Remembering for the future...

It is acknowledged that the first gunshots in the Sierra Leonean civil/rebel war were discharged by the Revolutionary United Front at Bomaru in the Kailahun District on March 23^rd 1991. To mark the 20^th anniversary of this event and to pay respects to the hundreds of thousands who died in the ensuing 12 years, the Inter-Religious Council of Muslims and Christians organised a remembrance service in the national stadium. Peace marches of both faiths began in the early evening from both the east and the west of the city and, following their respective brass bands and banners, converged in the stadium, to provide a gathering of 4-5,000 people to observe a Muslim and a Christian remembrance service liturgy.

The nation had been asked to observe a minute silence at mid-day, but it was difficult to assess how much recognition was being given to such a gesture, and as we sat in the failing light of a stadium which holds 20,000 people, it was quickly evident that seating would not be a problem. First, the motorcycle/taxi riders swept into the stadium en masse, completing laps of the track in an exuberant style, not similar to the bravado they demonstrate every day on Freetown busy streets. These men, in their early 20’s, are of the same age group as those whose expressed deep frustration with the lack of employment and economic opportunities in 1991, and who became key participants in the conflict as it grew and spread from its remote beginnings. Following the motorcyclists were the marchers of both faith groups, dressed in white, dancing their way into the arena, reminding us that in Sierra Leone, being a hijjab wearing woman is no barrier to boisterous celebratory behaviour.

With the nation’s President, Ernest Bai Koroma, a Christian, being called to Nigeria for emergency talks on the worsening situation in Cote d’Ivoire, the State was represented by the Vice President, Al Hadji Sa Sadiqui Samuel Sam-Sumana, a Muslim. The government had declared the remembrance service to be the first official event in the Nation’s 50^th Independence Celebration. This overlooked the presidential decree that declared every Saturday morning from mid March to be a time of “pick up plastic”; in an attempt to ensure that Freetown’s litter strewn streets would be relieved of their unsightly mess before 27^th April.

The city’s streets are gradually being decorated with bunting, and in fashion shops the green, white and blue of the national flag is making an impact on the style of women’s dresses as we approach the celebrations , while the famous 500 year old Cotton Tree’s trunk is festooned in the same colours.

As we left the stadium late in the night, carpenters and painters were still busy at work, mounting simple exhibition stands in preparation for a trade fair, in which national companies will demonstrate their wares and potential for national development. With few new work opportunities being evident outside of the extractive industries, and with a high and rising cost of living biting hard, astute questions are being asked about the anniversary celebration budget. When a budget of US$50 million was announced late last year, the public response was far from celebratory. Municipal workers facing the demands of Christmas festivities without the payment of their salaries were vociferous in their opposition, whilst the comment within our compound is “imagine what that money could do for schools, clinics and hospitals”. Since then the government has been embattled not just by criticism but suspected fraud scandals within the organizing committee for the celebrations. The political manoeuvring has been swift with dismissals and new appointments being hurriedly made.

Individual Saloneans, including international football super star, Mohamed Kallon, and music and movie star, Jimmy B, have been keen to demonstrate their support for the celebrations, as have commercial enterprises including the mining industry, whose enthusiasm included a donation of US$ 1 million to the activities.

This being Salone, the events calendar remains tentative as independence day is still, after all, a month away. A few weeks ago Peter asked a Sunday morning congregation how many of them could recall the events of 27^th April 1961. Less than a handful of people of some 150 people raised their hands, the vast majority were all under forty years of age. Afterwards we heard one elderly woman’s account of that first independence day, in an area not too far from where the civil war had begun in 1991. “We were told to stay indoors” she said, “nobody knew what was going to happen, so for more than two days we stayed close to home”. That is unlikely to be the response next month, as despite the many misgivings people have about the current state of the nation and its direction, Saloneans like a party and a multi faceted celebration of music, sport, jubilation and reverential officialdom is likely to emerge.

Tableaux of Hope by Laurent and Joe

Going to Sierra Leone was our first experience of Sub-Saharan Africa. We were not too sure what to expect. We knew to not fully trust the media reports on Sierra Leone as they are often based on “doom and gloom”. Civil war, corruption, Aids, terrible social conditions and an economic desert were the pictures we got from the TV and press. Talking to people who used to live in Sierra Leone it was a totally different picture: incredible nature including heavenly beaches, lively and hospitable people, land of opportunities. But often these pictures were also very selective as a "golden year dream" which is the natural reaction from former ex-pats and missionaries. What would we find when going to Sierra Leone? The only reliable certainty was our friends : Janice and Peter. They know us well and managed our expectations wonderfully.

