What a woman can do with education in the new Sierra Leone

Frances – aka Baby K – or just BK – is both typical and atypical of young women in small towns of Sierra Leone like Rotifunk.  She’s a single mother of two small children.  That’s very common for a woman to be left with bringing up her children herself.  She’s a small business woman, a small trader as they call it here.  You go to bigger towns or to farms and buy things to resell at home in small lots in the local market.  This is also very common for women in Sierra Leone to be “working women” and small entrepreneurs.

Now Baby K is also a budding politician and women’s leader in the new Sierra Leone of women empowerment.  This is not common, at least, not yet.  Baby K is catching up quickly, and showing the way for other women. 
Baby K is tall and attractive – even statuesque.  I’m five foot nine and not used to looking Sierra Leonean women in the eye.  But I see eye to eye with Baby K, in more ways than one.  She’s tall, she’s clever, and she engages you directly like a peer. No self-deprecating demeanor for Baby K. She’s someone you notice and will remember. 

Baby K is the youngest of six children of Aunt Josephine, and a cousin the Paramount Chief.  Everyone in a place like Rotifunk is related to everyone else in one way or another.  Being in the chief’s extended family, doesn’t however ensure the easy life. (It doesn’t for the chief either, an unpaid position.) Baby K lives in a household of women.  Women helping women, the same the world over.
 

Baby K’s mother is head of the household and a widow.  Sister-in-law Magdeline also lives with them, the sweetest woman you’d ever want to meet.  Her husband is off in Freetown trying to learn a new profession, and Magdeline is at home responsible for their two kids. Together, these women live in a house made of packed mud with thatched roof.  Everyone had to rebuild after the war, when all buildings were torched and burned by rebels who occupied the town.  Townspeople returned and rebuilt as best they could.

Gregarious, you find Baby K reeling you into a conversation in a friendly way.  She has a charming drawl, like someone from Nahhhwlins. Except it’s a West African lilt, not a NOLA dialect.  Hers is a little raspy and breathy, which draws you in closer to listen. Pretty soon she’s chatting you up, like any good saleswoman would do.

Baby K is a born businesswoman. She runs the equivalent of a local pharmacy, because there is none in Rotifunk.  If you’re at the hospital and need a certain medication, like antibiotics, it’s not uncommon for the staff to send families out to find it. Money is short, and hospitals can barely stock essentials like sterile needles. So people seek out someone like Baby K for their medications.  Baby K saw a need when her town was being resurrected from the post war ashes of rebel destruction, and she filled it.  She made a for-profit business out of this.  Her profit.  She’s good at what she’s does.  She knows her customers and what they need, and what’s a fair price.  From this she manages to make a living for herself and her family.

I found Baby K to be quite knowledgeable about the drugs she sells.  She knows about basic ailments like any good pharmacist.  You come to her and tell her what ails you, and she will fix you up.  She has a lot of OTC stuff, but also some things only sold by prescription in the U.S. That’s not uncommon in developing countries. I listened to people coming to her saying, my head hurts, my stomach hurts. She asks a few questions, and then tells you what she can do for you.  Or maybe you come for regular “refills” for things like birth control pills and malaria medication. 

Baby K completed part of secondary school, but never finished.  The war interrupted a lot of things.  And her babies came, as well.  Still in her 20's, she parlayed her basic education into being a successful entrepreneur.  I found Baby K reads fairly well, and understands what she reads.  The two don’t always go together here.  People like Baby K clearly illustrate that smarts is not only about being book smart.  She is life smart. 

Now Baby K is becoming a woman leader in town and the district, by running for Councilor of the district’s Local Council.  Local Councils were installed after the war to systematically reestablish local government services in a country that had all its local institutions destroyed.  They are vehicles for managing key local services like water and waste management, education, health services, roads and infrastructure, and community development. In a rural area like Rotifunk, it’s kind of a combination of County government and some city council services we see in the States.

