Project Description:

The Igniting Imaginations: Library Centers in Sierra Leone project brings the world of books into the hands of hundreds of children who are deprived of the most precious resources for learning. In Sierra Leone there is great thirst for education and demand for school supplies, text books and reading material, however due to the country’s economics situation they are hard to come by for most families.

In the northern province of Koinadugu CAUSE Kids is partnering with schools to address the most basic needs of its learners: uniforms, lunches, school supplies and desks are some of the many projects that are undertaken to support positive learning.

CAUSE Kids is committed to supporting quality education that encourages and motivates students. The establishment of school libraries is meant to open young minds, inspire creativity and create excitement for learning.

The three schools that CAUSE Kids partners with have dedicated rooms to establish libraries that are accessible to all its students. This resource room will be used for class research, practice reading, teacher curriculum development, peer mentorship and adult literacy.

Each library will be equipped with solar lighting, cabinets, tables and chairs and most importantly books! The centre will be manned by school staff who will oversee both school and after-school programs, allowing access to community learning groups such as the Women’s Integral Empowerment Program that CAUSE undertakes.

Students will be given a great opportunity to experience learning like they have never experienced before. Be a part of opening their minds to the world.

 
Update from the field: April 2011

The central library located in the CAUSE Kids Integrated Learning Centre has been supplemented with full sets of text books for each class, as well as small collections of reading books in the classrooms of each of our five full partner schools (as well as the 10 schools receiving limited support from the CAUSE Kids program). Teachers and students are not only encouraged to access reading materials from the various libraries, CAUSE Kids is working to offer them the training to do so effectively.  The workshops offered by retired Ministry of Education officer, Pa Quee, in ‘Effective Use of Core Text Books’ were conducted class by class, school by school with teachers and students actively involved.  They were considered a great success and will receive ongoing support and supervision from our CAUSE Kids staff in Sierra Leone.

The library at the Integrated Learning Centre has also produced a pleasantly surprising result. It has become a place where secondary school students gather to do homework.  Many students are limited in their ability to do homework by lack of light. The ILC, powered by solar energy, offers them a solution to this problem as well as a place to meet with peers and share ideas. CAUSE Kids is pleased that the ILC library has become a place for Sierra Leonean youth to study.

 

Update from the field: September 2010

CAUSE Koindadugu Operations Map

Update from the field: August 2010

Through your generous support CAUSE Kids was able to distribute over 4000 textbooks at the end of last school year. Each school also received cupboards to house the new textbooks, which will help protect and prolonging the life of the learning materials. Each of our 15 schools received a new set of textbooks and teachers’ guides.  CAUSE also employed Pa Quee, a long-time teacher and educator, to give workshops for teachers on the effective use of textbooks.  As the new school year approaches, Pa Quee will be giving workshops in the schools, so teachers and students will have an understanding of the benefits of the new resources.

Update from the Field: May 2010

Before Uend and CAUSE Kids supporters came together to promote school libraries, they were only a distant dream for our partner schools. Now, the library in the Integrated Learning Centre (ILC) enjoys daily visits from different classes in the CAUSE Kids schools. 

Students and teachers understand the importance of a centralized library but also want to incorporate reading books into daily classroom activities so CAUSE Kids staff in Sierra Leone came up with an innovative idea of their own. Each classroom will have a ‘mini-library’, housing a number of reading books and textbooks in secure but accessible storage units. Thanks to you, studying will never be quite the same for CAUSE Kids students again.

Update from the Field: April 2009

CAUSE Kids is proud to partner with UEnd donors to have distributed over 70 books into three schools, as well as establish a library for our Learning Centre in Kabala, Sierra Leone. The reading books will be rotated through the three schools and provide much learning and entertainment for the students. In our Learning Centre, both students and teachers will be able to access the textbooks available there (typically students don’t have their own textbooks and teachers don’t always have a full set of textbooks for all subjects). Thank you for helping us to bring literacy to Sierra Leone!