The Marc Bolan School of Music&Film - Sierra Leone

The last few months have been truly incredible and inspiring in the quality, level and manner of achievement reached by our students and staff. Our collaboration with Purple Field Productions has enabled us to manufacture and distribute our original song and video recordings, as well as our posters, to key distribution points in Makeni and Freetown. As well as this the Light of Love Foundation UK has enabled, through its parallel payments, for these same dvds and cds to be aired and played on Sierra Leone State TV (SLBC) and radio and local radio stations. 

The significance of this cannot be underestimated. Through initially creating the songs, choreography, filming, directing and editing, our students and staff have produced an effective and inspiring means of communicating ways of informing the population as to how to inhibit the spread of the Corona Virus on a national level - thereby contributing directly to protecting the population.

As well as this we have reached out and met with people in their own village communities by assembling a team of students and staff to travel beyond the immediate environs of Makeni itself. This initiative has met with great success. Our young students have spoken directly to communities on their own grounds- they have distributed their Corona Virus campaign posters and presented their videos and songs. Village elders and District Chiefs have welcomed our students and praised and thanked them for their information and efforts.

This weekend our students and staff are visiting more villages. To prepare for such outings we have provided our students with food, clothing and training in presentation - how to hold and use a microphone effectively, where to stand when addressing groups, how to speak clearly. These key social skills of course, inspire an inner confidence in our students - a confidence which their mentors/teachers and audience recognise and acknowledge.

To enable all of the above has taken a great deal of care, planning and nurturing, and the rewards and recognition are truly inspiring and moving. So much so - this last Wednesday our Marc Bolan School was featured as the Number 1 Headline News story on Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation's national daily news TV programme.  It reported how our students met with the Covid 19 Executive Committee for the Pandemic, the Paramount Chief, the Regional Co-ordinator and Chief Executive for strategies to combat Covid 19 and how that committee recognised and applauded our students for their brilliant work in sensitising communities - being at the forefront of the campaign to raise public awareness as to methods of fighting the spread of the virus. Our school has been awarded a mandate allowing us to go out to communities and distribute our message.

For our young students, many of them orphaned by Ebola, this experience has been invaluable in enabling them to develop a personal understanding (and thereby inner confidence) and appreciation of the interplay of their own talents, determination and social skills. To participate in, and contribute to, such an important campaign leads to an awareness of their own value within a nurturing and inspiring community - The Marc Bolan School of Music and Film. We want, passionately, to spread such a culture of meaningful engagement.

So, we express many and sincere thanks to Purple Field Productions for enabling our development and inspiring us to reach out further, and deeper, into the capacities and potentials of our young people and their belief in their own skills, strengths and identities.

Our core team in Makeni, headed by Gloria Jones, Mohamed Murrah, Bashiru Koroma, Idrissa Sesay and Bai Koroma are wonderful people. They are focused and dedicated in their work and very much look forward to collaborating with Purple Field Productions in further developing the skills and vision of our students so that they themselves can teach others to build meaningful, happy and consequential lives in the future.

Jed Dmochowski

Director and Treasurer Light of Love Foundation UK

Exclusively for The Marc Bolan School of Music and Film Makeni

In the last four months the students of The Marc Bolan School of Music and Film have created a Corona Virus Covid 19 public awareness campaign which is being shown on Sierra Leone State TV and played on State and local Radio! This Public Awareness Campaign has been embraced by local and national government - to educated and inform the people of Sierra Leone in all parts of the country how to take effective steps to curb the spread of the Corona Virus.

We have produced song videos featuring our students- the songs are written by students and teaching staff and our videos produced and directed by graduates of the Marc Bolan School of Music and Film. We have approached and been accepted by State TV and Radio at the forefront for the survival of all in the country. Having survived Ebola, the students  (many from The Advance Orphange School in Makeni) are now reaching out not only to the towns and cities but also to villages around the country !!!

In the videos our students demonstrate how very important it is to remember to wash hands thoroughly, keep social distance and wear masks when with others - to thwart the spreat of the virus. This video is brought to life with a wonderful, original song sung and performed by our students - whom our school has trained and encouraged!

As well as this they have produced DVDs and CDs together with a poster campaign which we have distributed in major towns and cities and which we are also taking around Sierra Leone to distribute to villages and Chiefdoms. This urgent and important Public Awareness campaign has been spomsored by The Light of Love Foundation UK (Charity Number 1164256) with great help from GlobalGiving and the good people at Purple Field Productions, a charity aiding similar projects in West Africa.

Please help our wonderful students save lives! Our students, who themselves sadly already know great hardship and tragedy, have put their hearts and souls into this campaign, and we have done everything to make them feel and understand that their efforts at creating music and film is an incredibly important  and empowering endeavour. 

We need to instill creative and social confidence in our young people in this very poor country. Help us build our school- help us fund the distribution of our life-saving campaign!

All and every offer of help is very gratefully acknowledged!

Gloria Jones   President and Director

Jed Dmochowski  Director and Treasurer