By Ragan M. Conteh

On Friday 25th October 2024, a team from Action Aid Sierra Leone, including its Board Members, Assembly Members, staff and the Executive Director, visited two of their 17 operating communities, in the east of the capital.

While speaking to community stakeholders and students of Kola Tree and Up Town Bar Communities, the Executive Director of ActionAid Sierra Leone, Foday Bassie Swarray said the visit was part of the Board Members and General Assembly Members to interact with their community members.

That is in order to hear their stories and to  listen to their challenges as well as to figure out how much progress they have made so far.

To know how  the lives of community people have been impacted.

ActionAid has gone through series of transformation over the years.

Part of that transformation, he said, ActionAid Sierra Leone has moved from an organisation that is owned and managed by Action Aid UK to one that is now 100% being managed by Sierra Leoneans.

The community people Up Town Bar and Kola Tree showered praises on Action Aid Sierra Leone for their  unwavering support and commitment to saving most impoverished communities in the country.

Explaining the establishment and the organization’s transformative drive in reaching out the many deprived communities over the years, the  Executive Director Foday Bassie Swaray said they visited the communities to gauge progress on projects implemented.

He said every three months the organization briefs its board members on progress and challenges.

At Kola Tree and Up Town Bar, the organization Executive Director revealed that they built the Kola Tree Community Primary School in September 2010, with ActionAid as partners to oversee the project locally.

He revealed that two years later a much-needed Junior High School was built in the same compound.

He said the community now has a total of 12 classrooms, an administration building for staff, a library, two separate wells for fresh drinking water  and girls’ and boys’ toilets.

He informed the general assembly and board members that over 800 children have received education who  otherwise would have been denied such opportunity.

He said the school is getting good results each year in the Government exams.

The Executive Director said due to the successes of the schools, land encroachment became a problem.

So they supported the community further by building a perimeter wall around the school compound.

The primary, he said, with a fence  is meant to ensure for the safety and well-being of all the children attending the schools.

Foday Bassie Swaray disclosed that through the organization’s relentless work in the communities they are now boasting of having graduates from universities while some students are West Africa Senior School exams  candidates.

He expressed gratitude to the community stakeholders of Up Town Bar and Kola Tree for helping to sustain the schools including by providing Community Education, Preprimary, primary, for building junior, Secondary schools and National Islamic Primary and secondary Schools.

“We  now have a Board that provides that oversight, but also we have the General Assembly. The General Assembly is the highest decision making body of Action Aid. So, on an annual basis,we often  hold what we call Annual General Meeting (AGM), we also conduct a field visit taking Assembly Members to the field to interact with our community members and stakeholders to hear their stories and listen to their challenges and to figure out how much progress we have made as far as impacting the communities is concerned,” he stated.

Besides these reports, they normally submit other reports to the member Board, Assembly Members and to the various sub-committees, on  quarterly basis; this is an opportunity for ActionAid  to see and  have first hand information of what is happening on the field. “So this visit that we just made from at the Up Town Bar and the Kola Tree Community is good. It is meant for authorities of the highest decision making body of Action Aid to know and for those that own this organisation to see and listen to the stories of our stakeholders,” he said.

As an organization,”we feel very much satisfied for having worked with both communities for a period of over ten years now.”

“Initially, both communities did not have any formal primary schools but only makeshift structures.” “We worked together with the communities,and with the supports of our various partners and donors, we were able to construct primary schools for them”

“And for us to see the level of transformation, we constructed a primary school, now ten years down the line,  the community now have a pre- primary school, primary school, Junior Secondary School and a Senior Secondary School with contributions from their own resources.”

In a field visit to the Islamic Secondary School, one of the schools Action Aid has been supporting, with the Principal of the School, Mustapha Turay thanked Action Aid for their timely intervention in their community.

“This school we see today was a makeshift structure with only three classrooms. But with the intervention of Action Aid Sierra Leone, we now have decent structure which the community is very proud of having. It is catering for all the stages, from pre-school, up to Senior Secondary School level.”

Not only in the area of education Action Aid has been supporting these communities, they have also been of immense help in transforming the lives of women, through the Village Saving and Loan Association ( VSLA), which women have been using to save millions of Leones to address pertinent issues affecting them.

While at the Community Education Junior secondary school, Kola Tree, the Principal of the School, Alfred Benjamin Kanu, also praised the work Action Aid has done in his community in ensuring that what was known as “Bulgur School”became a learning center to reckon with.”To have transformed this school from a makeshift structure to a well conducive and decent atmosphere for learning, is a tremendous achievement,” he said.

However, they called on Action Aid to continue to be giving their support to both schools.

After their visit,the Chairperson of the Board, Simitie Lavaly was very impressed with what she saw and the testimonies he heard from the beneficiaries.

As Board Members, she highlighted that they have been reading  reports of the team on what they have been doing on the field on a quarterly basis, but it was necessary for them to come to have first hand information. “Today we’re very happy to come and see for ourselves and it’s very important to realized that donors monies are being well utilized.

Madam Lavaly encouraged the pupils to take their academic work very seriously, as it’s the only way they could be ensure of having the necessary transformation in their lives and their communities they live.

Miss Sia Mondeh, happens to be one of the beneficiaries Action Aid has supported from primary school unto to her university days.

She  highlighted the supports she received from them since she was a primary school pupil.Action Aid came to my rescue and supported my academic work. Today I’m now a graduate, working for the very organisation that  supported me,” she stated.

Action Aid has not only been supporting formally education in these communities, but has also empowered young girls who have become dropped out of school through giving them skills training and also setting structure in these communities for them to  have the knowledge to hold the duty bearers to account.

ActionAid is a global  federation working on to achieve social justice, gender equality and poverty eradication. In Sierra Leone their priorities include women’s rights, the rights to food, education, security and the right to justice and democratic governance.