will want to join the farming co-operatives at the end of the course. We found that a very small number of the graduates (7 in total) wanted to earn a day’s wage rather than run their own farming business. Perhaps one reason for this is the fact that the government is in the process of building a new road through Songo and is offering day labourers Le10,000 per day (the equivalent of just under £2 per day). This is a considerable amount of money for the youth on the training program and consequently there is a temptation for some of them to work on the roads instead of investing time in farming where they have to wait until their crops are harvested and sold before they receive their earnings.
In order to encourage these and future graduates who may not wish to join the farming co-operatives to retain the skills they have learnt, we are establishing a commercial farm at the Training Centre. Project graduates can work on the commercial farm for a day wage (also set at Le10,000). Our aim is to expand the commercial farm with time so that it provides employment for project graduates as well as other young people in the surrounding areas. The commercial farm will also ensure the long-term sustainability of the Training Centre as it will eventually generate income for the payment of staff and other running costs.
An application has been made to the Ministry of Education to recognise the Songo Agricultural Youth Training Centre as a Vocational Institute. Recognition will be a great moral booster to project participants and might make the centre eligible for some limited amount of government support.
Today, over 6 years since the war officially ended, practically all of the child soldiers who survived the war continue to face extreme hardships and very little prospects for the future.
A great many have no families as family members were often murdered during the raids in which the children were captured, they have no education as most captured children remained with their captors in the bush for several years. Ironically, many of the female “child soldiers” were not arms bearing and so did not have weapons to hand over to the Disarmament Demobilisation & Reintegration body created by the UN and the Sierra Leone government at the end of the war. Having endured unspeakable brutality and violence at the hands of the rebels, they were not entitled to what little compensation was on offer to combatants in exchange for guns. These girls, many of whom are now young women, were and are unrecognised and ignored, left to carry the pain and the scars on their experiences in silence.
In January 2007, our first set of participants enrolled and began classes at the Songo Agricultural School. Due to funding constraints, we have had to limit this year’s intake to 30 participants: 15 male and 15 female. There are many, many more young women and men who are desperate to enrol next year and we hope that we would have secured enough funds by then to accommodate them.
The course itself is a 12 month program of lectures and practical field work in farming and livestock rearing, followed by a 3 month programme of business set up training. This latter aspect of the project is building on the lessons learned from the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programme which is largely seen as a failure as ex-combatants were taught skills but were not taught how to set up and run businesses in which they could use their acquired skills could be deployed. Consequently, a very low percentage of ex-combatants ever put to use the skills they were taught and many reverted to a life of crime, prostitution and drugs.
At the Agricultural Training School, project participants spend 70% of their time in the field and 30% of their time in the classroom. Theory sessions are carefully delivered as the level of literacy of project participants is varied and the teachers must ensure that every participant is able to follow the training materials. Participants are taught to cultivate rice and maize (cereals), cassava and potatoes (root vegetables), as well as commonly eaten fruit vegetables such as okra, peppers and egg plants. The cultivation of groundnuts and green leafy, vegetables is also included in the programme.
Project participants are provided with a meal each day and with a modest allowance and the end of each month.
A key aspect of the project and one which was brought into sharp focus during our recent Trustees visit is the overwhelming need for counselling to be incorporated within the programme activities. A request by Yvonne to a group of four female project participants for a brief description of what had happened to them during the war, very quickly led to a deeply moving and emotional time of tears and hugging in which Yvonne felt completely out of her depth. Young women who ten minutes earlier had appeared poised, happy and very excited about being part of the project, were sobbing uncontrollably as, for the first time since the war, they were being given an opportunity to tell someone about what they had gone through during the war. Brief excerpts of their stories, and of those of some of the male participants are given below.
The project currently incorporates regular visits by a trained counsellor but more frequent sessions would be hugely beneficial for the participants. Additional funding is being sought by SLWT to make this available within the coming months.
At the end of the 15 month programme, participants will be allocated areas of community land which the local paramount chief has donated to the project. This donation is currently verbal and we are working with community elders to obtain legal assignments to project participants as individuals or as part of farming co-operatives.