Baby K’s district includes five “sections,” so it extends well beyond Bumpeh Chiefdom where she lives.  She had to go out and make herself known to run in the primary and win her party’s nomination.  One good thing about being the newcomer and a woman is you don’t have to follow the way the good old boys do things.

To make herself known, Baby K organized a women’s football “gala.” In places where there’s little in the way of entertainment, sports are big. So, she set up a fun event where school girls played football (soccer) against other school girls.  And she organized women playing football and competing with other women. Women playing football is uncommon in Sierra Leone, and this brought in a lot of people to enjoy an event they probably never saw before. Baby K had to solicit the needed funds and pulled off a successful gala.

The event drew attention to women empowerment as well, a big theme for this year’s elections in Sierra Leone.  Women may long have been marginalized in Sierra Leone, but they are gaining ground as the current President and other country leaders strongly advocate for women in government positions. 

Many have called for requiring 30% of elected government roles be filled by women to create a more level playing field.  It hasn’t (yet) been put into legislation, but Sierra Leone would not be the first country to do this. Of the 20 top-ranked countries in terms of female representation in government, 17 use some sort of quota system to ensure female inclusion, from Rwanda to Sweden.

When I called Baby K to congratulate her on winning the primary, I asked whose idea was it to run.  People asked her to run, she said.  I could see those people – men and women - viewed Baby K as someone who gets things done.  Things that benefit the community.  She speaks up and speaks well.  And they know she is a successful businesswoman who is providing an important community service as the only “pharmacy” in town.  This is someone they’d like to see representing them in the local council.

So, Baby K is out now campaigning in other towns and chiefdoms, making herself known and making the case that she deserves to represent them as district local councilor.  Women in Sierra Leone, as in many other countries, are seen as having some built in credibility.  They’re focused on improving their communities for their families and more likely to be above corruption.

Baby K’s a candidate for the majority party in this district, so I will not be surprised to see her installed as a district local councilor next year.  Success breeds success.  She’s a winner.

Baby K’s done a lot with her limited education.  She's part of the new generation of Sierra Leone women who want to succeed beyond traditional roles.  She’s passing through old barriers as fast as the doors are cracked open.

Meet the girls of Prosperity Girls High School

In recent trips to Sierra Leone, I’ve met women in many roles – from government and media leaders to small business owners, from professionals like nurses, teachers and accountants to village traders.  Opportunities are opening up for women in Sierra Leone, as they have in most parts of the world.  But education remains one of the biggest hurdles for young Sierra Leonean girls in achieving their dreams and goals. 
 

The girls of Prosperity Girls High School in Rotifunk, Sierra Leone are at the edge of this new world of opportunity.  About 200 girls are expected to enroll in PGHS from across Bumpeh Chiefdom, Moyamba District as they ready for the 2012-13 school year, the school’s fourth year.  To date, they’ve covered the first three levels of secondary school, or what’s known in Sierra Leone as Junior Secondary School (JSS).  Each year, the school has been adding another grade as girls advance.  The new school has been a success, with enrollment quadrupling since it started three years ago.

A number of girls now come from surrounding villages and board in Rotifunk with a guardian.  Also, a donor paid for school fee scholarships, enabling many girls to attend last year who could not otherwise afford to.

The age range for junior high school is typically 12 to 14, but a number of PGHS students are older because their educations were interrupted by Sierra Leone’s 10-year civil war.  Or because their families had trouble paying for school fees, school uniforms and supplies for their girls to attend, as they struggle to rebuild their lives after the war.

Kadiatu T. is a good example of what can happen when a village girl has the opportunity for education.  Kadiatu has been raised by her mother after her father left the family when Kadiatu was very young.  Her mother is a trader living in one of the small villages outside Rotifunk.  She makes a meager living by buying small amounts of vegetables and palm oil from local farms to sell in the Rotifunk market.

Kadiatu is in JSS3 or ninth grade.  She is one of the best students in the school.  Kadiatu always comes in first place in her class and is serious about her education.  She’s progressed smoothly through three grades at PGHS in three years, and at 16 years old, she’s become fluent in English. 

