Educate the Future Leaders of Sierra Leone

Karim was born in a village called Boya in the Mile 91 area North of Sierra Leone. His father, Joseph, was the main provider of his family.  Joseph unfortunately lost his job shortly after Karim was born.  Then due to a prolonged heart condition he had suffered, a year later, he passed away.  Karim, Sulaiman (his elder brother) and his mother, Isata, then moved to Freetown. Karim started his schooling two years after their relocation.  

About 3 years ago, after a series of mishaps, Isata mysteriously abandoned them and ran away from home.  She has since not been seen.  Karim now stays with his elder brother in a single bedroom apartment with no running water and electricity.  Sulaiman is unemployed and relies on people with building renovation work to make a living.  Karim loves to go to school and he has excellent grades. He is an avid reader.  He has a cheerful personality and is a role model - not just to younger children, but also the older children.   He also enjoys helping out with community activities – coaching younger children etc.

Karim’s condition is typical of many of the children in Africa – broken families – living in poverty and at risk of dropping out of school.  With such a background, you can understand how important it is for him to continue his schooling – and your support is making that possible.  Without the support that YOU help provide - that takes care of his schooling - his future is unsecure and bleak.  Given that his brother is currently unemployed your support made a huge difference in ensuring he stayed in school last academic year.  It's a joy to know that we made a difference - helping to cover yet another leg of his education.

The new school year starts very soon and together we will continue to support Karim's education.  We additionally have over 200 new children that have approached us asking for education support.  We would love to provide a scholarship for each of these children and your donation of $100 will help keep 1 child in school.  Without your support many of them will drop out of school - as their parents are not in a position to cover their tuition and related school costs. 
  
Please make your best donation today toward giving hope, education and a brighter future for Karim and these precious children.  Let's send 200 more children to school together - bringing hope and a bright future!

Got any ideas on how we can raise additional funding to cover the education of these 200 children?  We would love to hear from you.  You could for instance hold a special fundraiser or create a fundraising page on GlobalGiving. If you need more information on how to do so, please don't hesitate to contact us.  Thanks for your support! 

Warm greetings

It's with joy that we share this report with you.  This report provides a summary story of hope and change. In the year 2012, partly thanks to your support, following amazing things happened:

• Thousands of pens and pencils, books, exercise books and other school materials were provided
• Tens of children received scholarships and tuition assistance.  This has enabled some children to go to school for the first time
• 65 youths received life-changing leadership training at a special conference

Personally, I can attest to the value of education and the role that education has played in my life.  I have an graduate degree and this helped to prepare me for the roles I occupy today and also helped open many doors.  I also strongly believe in on-going training and self-development.  With this background I was particularly touched when I saw Joshua's video.

In this video, Joshua, the Director of Door of Hope, expresses thanks and appreciation to donors of Develop Africa and other organizations that have helped to provide scholarships to children in the Door of Hope community.   He explains that the families of the children are so grateful for the kindness of donors.  Because of and thanks to the assistance provided, some of those parents were previously unable to provide school fees for their children have now been able to send their children to school.  Today their kids are going to school and some of them came first / took first place in their classes academically.  This provision is truly wonderful.

Take a couple minutes to watch Joshua's thank you video.

So it was particularly heart-warming to learn that without our support, some children would not be in school today.  
Our support made the difference and provided the answer to their need!  Together we helped make change and school happen! 

Thanks for helping us make change happen and send children to school!

Links:

• Thank you video message from Joshua