The project has been wholeheartedly embraced by the wider Songo community and during the Trustees visit in March, Dennis and Yvonne met with the community elders including the representative of the Paramount Chief, members of the Songo Village Development Committee and the headmaster of the local secondary school. The community elders reiterated their support for the project and asked whether the programme could be expanded so that more participants could be enrolled. Community elders made a direct correlation to crime rates in the community which they felt certain would fall as a result of providing gainful activities and hope for the many ex-child soldiers living in this area. The benefit of increased farm production for the community as a whole as the project participants began to establish their farms at the end of the project was also recognised and welcomed.
Humu was not sure of her age but we estimated that she was most likely about 24 years old and that she was captured when she was about 14 years old. At the time Humu was abducted, she lived with her parents in a village called Makobeh which is in the Songo region. The rebels attacked late one night and commanded Humu’s parents to give them money. When Humu’s parents explained that they didn’t have any money, the rebels tied them up, locked them in the house and proceed to dose the house with petrol and set it alight. Humu was forced to watch as her parents burnt to death.
Humu was then made to join a group of other captured women and girls and walked for days to the town of Makeni which had been captured by the rebels. Eventually Humu was moved to a rebel hide-out in the middle of the bush. Throughout this time and in the months and years that followed, Humu was continuously beaten and raped by her rebel captors and she was also forced to take drugs. Her daytime role with the rebels was to cook for the soldiers.
Humu escaped from the rebels by risking her life. She had heard rumours that the rebels had lost the war and that they were being disarmed in Port Loko. When Humu was left to cook one day, she seized her opportunity and fled. She walked for 2 days until she got to an ECOMOG (West African peace keepers) post in Masiaka. Here the peacekeepers gave Humu food and money for the journey back to her home village.
Humu set off for home but on arriving in her village, Humu was accused by the local chief and by some of her neighbours of being a rebel. Everyone knew that she had been forcibly abducted but many no longer trusted her because she had lived among the rebels for such a long time.
The local chief threatened to report Humu to the police and in the face of such hostility from the chief and from most neighbours, Humu offered herself to an ECOMOG soldier at a nearby ECOMOG post in exchange for protection. Humu was about 18 years old at this stage. Humu remained with this soldier for several months. She eventually made contact with a friend of her late mother who lived in Songo village and who allowed Humu to live with her. Humu has since also made contact with her siblings who survived the war and now live with relatives in Freetown.
Until she came onto this programme, Humu had no hope for the future as she had not been able to continue her education and she did not have any skills that would enable her to get a job or start a business or trade.
Aminata is 20 years old and was captured in 1997 when she was 10 years old. At the time she lived with her grandmother in Masorioh village. Her grandmother pleaded with the rebels not to take Aminata but the rebels beat the old woman to death with the butt of their guns. Little Aminata was taken by a rebel “Lieutenant” who would use her as a sex slave for several months. Aminata tried to run away from him but he shot her in the left leg. The damage from the gun shot wound is still very evident and will probably never fully heal as the wound was not properly treated at the time she was shot.
After several months and having moved around the country through the bushes, Aminata was abandoned by the Lieutenant and left to fend for herself among a group of rebel soldiers. Aminata was taken under the wing of a female rebel who showed her how to hide from overhead jets and helped her survive in the bush. Aminata was not allowed to speak and was used as forced labour by her minder. When this band of rebel soldiers came under sustained attack by the civil militia forces, Aminata’s female minder handed her over to a male rebel soldier. Her rape ordeal was restarted and she became very ill from malnutrition and mistreatment.
Aminata, now 15 years old was again abandoned by her captor but this time she was found by a civilian who took her to the hospital in Lunsar where she made a slow recovery.
At the end of the war, camps were set up for the collection and disarmament of child soldiers. Radio announcements were then made throughout the country instructing families who had had their children abducted, to go to these camps to look for any surviving children. Aminata was found in the Lunsar camp by an aunt who had gone to look for her. Aminata’s mother, father and siblings had all been killed during the war and she now lives with her aunt.
Charlie is now 20 and was walking through Songo cemetery with his mother when the rebels attacked and seized his mother. Charlie, who was then only 11 years old escaped into the bush and made his way to Makambi to look for his grandparents. He couldn’t find them and instead ran into a group of rebel soldiers at Makolo. The rebels gave Charlie food and coffee that was laced with cannabis and made him smoke it directly as well. Charlie was enlisted as a rebel fighter and was stationed under a Colonel Carew. His rebel group operated in the Mile 38 – Okra Hills – Magbere area.
