How It All Started

When I first started coming to Sierra Leone I helped a few of the kids by paying for their school fees, buying them bags and getting uniforms made for them......then a few more kids came along......and then more. It got to the point where I was helping with the schooling of 11 children and the number seemed sure to grow. I realised I needed help and had the idea of a sponsorship scheme.

 

The one thing I got asked for more than anything else was to help children with their schooling......and many of the volunteers who came on two week mission trips with the charity I was with at the time (Mission Direct) wanted to help the children they met - so, with the support of my Regional Director at Mission Direct, I started an education sponsorship scheme. It grew and grew and took more and more of my time until I decided it was time to leave Mission Direct to focus on the sponsorship scheme.........that's when Transform Salone was born. Since setting up Transform Salone we have expanded the sponsorship scheme to include vocational training for young adults and school leavers.

The first four boys that I started helping are all still in the scheme, three of them are now in senior school. The other boy dropped out of the scheme for a couple of years due to family problems, but he restarted in primary school earlier this year.

We now have over 70 students who are fully sponsored for their basic education or vocational training. If it hadn't been for the boys (I should really say young men) in the photos below I doubt any of it would have happened.

 

Here are the first four boys I started helping all those years ago:

 

And here they are now!

 

These four boys are fortunate to be sponsored for their education, but I know many, many other children and young adults who desperately need assistance to allow them to continue in school or progress onto vocational training. If you would be interested in sponsoring the education of a child or young adult please get in touch by following this email link and I'll send you some more details about the scheme.

A Plumber In The Making

This is Mustapha, he was in our sponsorship scheme but had to drop out of school during SSS3 (the penultimate year of basic education) when his father died.

Around the time of the beginning of the Ebola outbreak he came to see me to discuss his plans for the future. He wanted to take a 2 year plumbing course. I know him to be a determined young man who has tried his best to support his family since losing his father, I thought that given the chance this could be a great opportunity for him to gain a skill and lead to good prospects for future employment for him.

I contacted his previous sponsor who, once I explained the situation, agreed to restart his sponsorship to support him through the course.

He is now nearing the end of the first year of his plumbers training and he's doing really well. Every time I see him he's so excited to be doing the course and is eager to show me what he's learning.

 

Once he qualifies he will be the first person in his family with a skilled trade. He is looking forward to being able to support his family.

I'm hoping that we will be able to assist many of our students to learn a skill once their have finished their basic education and really set them on the road to finding paid employment by the time they leave us.

If you would be interested in sponsoring a young adult to learn a trade please let me know.