Kadiatu took the national exam that will allow her to become a member of the first PGHS group graduating to senior secondary school.  As this is written, exam results are not yet available. Kadiatu often takes a leadership role in the school, chairing school committees and acting as class monitor. She lives at home with her mother, walking two miles each way to school every day from her village.

Village girls living further away who want a secondary school education have little choice but to find a guardian family in town willing to board them.  These girls then often have after-school jobs, doing chores, cooking or farm work for their guardian families in exchange for their board.

Seventeen-year-old Frances S. is one of these girls, now in JSS2 (eighth grade). Frances comes from a village downriver in the chiefdom.  The Bumpeh River runs the length of Bumpeh Chiefdom from Rotifunk down to the sea.  It provides a transportation route for villagers who would otherwise have limited access. 

 Frances started school late and attended primary school in her home village.  She’s a promising student who had to leave PGHS two years ago when her parents couldn’t afford to pay her school fees.  After sitting out that year, she returned and repeated JSS2 last academic year as one of the scholarship recipients.  Frances has done well.  She’s above average, coming in consistently as one of the top five in her class in all subjects.

Frances lives with a primary school teacher in Rotifunk.  One of her PGHS teachers helps with tutoring; other teachers pitch in lunch money to help her.  Her parents have difficulty feeding an extra mouth when she returns home, so visits are rare. 

The scholarship she receives, together with the support of Prosperity Girls High School and Rotifunk teachers, are allowing Frances to transcend her family circumstances and embark on a new life.

Mabinte K. is the first girl in her family of eight children to attend secondary school.  She’s considered the best athlete at PGHS and the fastest girl in races.  Principal Kaimbay says they depend on Mabinte for victory when competing with other schools, and she never fails them.

Mabinte’s parents are farmers in a small village of 15 homes about three miles outside Rotifunk.  Her father also teaches at a primary school there, and feels it’s important for his girls to get an education. Fourteen-year-old Mabinte is in JSS2 and her younger sister is in JSS1.  Eight girls from this small village are attending Prosperity Girls High School.  Mabinte maintains good academic standing while walking three miles each way to school, and then helping out on her family farm.

The girls of Bumpeh Chiefdom and their families make big sacrifices to pursue an education.

The cost of sending a child to school can be one of the single biggest expenses a family has in subsistence farming communities like those of Bumpeh Chiefdom.  When the average annual income in Sierra Leone is reported as only $734 and three quarters of families in the country live on $2 a day or less, $50 for school fees is a big burden.   And that’s for one child. The girl child has often been left out when it comes to family funds for education.

Getting to school is another big hurdle for chiefdom girls coming from villages outside Rotifunk. Public transportation is unavailable or unreliable, and if available, the daily cost added to school fees, uniforms and supplies would be too much for a low-income family.  Girls living 3 or 4 miles away or more choose instead to walk daily, adding to an already long day, with chores at home and homework still to come.  Not to mention the hot tropical sun and an empty stomach.  Students will

typically eat their one big meal of the day only when they return home.

 

For girls coming from longer distances, finding a local family who will house and feed them is a major hurdle.  It’s also a challenge for girls to live independently, sometimes without full adult supervision at an early age.  To offset costs, girls must often work after school, doing chores for their host family.

With all these barriers, completing secondary school education in Sierra Leone is indeed an accomplishment for both a girl and her family.  Only one in six girls has typically made it.  The Sierra Leone government and local communities like Rotifunk are now putting special emphasis and resources on educating the girl child.  The country is seeing more girls enroll in secondary school and dropout rates are heading down.

Importantly, girls and their families now want the opportunities education can bring for the girl child.

PGHS Solar Computer Lab Project objectives

The aims of the Prosperity Girls High School Solar Powered Computer Project are basic:  1) to provide local girls with information technology skills and, 2) use solar energy to power computers and lighting that will extend the use of school buildings into the evening.