Charlie escaped from the rebels in 2002 and went back to Makoloh and then onto Songo where he found his mother. In contrast to the fate of many other ex-child soldiers, both Charlie’s parents and his 4 younger brothers were still alive.
However Charlie’s drug taking and the extreme trauma resulting from front line fighting during the war had taken their toll on Charlie and he soon had to be hospitalised in Freetown for psychological treatment. Charlie explained that he still has problems concentrating now but that he wants to do well in the programme and hopes to own his own farm in a few years.
Charlie was not willing to talk about the specifics of his wartime experiences.
FAWE (Forum of African Women Educationalists) Scholarship Program Support
FAWE is an African Organisation that promotes the education of girls. A Sierra Leonean Branch of FAWE was started in 1995. FAWE has built three primary schools in the Western Area of Sierra Leone which provide free education of disadvantaged girls. On completion of their primary education, FAWE facilitates and encourages the secondary education of these girls through a scholarship programme as secondary education is not free. In September 2008 SLWT made a three year commitment to provide the funds for the scholarships awarded to 30 pupils that will cover their school fees, examination costs, uniforms and books.
 In March 2009, SLWT trustees visited the FAWE primary school for girls at Fort Street in Freetown. Being a FAWE school, attendance is absolutely free, no charges are made for tuition or books. The school is donor supported and attracts needy girls from around the city and the city outskirts. The girls who go to the school come from very poor families. On completing this primary school, the girls would not be able to continue their education if scholarships were not available to them for secondary school. Of the 30 scholarships that SLWT provides, 10 of these are awarded to the girls at the FAWE school at Fort Street who achieve the highest grades in the National Primary School Examinations (NPSE). Typically 50 to 60 girls at the school take the exams each year and therefore there is a high risk that the 40 to 50 girls who did not make the top 10 positions will not be able to continue their education.
We had the privilege of meeting three of the girls who had been awarded SLWT scholarships from the FAWE school and who are now in their first year at St. Joseph’s Secondary School, one of the best girls’ secondary schools in the country. Mary Sankoh (age 13), Elizabeth Williams (aged 12) and Finda Lansana (aged 12).
Finda, Mary and Elizabeth
Elizabeth thinks school is excellent and loves agriculture. Elizabeth’s mother is a petty trader and her father works in a shop. She walks to school and it takes her one to one and a half hours each way so she is often late. Elizabeth told us that she is sometimes given Le1,000 (less than 25p) for her lunch at school but there are times when she simply has to do without food for the whole day. Elizabeth wants to be an accountant when she grows up.
Finda enjoys school and likes social studies and learning about the world and her surroundings. She likes history and wants to be a journalist and to be on television when she grows up. Like Elizabeth, Finda walks to school and it takes her the same length of time.
Mary wants to be an accountant when she grows up. She loves school and her favourite subject is maths. Mary’s mother is a waitress in a small restaurant and her father is an assistant in a shop.
Meeting these bubbly, hardworking girls was a great inspiration and we are really thrilled that SLWT is giving these girls the opportunity to realise their dreams for the future.
   
The Thuan Mathinki Community Rehabilitaton Project
The Thuan Mathinki Community comprises 27 villages in a remote part of Bombali District in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. This area was a rebel stronghold during the war and the villages there were repeatedly attacked and torched. The villagers fled to displaced peoples’ camps in Freetown until it was safe to return to their homes in 2001 when the war ended. In 2002 SLWT was asked to assist this community as they struggled to rebuild their lives and the Thuan Mathinki Community Rehabilitation Project began. The Project was a 5 year holistic project which focused on:
- Education
- Self-sufficiency (through Farming)
- Health & water sanitation
- Psychosocial activities (to address the trauma caused by the war)
Kagbankona Primary School
 This SLWT built school continues to function well and to provide the only access to education for children within this 3,000 strong community. The teachers are still paid by SLWT but have now been verified by the government as part of a nation-wide teacher registration process that took place in August 2008. We are therefore hopeful that as and when the government has the funds to add new teachers onto the civil service payroll, payment of the Kagbankona teachers will be taken over by the Ministry of Education.
