UNICEF Sierra Leone: Kumba's story

Kumba’s story MOTHERS’ CLUBS: SUPPORTING THE MOST VULNERABLE

Schools for Africa

Sierra Leone

MOTHERS’ CLUBS: SUPPORTING THE MOST VULNERABLE

Thanks to your support, Mothers’ Clubs are making sure vulnerable children in their communities go to school.

Musaia

Sierra Leone

2 UNICEF Sierra Leone

In the wake of the civil war (1991-2002) that left a youthful generation largely unschooled and without marketable skills, the Government of Sierra Leone has made education a priority. They know too well that when it comes to building a better future, educated children are a country’s most important asset.

Thus, in addition to enshrining children’s right to education in various charters and conventions, they have devoted a significant part of the national budget to education and taken practical steps to accelerate school enrolment and retention. Hundreds of new schools have been built, basic education has been made free and the government is currently working with UNICEF and its partners to roll out child friendly school initiatives in primary schools nationwide.

However, attendance rates remain low: only 74 per cent of Sierra Leone’s primary school aged children are in school—numbers that are significantly lower for poor children living in rural areas. The reasons given for this—child labour and early marriage—ultimately boil down to one factor: poverty. For despite the country’s incredible natural mineral wealth, Sierra Leone ranks among the world’s ten least developed countries. The vast majority of Sierra Leoneans eke out a living from subsistence farming, with over half surviving on less than US $1.25 a day. For many children school is simply not an option.

In the following pages you will meet Kumba Samura, a 12 years old orphan who lives with her aunt in the village of Musaia, located in the north central part of the country. Though school is free, Kumba’s aunt lacked the money to buy her a uniform, shoes and school supplies, and was unable to afford the school’s other ‘hidden’ fees. As a result, Kumba was out of school—until she was brought to the attention of Musaia’s Mothers’ Club.

An outgrowth of UNICEF’s child friendly schools initiative, which places a premium on community involvement in schools, the idea for Mothers’ Clubs grew

out of observations of what was already happening on the ground in villages around Sierra Leone. Many mothers, despite the limited scope of their economic activities, were working to pay for their children’s schooling through sales from their small vegetable gardens and other petty trading activities. UNICEF saw the opportunity to build on this by forming clubs of mothers that would care for ALL of the children in a given community, ensuring that they went to school. In many cases this might mean simply making parents aware of the importance of education and then following up on children’s attendance, but for those most in need—like Kumba—more would be required.

Between 2009 and 2014 UNICEF and its partners established over 1200 Mothers’ Clubs in communities across the country. Armed with UNICEF training and startup grants of 500,000 Leones (US $116) with which to generate the income they needed to support their activities, the Mothers’ Clubs got to work. Each club generated its own ideas about the kinds of income generating activities they wanted to do to grow their funds and the specific actions they could take to could contribute to the enrolment and retention of all of the children in school in their communities.

Each of the clubs has now grown its money into millions of Leones. In Musaia’s Roman Catholic Primary School, this allows the Mothers’ Club to support the education of Kumba and four other children—some of the more than 2,024 vulnerable children (889 boys and 1,135 girls) that have been supported by Mothers’ Clubs across Sierra Leone since 2011. But their contribution does not end there. As the Mothers’ Clubs continue to launch new ideas and initiatives and take on new responsibilities, the benefits of their empowerment are being felt not only in the schools, but also in homes and communities throughout Sierra Leone.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 3

My name is Kumba Samura. I am 12 years old and I am in the sixth grade at the Roman Catholic Primary School in Musaia, a village in Koinadugu District in Sierra Leone. Both of my parents have died, so I live with my aunt. She takes care of me. When I first came here I didn’t go to school. My aunt didn’t have money to buy a uniform or shoes or socks or exercise books for me. Now, with the help of the Mothers’ Club, I have all of those things and I go to school. Education is important. If girls are educated they can help their parents. When I am educated I will become a nurse and I will live here and take care of my aunt. I won’t leave her and go somewhere else to live. Wherever she is, I want to be there with her.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 5

06:21 First 6 UNICEF Sierra Leone

thing in the morning my auntie puts out the firewood for sale.

Then we make a big pot of pap (rice porridge)...

06:30 ...and

sends me to sell it in the village.