Some say that the first impression is often the right one. Well, arriving in Freetown is a mini adventure in itself. In the middle of the night, you are stunned by the heat. Then the “organised” chaos of the arrivals. Then dragging your luggage - which in our case included a large volume of muesli - to the bus across dust and sand ( not good news for the wheels!). Half the bus is made of white faces who got charged for not too sure what service. There are two ways to see it. The cynical one: "I just got screwed" or the positive one: "I am supporting the local economy". Make your choice! We made ours. After 20 minutes of a dirt road, the bus stopped at the end of the road to the beach. We were offered safety jackets and sent to the boat, two at a time, as the floating pontoon tends to go under water, if there is too much weight on it. The water taxi drives us to Freetown. 45 minutes in total darkness, with only the noise the boat engine and the “clapping” of the boat hitting the sea waves. Very pleasant, as the speed and the fresh sea air made the heat more bearable.

Arriving to Freetown's Alex’s wharf (second stop as advised by Janice) we were reassured to meet the friendly faces of the Clarks. Only two hours late.
This long story is important for Joe and myself as it is our first contact with this part of the world. The heat, the hard working people, the chaos, the colourful life, the lack of infrastructure, the pride were repeated during all our experiences in Sierra Leone.

From the visit to Chimpanzee sanctuary, auntie Hawa 's clinic and training centre, the "touristic high points of Freetown (!)", the HIV literacy project, the Churches, the Krio villages, especially Bathurst and Charlotte, the street markets, the people living on the Methodist compound, leaving the bank with a plastic shopping bag full of bank notes, meeting a priest who struggles with his hierarchy because of his HIV status, all echoed these first hours.

Some other strong pictures stay with us like a human tableau:

Tableau one: The young mother coming to a literacy course suffering from malnutrition, with a tiny baby empty eyed, hanging on her flat breast, fighting with her “a b c” is a lesson of humility and trust in the future. Why go to learn and read if one doesn't hope? Here it was a lesson of humility and courage for all of us.

Tableau two: the pride of the nurses and the management of the Methodist clinic, the training centre and the Development Department of the church- all taking pride in working for the future of their country and their neighbourhood.

Tableau three: Another strong moment was the aggression of a soldier who swore at us because we took a picture of a statue. Nothing to say we could not do it, but we should have known better. 5 minutes which felt like hours of discussion, to avoid being arrested and moving from being shouted at, to that of a friendly hand shake.

Tableau four: Another strong moment is meeting Father Prince, an Anglican minister from Bathurst who welcomed us, guided us and offered us the fruits of his garden, for nothing more than the pleasure to chat and welcome strangers in his village.

Tableau five: We should not forget the communal meals with our friends on their veranda, enjoying the grapefruits direct from the tree, looking at vultures, owls and other birds.

Tableau six: meeting with people. Often we noticed that to get a smile is hard work. But it should not be surprising after the volume of difficulties people have gone through. Once people know who you are and what you want the ice melts quickly. The smile of Mohammed, Adama or Amadu because we ask them for a favour or a small job to be done ... Just the smile.

Despite the past and the obvious struggle to develop a normal social and economic life, people seem to want to manage their future by themselves and avoid the trap of becoming dependent of humanitarian assistance which has destroyed many other developing countries.

For us, as first-time visitors to West Africa it was a worthwhile trip we would have not made without the reassurance of the Clark’s friendship and base in Freetown. It was an eye opener not on misery but on hopes, humility and courage. This trip was a cornerstone in our human and faith journeys.

Aiding and Educating for Life

It was quite some time before coming to Sierra Leone, that a friend sent us an article from a British newspaper featuring a school in Freetown. It had been started by Miriam, who as a young woman, in post war Sierra Leone in 2000, recognised the urgent need for access to secondary education for all, and not just those who could afford both the fees and a school uniform. And so, education to aid those who had no means to attend school, started on Miriam’s verandah. The programme is now known as EducAid.

Later on, and still in Edinburgh, we met Rebecca, a psychologist, who had spent some time in Freetown, doing some work with the post conflict Special Court. She had stayed with Miriam, and spoke enthusiastically of the work of EducAid. A year ago, Janice attended a literacy conference, and met Sean, who works at EducAid, and develops materials for the students. More recently a colleague in Edinburgh wrote to say that he had met the chair of the board of EducAid.

