By Ragan M. Conteh

ActionAid Sierra Leone is continuing its support to several schools and communities in upcountry.

On Friday 24th May 2024 at Makomp Bana village, the humanitarian organization helped the community school with some gifts, thus making education accessible to vulnerable children in that part of the country.

At the handing over ceremony of a block classroom building, the Executive Director of ActionAid Sierra Leone, Foday-Bassie Swaray expressed his commitment in creating the platform for help for all communities in the education aspect.

He said the construction of the the pre-primary school at Makomp Bana is part of his organization’s drive to promoting education, adding that the construction of the school meant to complement government’s efforts on advancing quality education in the country.

Mr Swaray said as an organization they are moving towards making education easily accessible to all but he said they are concerned about getting some trained and qualified teachers to the schools.

The director felt honoured to have received the support from the community and government for the completion of the school building project.

He said since government prioritizes human capital development and education, Action Aid stands forward toward shouldering the effort of government in ensuring education access to all children born in Sierra Leone.

ActionAid, he went on, had completed the structure but qualified teachers are need to serve as drivers in giving quality education to the children.

Among many other interventions, he said, Actionaid has done tremendous work in Bombali district.

He spoke about the several other schools that Actionaid had completed as well as their support of enrollment to teachers who are pursuing distance education in Bombali district.

Director Swaray underscored the fact that apart from their moves on education interventions, Actionaid has distributed many startup kits to about 2,909 students who have dropped out of schools.

He said most of students have also been enrolled into mainstream education system in the country.

The Bombali District Chairman, Mohamed B Sesay, who delivered the keynote statement, thanked ActionAid-SL for making education accessible in Bombali.

He said ActionAid has done tremendous humanitarian work in the district.

Sesay was happy that the school is constructed for the purpose of education.

With the pre-primary school, he believes pupils will be given pre-education and they as community elders would protect the building and make good use of it at all times.

The Head teacher, Hassan B. Conteh, thanked ActionAid-SL for their valuable support and promised to use the facility for its intended purpose.

Explaining the background for thebuilding of the school, the Head of Programmes and Policy Action, Mohamed Abdulai Fofanah, explained that stakeholders from the community met ActionAid at their office and requested for a school to be built for them.

He said the organization took note of their request and put resources together for the school’s construction.

He said the completion of the building was made possible by the participation of the community people.

Other stakeholders including a representative from MoPED and community groups made salient statements regarding the school building while the people asked for more to be provided to them.