The library that was established in December 2007 is popular with the children and is used by each of the six classes in rotation. Sports activities are also being encouraged and the school now boasts of a newly levelled and marked track that will be used for the annual sporting competition on the 2nd May 2009.
Simeon Sesay Health Clinic
 The clinic is currently staffed by a matronly and dedicated nurse who remains in this remote community in spite of its challenges and isolation. She is delivering a good service to the community but is hampered by inadequate drugs and facilities. The Ministry of Health has not provided adequate supplies of drugs to the clinic so SLWT is working with the nurse and Munafa M’Patie to restock the clinic’s drugs and to provide much needed additional medical furniture.
The most critical item on the nurse’s list of requirements is a Solar Refrigerator to enable her to store vaccines and other drugs that need to be kept cold. The clinic is on a waiting list to receive a solar refrigerator from UNICEF but we do not know how long the waiting list is and when the clinic will get the fridge. The cost of the Solar Refrigerator is approximately £2,000 and SLWT is considering purchasing for the clinic directly if the waiting period is unreasonably long.
Water Wells
An additional five water wells were dug by SLWT (with funding from the Fuserna Foundation) in mid 2008. This brings the total number of wells dug within the community by SLWT to 12, significantly improving sanitation and health conditions for all ages. One of the new wells was dug in the Kagbankona school compound so that the children can have easy access to clean water during the course of the school day.
In September, the local federation that now overseas the management of this project (Munafa M’Patie) organised the delivery of a training course for volunteers within the community who would be responsible for the repair and maintenance of the wells. The volunteers were provided with well repair kits. On visiting the community in March 2009, we found all the wells were working.
The Kagbankona Primary School that was constructed by SLWT in 2004 and is staffed by SLWT, is running at full capacity with 360 pupils. It has once again achieved an impressive success rate at the National Secondary School Entrance Exams. This is particularly moving when you consider that 4 years ago this community was without a school and without a history of education.
We were thrilled to recently learn that the government is planning to build a secondary school in a nearby town which will enable more children from the Kagbankona Primary School to continue their education beyond primary level. As there are currently no secondary schools near the community, parents from the community whose children have passed the secondary school exams over the past 2 years have been obliged to send their children to live with family members in distant towns in order for them to continue their education. Whilst this is a testament to the value being placed on education by these families, it is very good news indeed to learn that soon this will no longer be necessary. Access to a local secondary school will encourage more families to send their children to secondary school when they finish at the Kagbankona Primary School.
The library books collected by SLWT from our supporters in the UK and delivered to the Kagbankona School in December 2007 were very well received. We received about 1000 books; books for early readers through to those for more accomplished readers, fictional books as well as maps and dictionaries. These books will serve as a much needed resource for the children and teachers at the school.
The teachers’ salaries continue to be paid by SLWT as government funding has not yet been secured. Thankfully there is now a light at the end of the tunnel in the application process and we are hopeful that the government will take over these payments before the end of 2008.
The health clinic which was named in memory of our late Project Co-ordinator Simeon Sesay, continues to function well and to provide much needed primary health care to the people in the community. The nurse is building community capacity in dealing with preventable health issues through routine health talks and advice. SLWT will continue to support her as she works with the local community federation to conduct training for key health facilitators, volunteers and mothers.
The seven wells dug by SLWT continue to used by the communities closest to them and are a welcome addition to the landscape in the community. During a recent outbreak of cholera in the Bombali District the availability of this potable water was instrumental in the containment of the spread of the disease.
With the continued assistance of the Fuserna Foundation, five more wells are currently being dug in the community. This will bring the total number of wells to 12, approximately 1 well for every 2 villages. The effect of these wells on the day to day lives of women and children is marked as they no longer have to make the arduous journeys to streams and boreholes to collect drinking water. The health and hygiene benefits of the wells are also significant.
One of the new wells being dug this month will be located at the site of the Kagbankona Primary School at the request of community members. Until now the children have had to walk to the main village of Kagbankona (about a 10 minute walk) to access clean water. Clean drinking water will now be available within the school compound which will mean that children do not lose time in the day walking to and from the well.