Basic objectives, but ones that will have major impact on the small community of Rotifunk.

I briefly met Principal Kaimbay on my first visit back to Sierra Leone and was immediately impressed with her.  When we talked by phone after I returned home, I asked what her priorities were for the school.  Getting more vocational subjects to give the girls practical skills was her immediate answer.  I couldn’t have agreed more, and we quickly agreed computer skills were top of the list. We would need a solar powered system to make this achievable.

Simply stated, the scope of Prosperity Girls High School Computer Lab project will include:

1. Solar energy to run the facility, including indoor/outdoor lighting for school buildings

2. Computers and furniture for a class of thirty pupils

3. Photocopier/printer/scanner and internet connection (more on this later)

Example of a solar power system being installed in Sierra Leone
by Energy for Opportunity

Here’s a glimpse into operating a school now with no power in Rotifunk – and in most of today’s rural Sierra Leone.

Initially sharing and reviewing a project proposal was a dilemma.  Principal Kaimbay had neither a computer nor a smart phone at the time.  Forget mailing.  Postal service was never re-instated in small towns like Rotifunk after the war.  Using email to send messages or documents would only work if she drove to the capital and found someone she knew with an email account to send messages for her.  I recall shouting my email address into a bad cell phone connection.  A zero was mistaken for an “o” and I never got the document she had a friend email me.  About a month later after several calls from me and a couple trips to the capital for her, I finally received the proposal she and her staff had prepared. 

A nuisance for me, but I could only imagine what this had been like for her. Forty miles to the capital may sound like an hour’s drive or less.  But dirt roads carved with potholes can mean at least two hours to approach the outskirts of Freetown. I figure you add 20% mileage to your trip by virtue of having to weave back and forth across the road slalom style, trying to escape wheel axel eating potholes.  In the rainy season, roads sometimes are impassable.

The capital doubled in size during the war because people fled there for safety and then stayed.  Roads in town are choked with traffic, typically taking another 60-90 minutes to make your way into the heart of the city where government offices are.  In a tropical country near the equator, the hours of day and night are nearly equal, so it’s getting dark by 6:30 pm.  You’ll need to leave at dawn and try to get your business done in time to get back by sunset.  Not a good idea traveling these roads at night with frequent vehicle breakdowns.  Or, you travel back the next day, and lose part or all of two days of school. 

All this just to complete a task I wouldn’t even think about taking ten minutes in the States.  Not long after this first interaction, I decided the best way to make progress on the project was for me to soon return to Sierra Leone so we could have a meaningful discussion and make proper plans.

There I found no electrical power at the school also meant no printer or copier, as well as no computers.  Teachers are unable to document lesson plans, prepare test materials or print report cards.  Typewriters can function, but things like test materials must then be carried to the capital Freetown and copied there at no small expense.  Or you do it the way I did teaching many years ago – everything is hand written on a classroom blackboard.

Setting up computers and internet access has become a necessity for Rotifunk to join the rest of the 21^st century world.  

Solar energy will maximize benefit of a computer lab for the whole community.  With solar powered lighting, the school can operate into the evening, effectively multiplying use of the facility. The school can offer computer training for students of other community schools, as well as for graduates wanting computer skills to advance their careers.  It can also hold adult literacy classes and serve as an Internet Café for others in town needing computer access.

And this is only the beginning.  Solar power that enables community access to computers and the Internet is the start of a lifetime of learning for people with little access to books and media.

So, simple objectives and outcomes – thirty two light fixtures distributed around the school, thirty computers in a room and some power outlets. 

Simple, but transformative outcomes that can have a profound impact on a small town like Rotifunk, Sierra Leone, West Africa.

I brought Principal Kaimbay a laptop computer for her use on my second trip.  She got herself a basic smart phone that receives email.  We haven’t made big strides in communications yet. Internet connections to Rotifunk are still difficult.  And costly for people on limited incomes. Small personal modems you plug into your PC like a memory stick were just becoming available this year.  But internet signals outside the capital are weak in a country with low volume of users and poor infrastructure.  No doubt limited band width. You can’t get a connection and when you do, they run at glacial speed – and then frequently drop.  Can you hear me now?!  Internet and cell phone signals are the worst now in the rainy season.

