A Rewarding Trip to Sierra Leone, West Africa

Written by Terri Khonsari Friday, 17 December 2010 21:48

Last year I visited my daughter in Sierra Leone, while she was working on her Fulbright Fellowship.

Prior to my visit, she had told me that many families in Sierra Leone cannot afford sending their children to school. I asked her if she knew what it would cost for a child to go to school for one year. She did a research and told me that with only $50.00 a child could go to school for one entire school year. This includes tuition and school supplies!

I put the word out among friends and family, and raised some money and turned my visit to an education / humanitarian trip. With my daughter as my guide, I visited the country and got a glimpse of warmth of its people and the poverty of this small country, which according to the United Nations, was the poorest country in the world in 2008. This one visit and connecting with people as our Sierra Leonean family turned into an ongoing mother and daughter project.




In 2009 we were able to:


·       Sponsor 45 children and send them to school
·       Award one college scholarship
·       Buy one generator and wire one school in a remote village, which allowed the school to become a community center

This year in anticipation of our second visit, we raised more funds from friends, family and participants of our Great Parenting Academy Live Event in November that was to go towards Njadiun our remote village in Sierra Leone and neighboring villages.


In 2010 with the help of these contributions, we were able to:


·       Sponsor 120 children and send them to school!
·       Award two college scholarships
·       Buy two generators and  wire two schools in two small villages, which allow these schools to become  community centers

There are seven villages in “our” little chiefdom and last year after we bought a generator for one village and told the other six villages that we would buy a  generator and wire the schools for electricity in one other village if they start a small  farm/ garden right by their school and grow fruit for children. We did this as an incentive to promote healthy living and getting vitamins and minerals to school children.

This year upon our return, we visited all seven gardens and the top two school gardens won the generators. They are now growing mango, papaya, peanut, pineapple, guava, banana and other fruits that grow fast in that part of Africa. Our education project has now expanded to include healthy living and nutrition for children and families in those seven villages.


Over 1000 children and teachers were our guests on Thanksgiving


Our most rewarding experience however had to be on Thanksgiving Day. We invited all the children and teachers from the seven villages to Njadiun (our main village) and prepared special African food for them.  This day, we fed over 1000 children!  This was the best Thanksgiving Day ever, since it was such a fulfilling and rewarding experience for both Nilou and I. The most beautiful mother – daughter experience anyone could imagine!


Continuing Education


Through our work we also educate parents and teachers about some of the basic rights for children: such as not beating them or not marrying underage girls. Instead, we encourage them to love and nurture their children, and teach compassion and sharing with each other.

You can see some of our pictures and videos on a special facebook page that we created for this work in Africa:

<script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script><fb:like href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Our-African-family/111043162300027" layout="button_count" show_faces="false" width="450" font="tahoma"></fb:like>

Let me know what you think and have a very happy holiday season!

Much love,
Terri


Next >