The TMCR project was scheduled to be completed in December 2007 and this goal has largely been met. SLWT’s continued involvement remains in the areas of Education and Health as the teachers’ salaries are still being paid by SLWT and the health clinic continues to require financial assistance for essential drugs and equipment.
We are pleased that SLWT has been able to hand over the day-to-day management of the remaining aspects of the project to the Local Community Federation. We therefore no longer employ a Project Co-ordinator for the TMCR project and rely on the local community federation to progress outstanding matters such as the completion of the new wells and the processing of teacher applications for government funding.
The local community federation covers an area that is wider than but includes the Thuan Mathinki Community. The federation is supported by Christian Children’s Fund and its members are paid employees who have specific responsibilities and training for roles such as health, education and technical operations.
The primary school that was constructed by SLWT continues to operate well and is a source of great hope and inspiration for community members. The school submitted its first set of pupils to take the national secondary school examinations and achieved an amazing 95% pass rate. 17 pupils, including 5 girls, went to secondary school in September from a community that had never previously had a school! Due to the fact that the nearest secondary school is a 20 mile walk away, the 17 pupils going to secondary school have been sent by their families to live with relatives in towns that have secondary schools. This represents a remarkable commitment by parents and children to pursuing education and is a great testament to the success of the TMCR project in sensitizing community members to the long-term merits of education. By allowing their children to leave home for secondary school, the parents are losing some immediate help on their farms but they have decided to make an investment in their children’s future instead.
The project has been supporting 5 part-qualified teachers through a distance learning teachers training course at Makeni Teachers Training College. We are thrilled that 2 of the 5 teachers successfully completed their courses last June and are now fully qualified and that the remaining 3 teachers will be fully qualified this June. In exchange for financing their training course, the 5 teachers agreed to remain with the school for 3 years post qualification. This is a very important arrangement as the extremely remote location of the school makes it very difficult to attract teachers. Conditions are incredibly basic and the teachers have to date lived as guests in the huts of various community members. At their request, the community has agreed to build simple mud brick lodgings for the teachers who are doing a great job with the pupils.
Salaries of the teachers are still being paid by SLWT as the Ministry of Education is stalling on the approval of individual teachers. All public sector workers must be approved by the public sector commission in order for their salaries to be paid by government. We continue to support the teachers in their efforts to obtain their approvals so that the government takes responsibility for their salaries.
As an offshoot of our project, UNICEF has assisted the community to start 4 non-formal community schools which are located in some of the villages that are further away from Kagbankona. These non-formal schools which are from class 1 to class 3, enable younger children to attend school without having to walk the distance to the main school. The non-formal schools act as feeders to the main school. They are staffed by volunteer teachers from the community who are paid in kind by the parents of the children.
The running of the school is overseen by a School Management Committee (SMC) which includes parent representatives and teachers. The SMC is taking an active role in ensuring the sustainability of the school. Within the past few weeks, the SMC has mobilised the community to prepare a sports field next to the school for the pupils so that they can hold their annual sports day there. This has been hard work and involved burning and brushing a [acre] plot. The new sports field will be available for use at the end of April.
Like most children all over the world, the pupils at Kagbankona school love football and were thrilled to receive football kits from pupils at King’s College Junior School (KCJS) in Wimbledon last year. KCJS pupils donated football kits and boots that they had outgrown to the pupils at the Kagbankona Primary School. These were gratefully received and were a huge hit with both boys and girls alike!
One of our aims for this year is to provide the school with a library. The Trustees were struck by the dearth of reading materials available to the pupils. Whilst every effort has been made by the SMC to secure relevant teaching materials, it has not been possible for them to source additional reference books or fictional materials. Reading is a wonderful gift and having given it to children at the school, SLWT is keen to help them get as much fun out of reading as possible!! We are therefore seeking from our supporters donations of books for children from 0 to 12 years old.
Incredulous though it might seem, the closest medical facility (a health clinic staffed by a nurse) was a 9 mile walk away from Kagbankona and up to a 20 mile walk away from some of the further outlying villages like Kaptumpolimba. Many illnesses and medical conditions amongst the community went untreated and resulted in terrible complications and ultimately deaths.