Still, as time goes on I see small progress. Bit by bit things improve. This year a personal modem.  Hopefully next year infrastructure work for stronger, faster internet signals.

Prosperity Girls & the Solar Computer Lab Project

Imagine a world with no computers, no easy way to connect with the modern world, and for that matter, no electricity. Imagine a world where your whole town was destroyed in a brutal civil war and your chance for education lost for five or even 10 years.

Now imagine a small rural town in Sierra Leone, West Africa where educating girls is seen today as important to rebuilding their community – and their country.

This blog is about girls education in the small town of Rotifunk, Sierra Leone – about educating girls and giving them computer skills. Skills that will allow girls from poor families to leapfrog into modern jobs or create small businesses where they can support their families and help build their country’s post-war economy.

When you invest in a girl, you invest in Sierra Leone.

This blog is also about bringing solar technology to Rotifunk to create a solar powered computer lab for a new girls school. You can read here about this community and the ups and downs of making this kind of project happen from concept to installation. 
 

The “I” in this blog is Arlene - a former Peace Corps Volunteer who returned to Rotifunk in 2011 to understand what's happened in the aftermath of the war. I saw much to celebrate and returned in 2012, finding how easy it was to once again become engaged in this beautiful town and chiefdom.
 

Rotifunk is the seat of Bumpeh Chiefdom, and was devastated in Sierra Leone’s eleven year civil war.  It’s about 40 miles southeast of the capital, Freetown, and sits on an old road connecting the seats of several chiefdoms in Moyamba District.  Rotifunk was hit hard by the war as rebel soldiers made their way to the capital, burning and looting as they went.  Every building in this town of then 10,000 was burned except for a church and a mosque, and its people forced to flee.  The result was total collapse of the socio-economic fabric of the community, and a once industrious town found itself in abject poverty.

But the war ended in 2001. A democratic national government was installed with two peaceful elections since, and a third election coming in November.  Nation building is well on its way. 

Now a safe, peaceful, country, Sierra Leone is still, however, one where ¾ of families struggle to live in the aftermath of their civil war on $2/day or less.

Rotifunk has been rebuilding its town and preparing for its future by educating its children – many of whom had their education interrupted by the war.  Primary schools and the original co-ed secondary school where I taught were rebuilt first, thanks to generous donors in Norway. 

These donors also constructed Prosperity Girls High School and in 2009 launched this first all-girls school for the town of Rotifunk and surrounding villages of Bumpeh Chiefdom – an empowering place for girls to get an education and develop into productive young women. 

These girls are the less fortunate in the Chiefdom, including war orphans, the physically challenged, teenaged mothers, and girls who come alone from small villages and must find room and board in town to get an education.

PGHS has been a big success, quadrupling enrollment to about 200 as it starts its 4^th academic year of 2012-13.

Educating girls is now seen as one the best investments you can make with development dollars.  With education, women invest in their children & communities, multiplying the benefits for all.

Rotifunk wants this generation of its girls to be not only literate, but computer literate. But in a town with no electricity, charging a computer is a dilemma.  Gasoline powered generators are expensive to buy and operate, polluting and noisy.

Fortunately, practical small scale solar energy technology has made its way to Sierra Leone.  Solar powered systems are starting to pop up around the countryside.   Computers and solar power are now becoming reality for Sierra Leone – and its school children.  It quickly became clear this is the way to go for creating a computer lab in Rotifunk.

Prosperity Girls High School started its proposal for a solar powered computer lab under the able leadership of its Principal, Rosaline Kargbo and her staff.  Follow progress of the project here step by step.  Your comments and advice are welcome - and of course, your support.

Invest in a girl – and you invest in Sierra Leone.