Schools for Salone Builds Schools and Wells in Sierra Leone

  By connecting American schools, organizations and individuals with communities in Sierra Leone, Schools for Salone is building new schools, many with accompanying wells, through modest fundraising.  Ten schools have been completed in just five years, making it possible for children to learn and communities to rebuild after damages suffered during the country's ten-year civil war.

 Education is the key to reducing poverty and improving all aspects of life, including agribusiness, communication, and water resource management.  The Sierra Leone government is working hard to improve its education systems, but the needs far outstrip its ability to provide services, let alone rebuild or build new structures.  Many of the poor, rural communities suffer from multiple problems, including a lack of safe water, poor health and nutrition, as well as seasonal hunger.  Yet, these communities place a high priority on the education of their children and struggle to hold classes in whatever makeshift or damaged structure is available. 

 Based in Seattle, WA, Schools for Salone is building awareness about living conditions in Sierra Leone and demonstrating the positive impact of building community schools.  A core network of Sierra Leone Returned Peace Corps Volunteers has come together to help, and our early success has resulted in more and more requests for schools in Sierra Leone and significant interest from American individuals and groups who want to learn more and help.

 The commitment of time and energy to meet these needs has rapidly grown beyond our all-volunteer organization's ability to manage without a paid staff.   We have found that our Executive Director, who is currently a full time employee elsewhere, requires a minimum of twenty to thirty hours per week to keep the Schools for Salone organization moving forward.  We seek funding for at least a half time Executive Director paid position to help us grow and build toward becoming self sustaining.  

Some of the Executive Director's many duties include:

• Coordination of fundraising events and activities,
• Coordination of educational outreach programs and publicity,
• Frequent communication with our in-country partners to facilitate and oversee active projects in Sierra Leone, together with development of future projects,
• Management, monitoring and reporting of organization income and disbursements,
• Answering a myriad of questions, inquiries, offers of assistance and program idea communications,
• Coordination of volunteer efforts and maintenance of effective relationships with our many US and Sierra Leonean communities, schools and partner organizations.

 In addition to our US Board of Directors and many supporters, the success of Schools for Salone in-country programs can largely be attributed to our close working relationship with the Sierra Leonean non-profit organization, Masanga Children's Fund and its Executive Director, Joseph Lamin, with his untiring devotion to improving education in his beloved country.  His expertise, management skills and knowledge of the way things work in Sierra Leone contribute to a remarkable history of projects completed on time and within budget.  As Schools for Salone's success and the requests for additional schools grow, so do the demands on the small staff of Masanga Children's Fund grow.  It is also our hope to help support four staff at Masanga Children's Fund who work on all our Schools for Salone projects in Sierra Leone.  

The Organization's Beginning

In 2004,  Cindy Nofziger (PCV 1985) was asked by her former co-worker at  the Masanga Leprosy Hospital for help in building a primary school in his home village to replace the one destroyed during the war.  Cindy told him she would try.  Children of the village drew pictures, which Cindy turned into Note Cards and sold in the US to raise funds.  One year later, Cindy had raised $10,000 and helped the village build, staff and open a small 4 room school.  (See more about our first school at:  http://schoolsforsalone.org/Pages/ProjectSchools-Maforeka.html)

 That same year, Cindy enlisted the help of several other Sierra Leone Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and Americans of Sierra Leonean descent to found Schools for Salone.  Over the next 4 years the group focused on raising US awareness of the huge need in Sierra Leone and raising funds to build schools and wells.  Cindy established a working partnership with another former colleague, whose registered Sierra Leonean non-profit,  Masanga Children's Fund, is dedicated to improving education in Sierra Leone.  Together they select villages that demonstrate commitment to education and provide active participation and on going support for each school project. 

 By mid 2008, the Schools for Salone became a registered US 501(c)(3), non-profit organization and had built 7 more schools, several with accompanying wells.  In 2009, the organization has built 2 more schools, co-sponsored a week long training session in Bo for more than 70 teachers and raised funds to send a container of 22,000 donated books from the US to Sierra Leone and distribute them up-country to many rural schools. 

 The Organization's Funding

Schools for Salone has prospered and grown since 2004 as an all volunteer organization based on personal contacts, word of mouth support and promotion via our volunteer created website.  We want to keep that essence and build upon it. 

 Current Schools for Salone fundraising strategies include:

• Major Donor Outreach, spearheaded by Executive Director and Board Members
• Direct Mail Appeals
• Hosting fundraising dinners
• Attending Peace Corps Volunteer Reunions
• Sponsoring Benefit Concerts by the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars Band
• Sponsoring school and community presentations by Sierra Leone Author Ishmael Beah
• Presenting educational programs in schools and for civic groups
• Providing information and donation capability on our website
• Maintaining working relationships with other Sierra Leone and Africa support organizations such as Books for Africa, the Sierra Leone Relief Agency of California and Friends of Sierra Leone (FOSL)
• Maintaining contact with other Returned Peace Corps Volunteers via Constant Contact website
• Registering with on line philanthropic Donation platforms such as Network for Good.
• Sales of Sierra Leone related items: 
  • Note Cards with drawings by village children
  • Calendars with photos of Sierra Leone taken by a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer
  • Tote bags made by US volunteer quilters with fabrics from Sierra Leone

 Using these strategies, Schools for Salone has raised more than $265,000 over that last five years.  We have built 10 schools at an average cost between $20,000 - $30,000 each, plus numerous wells. 

Contributors have included Diaspora Sierra Leonean US citizens who wished to give back to their original communities, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, their families and friends, and people who just want to make a contribution where there is a serious need.  Many of our donors came to Schools for Salone by word of mouth and were not solicited.  Many of our schools were built by single donors.  We continue to reach out to new sources of funding and can see many more possibilities on the horizon.

 Schools for Salone continues to build partnerships with individuals and other organizations in the US and Sierra Leone, working to improve education by raising funds to build and support schools and wells in this desperately poor country.   Learn more about us at:    www.SchoolsForSalone.org