Construction of the community’s first ever health clinic by SLWT in partnership with the community, was completed last August!! After a great deal of toing and froing, the clinic has finally been staffed with a Ministry of Health appointed newly qualified nurse. Fortuitously, the nurse who has been appointed to Kagbankona did her practical training at Kamasike (the clinic that was previously closest to Thuan Mathinki) and so she was aware of the existence of this remote community and of their need for medical assistance.
As is the case with the teachers, nurses should be paid by the government but need to be approved by the Public Sector Commission which is a long and drawn out process. Like many other newly qualified nurses, the nurse assigned to Kagbankona will in practice work for no salary for a period of time until her registration is approved and will be dependant on payments in kind from the community. As an incentive for working in such a remote community, SLWT has offered the nurse an allowance which amounts to approximately £40 per month.
The nurse will deliver primary health care, will support the traditional birth attendants with child birth, and will be instrumental in disseminating information about clean water, nutrition and hygiene.
At the end of March, our newly constructed clinic only had benches and tables that had been made by community members. During a recent meeting with SLWT Trustees, the District Medical Officer (DMO) confirmed that the Ministry of Health is responsible for providing new clinics with a “start up kit” comprising basic drugs and equipment. However, the DMO also explained that Bombali District already has over 80 clinics that are not equipped and therefore he suggested that it would be best for the community if SLWT sought to provide the clinic with a start up kit.
The Ministry of Health would provide SLWT with a list of the items that made up a “start up kit”. Dr. Patrick Turay who heads up the medical arm of the Catholic Mission in Makeni was approached by SLWT and generously offered to supply a number of items from the list. SLWT must now raise the funds to purchase the remaining items or the clinic will not be able to function effectively.
The dependence of around 50% of the community on unreliable and untreated water from bore holes has ended as SLWT, through the sponsorship of the Fuserna Foundation, dug 6 wells in the community last year. The introduction of the wells has had a remarkable impact on the general health of those villagers that are able to access the wells. Furthermore, hundreds of women and children are being spared the drudgery of walking several miles on a daily basis to collect water from the nearest bore hole or stream.
As there are 27 villages in the community, at a ratio of 1 well for every 2 villages, there is still a need for about 7 more wells to be dug. SLWT plans to build the remaining wells this year with the continued support of the Fuserna Foundation.
Training is being delivered to two young men in each village where a well is located to ensure that simple repairs can be made to the mechanics of the well’s manual pump in the event of malfunctioning.
The agricultural programme has been the most challenging aspect of the project in recent months. This is not because of internal issues with the community but because of an incursion onto community farmlands by cattle.
For the past 18 months there has been a low level battle between the community members and a cattle rancher who arrived with a herd of over 200 cattle and set up nomadic structures called worrehs in land between the community’s villages. His cattle have roamed throughout the community’s farms eating up precious food crops. The matter has been reported to the Paramount Chief, the Section Chief and the Chairman of the District Council but to no avail. Community members have also written to their MP but this has also fallen on deaf ears.
In late February/ early March, the situation came to boiling point when the frustrated community members attempted to move a cow off a patch of their land and were shot at by the cattle rancher. The villagers outnumbered the cattle rancher and were able to overpower him and take him to the police station at Makeni to report the incident. In a twist of events that throws into question the functioning of the rule of law and the possibilities for justice to prevail for the poor, 20 of the villagers (including elderly men and women and the local chief) were arrested and held at the police station for 4 days. They were eventually released without charge but the cattle incursion continues.
SLWT and our partner CCF are working with the community elders to try to broker a peaceful settlement with the cattle ranger but it is definitely a David and Goliath situation in which the community members are David.
In the light of the above situation, SLWT has suspended funding of the agricultural programme which had previously seen seed loans multiply from 30 farm families to 230 farm families. However, as so much of the community’s planted crops are in danger from the cattle, it has been deemed prudent to not finance an expansion of the farming programme for the time being.
SLWT continues to provide an agricultural worker for the programme who is resident in the community and is tasked with teaching new and improved farming techniques to community members and to helping the farmers organise themselves more effectively.
