Hello everyone, after coming back from Mabomboh last week we are happy to share some exciting news.
The children have been back in school for close to two months now. This has been especially exciting for them following the completion of the new school building! The school has more than doubled in size with the addition of the second building. Although this project went over budget due to global price increases and weather conditions (it was rainy season in Sierra Leone for the majority of the building project), it is certainly worth every penny.
The oldest students no longer need to take lessons in the local church. Now every class has their own dedicated classroom. We have a new library approximately three times larger than the old one. We also have transformed one of the classrooms that is currently not in use to a dining room for the children. This means they can now enjoy their lunches in a separate environment to the one they learn in as they were previously eating in their classrooms.
This building project was necessary to accommodate the growth of the school. This year we now have 105 children attending. This growth reflects the addition of our new nursery students, but also the decision to allow children from surrounding villages to attend the school.
Thank you once again for all donations of clothes and school supplies. Every child attending the school received multiple items of clothing each, and many also got shoes.
We will be grateful for continued monetary donations in order to complete our goals of adding solar panels to the new school building, and digging a well that can directly supply the school with water. The money raised so far has been used entirely to complete the original solar panels, tables and chairs, the toilets, the staff quarters and the second school building.
We have been extremely lucky to have the support of Chislehurst Methodist Church covering the teachers salaries over the past two years, with this year being the final year. And a huge thank you also to New Eltham Methodist Church for their own contributions to the charity.