So we had heard about EducAid from many different people, and as Janice was preparing a course on curriculum development, a visit to EducAid was well overdue. Situated in a densely populated area of Freetown, called Lumley, it took us time to find it, although we had been sent directions. Housed in an incomplete three-storey concrete building, EducAid demonstrates a unique form of education in Sierra Leone. Unlike other forms of secondary education it is free, and the students do not wear a uniform. Its ethos is that of wholistic education, developing all aspects of what it means to be human. This is done, not through a didactic teacher dominated approach, with passive students, occasionally answering a question or copying from the board, then learning what you have copied for exam purposes. Instead, EducAid has developed hundreds of packs of materials that the students need to work through, at their own pace, following an entrance assessment of what stage they are at. The philosophy of the school is not geared towards passing exams or getting a good job, but to provide the students with critical and analytical skills to gain knowledge, and also to apply that knowledge to other aspects of life.

We arrived at EducAid in time for the teachers’ briefing, which is held every morning at 8am. All the teachers, except for Sean, were Saloneans, and their average age would have been about 25yrs. They were all former students of the school, and had some training as teachers from the school. Their role as teachers is to support, monitor and correct the work the students are doing from their packs. Speaking to Moses, who was in charge of the IT room, he said that he was a founder student at the school, when it started in 2000. He passed his WASSCE (West African Secondary School Certificate of Education), went to Fourah Bay College at the Sierra Leone University and graduated with a degree in engineering. He is now giving back to the school just a little of what it gave him, and for that he receives just a small allowance. There is strong sense of the development of dignity and personal empowerment, and in return, some of the former students feel a responsibility to enable others to have the same opportunity and become teachers. Also present at the briefing were two people working on video recording with students selected from each class, on an issue of concern to the school, that of TB, having recently lost students to the disease. Ensuring equal representation of girls and boys involved was crucial.

After the staff briefing the students came into the school. They had been waiting out in the street for the time for them to come inside. During the night, the 3 floors of the school provide a place to sleep. Of the 600 students, 200 of them are residential. The tables and chairs are neatly stacked up at night, giving floor space for sleeping. There were no signs of mattresses or bedding. Each floor is basically a large open space, and so the girls would sleep on one floor and the boys on the other two. Little space would exist between each sleeping student, but the distance to return home each day was too great. A daily meal is provided daily for all the students.
Once inside the building the students went to their registration groups, and whilst there, were asked to show their merit cards, a form of incentive for better performance and responsibility.

The school has a heavy focus on literacy, and two floors were taken up with literacy activities for the first two hours. The students sat around tables, tightly packed together, but were given the freedom to discuss what they were doing, and share ideas with each other. A number of them had books to read, to find information. We had never seen so many people eager to reading books in Sierra Leone. There was a gentle working hum, and no sign of loud boisterous noise associated with most schools. On the third floor the students were involved in clubs, such as Girls’ Power Club, Belief in Action Club, Art Club, Science Club, Exploration Club, and again packs of material for each of the topics were provided for the students to work on together, with a choices of tasks presented, such as prepare a powerpoint presentation, write a song, prepare a drama. There were texts to read, and questions to consider.

We talked to a number of the students, and all demonstrated self confidence, as well as being able to give their opinions and discuss their ideas. When ready, they will take the BECE exam (Basic Education Certificate Exam) and later the WASSCE. This is not decided by the number of years the students have been at school, but as to whether they have worked through all the units that make up the syllabus to a satisifactory level. EducAid has some of the best results in the whole of the country.

For 4 days in the previous week, we had both been involved in a strategic planning workshop for college staff. One key issue that came out a number of times was the lack of IT accessibility and knowledge by both staff and students. Through the donation of up-to-date computers from a school in London, EducAid has a well equipped IT room with wi fi, where students can do research and work on a variety of projects, including podcasts.

EducAid now has 5 schools in different locations across Sierra Leone. Although heavily dependent on donations of cash and kind in order to ensure that quality education is available to the poor, the characters that the school builds are not dependent on others, as the skills they have developed and the knowledge they have received enhance their personal, social and economic well-being. Being a student at EducAid is demanding, although free, it is not an easy option. If you are not prepared to be accountable for your work, to be challenged, and to think for yourself, then you will not succeed. But with commitment and determination each of the graduating students will make a dynamic and life enhancing contribution to the future of Sierra Leone.