In spite of the tremendous challenges posed by the cattle incursion to the agricultural programme, SLWT continues to partner with the community to get the best results possible from existing agricultural resources. In particular, SLWT arranged for the Ola Smart, the project director of the Songo Agricultural Training School and an experienced agriculturalist, to visit the community in March with the Trustees.
Ola had lengthy discussions with the agricultural worker and the community members and facilitated the identification of some actions which can be taken to lessen the impact of the cattle. The most significant of these being the adoption of an improved and faster growing rice variety “nerica” rice which can be planted and harvested within three months and is therefore in the ground for a shorter period of time. This could be coupled with some degree of fencing although this would be quite expensive and time consuming to erect and some community members were incensed by the prospect of having to spend their scarce resources to defend land which was being illegally encroached upon. SLWT continues to support the community in its efforts to resolve the matter.
A key tenant of the operation of TMCR has been community empowerment and sustainability. Evidence of this can be seen in the active role of the School Management Committee. In the agricultural arena, farmers are now organised in geographic zones with zonal chairmen. The zones provide a structure for discussing and addressing relevant issues.
Women within the community have been trained and more will be trained to serve as traditional birth attendants. These women tend to take on a wider role of liaising with the government nurse and supporting the transfer of health and hygiene knowledge throughout the community through informal networks of women.
A tremendous boost to the sustainability of the project also comes from the fact that since SLWT’s intervention, other agencies have been encouraged to start programmes in the Thuan Mathinki Community. The most significant of these is by SLWT’s partner organisation Christian Children’s Fund (CCF). CCF has throughout the past 4 ½ years of the project provided logistical support (office space, vehicles, telecommunications) as well a much needed supervision and technical support to SLWT’s staff on the ground. In perfect timing with the completion of SLWT’s project life at Thuan Mathinki, CCF has started a “Brighter Futures” programme in the community which focuses on capacity building within the community and child sponsorship.
As I returned to the TMCR project this year I reflected on all the changes that had occurred since the project started. In October 2002 I had arrived at a community recovering from the impact of the civil war. I remembered the warm welcome that we received from the entire community. At that time, the village of Kagbankona was like a ghost town with burnt out structures everywhere. The existing school building (with only of two classrooms and a store) was dilapidated and structurally unsafe. It was in desperate need of major repairs and had not been used for at least 8 years.
Having spent time in the displaced people’s camps in Freetown, an interest in education and in the notion that it was a way out of poverty had gripped a number of the community members and they were very keen to have the school re-opened. Two part qualified teachers had returned to the community after the war and they were holding school classes out in the open for a handful of children. I also remembered sitting down with some of the villagers as they told me their personal stories. I could hardly begin to imagine the terror they had felt, hiding from armed rebels during the day, travelling only at night, making their way to safety. Others being saved from death by mere happenstance! It was a deeply moving experience and as I looked around the shattered village with the burnt out huts, there seemed that so much was needed to rebuild this community but I was hugely encouraged by the incredibly positive spirit of the people.
As we arrived at Kagbankona in March 2007, almost 5 years later, some of the contrasts were obvious. The roof of the newly built and fully staffed primary school was gleaming in the bright sunshine. It was lunchtime so the school yard was packed full of children running around, laughing and playing. I noticed all the new houses that had gone up since the project started. The village of Kagbankona was hardly recognisable! The completed Health Centre, the wells and the thriving market place we passed through at Kamaseke, were all new additions to the landscape.
Less obvious perhaps but nonetheless most definitely present, was the sense of optimism amongst the younger members of the community, who now feel they can live self-sufficient lives.
Of course, no undertaking ever goes without its problems and this one is no different. The community is currently facing a major challenge in the form of an incursion of cows on to their farmland. However the whole community ahs pulled together to seek an effective solution through the local chiefs and hopefully with the support of human rights organisations.
The warmth of the welcome we received on this visit was wonderful. Community members in the outlying villages came from over one hour’s walk away to meet us and to discuss the future of their community as SLWT’s project comes to a end and they continue to journey of rebuilding and developing their community.
A detailed description of the project objectives and achivements are provided in the TMCR Case for Support which can be accessed at SLWT_Case_for_Support_TMCR and in our
recent Report to Funders. Recent key achievements are summarised below.
    
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