Pap 2-3 cups of rice 2 cups of sugar water I take the rice and sugar for the pap on loan. Then. after Kumba sells it, I pay back what I owe and we keep the rest. The ingredients cost about 5400 Leones (US $1.25) and Kumba usually brings home about 7400 Leones (US $1.70). So on each pot we make about 2000 Leones in profit.

If it is Sunday I make two pots so the profits are double.

—Semba Mansaray, Kumba’s Aunt Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 7

06:33

06:47 I

take the pap from house to house. One cup costs 800 Leones (US $0.18).

I don’t like selling pap, but I have to because we don’t have any money.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 9

07:03

KUMBA SAMURA Twelve-year-old Kumba is in class six at the Roman Catholic Primary School, Musaia

I like school because if I go to school, one day I will be able to ease the suffering of my aunt. She won’t have to strain anymore. My aunt is very poor. She has to go out and find food and I have to help her. So it is very difficult for us. I am happy that the Mothers’ Club is helping me and providing all of the things I need to go to school. They buy my uniform, shoes, socks, books, pens and bag. I feel good about that. If they were not helping us, I would not be able to go to school.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 11

07:19 When

the pap is almost gone I come home.

If there is food, my cousin Jameba and I eat it.

07:24 Then

we wash and get dressed for school.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 13

SEMBA MANSARAY Kumba’s aunt

07:26 “I

clean Kumba’s shoes every morning before school,” says Kumba’s Aunt, Semba Mansaray. “I am so happy she is going to school. I only went to school until class three. Then my parents said they didn’t have any money so I had to quit. They told me to go work driving the birds away from the farm. I am still not happy about that. I know if I’d had an education life wouldn’t be so hard. That’s why I am determined that Kumba will have an education.”

Kumba used to live with her mother and father in Kono. Kumba’s father was my brother. Her mother was a gold panner. She fell sick and she died. On her death I wanted to bring Kumba here to live with me, but my brother refused. Later my brother got sick. It was appendicitis. The doctors told him he should undergo surgery but there wasn’t enough money, so he died and Kumba was left on her own. I took a loan here in the village—even now I still haven’t paid it all back—to pay for my transportation to Kono. When I got there I found Kumba was in a bad situation. It was difficult for her to even find food to eat. She would go to her friends’ houses and scrape the food from the bottom of the pot.

She often slept on the verandah, not in the house. So it was very difficult for her. Her stomach was swollen. Her condition was very poor. I took her and brought her back to live with me. That was about seven years ago.

My husband died a long time ago. I don’t have any man to help me. At that time I used to walk nine miles to fetch a big bag of rice on loan. I would put it on my head and walk back and prepare the rice—remove this husk—and then sell it. I would keep the profit and return the rest of the money to the business person who loaned me the rice. Sometimes I would also go and work for other people on their farms and they would give me money. Other times I would also go and fetch firewood to sell and sometimes I would have hardly anything to eat. It was difficult for me to find food. It was only after making a sale that we would eat. There were times we had nothing to eat. Sometimes, especially when I was very tired, the neighbors would help by giving Kumba something to eat.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 15

07:29 I

put on my shoes.

Then, three or four years ago the Mothers’ Club started helping us. It all started with bulgur. At that time they [World Food Programme] used to give bulgur to students in the school to eat. Kumba would cry that she wanted to go to the school because they were giving bulgur. So I put plain clothes on her [not a uniform] and took her to the school. That was how she started going to school. Then, when I had saved some money, I bought her a uniform. But it was difficult for me. So I went to the school and I asked the headmaster if I could be one of the women who cooked bulgur for the school. He agreed. I also told him I had nothing to give to Kumba and asked if he could help me. He sent me to the Mothers’ Club.

Kumba was in class three when they started helping us. They buy everything for her—uniforms, shoes, books—whatever she needs, they provide. And if I don’t have food in the house, all I have to do is tell them and they help me.

If the Mother’s Club had not been there to help us, there would have been no hope for me or for Kumba. I am so grateful for all they have done for us.

16 UNICEF Sierra Leone

07:30 “If

I make enough of a profit from selling the pap and the firewood,” says Kumba’s Aunt, Semba Mansaray. “I give Kumba a little money to buy a snack at school. If, like today, I don’t have anything to give her, I speak to her nicely so she doesn’t feel too bad about going to school with nothing.”

07:34 Jameba 18 UNICEF Sierra Leone

and I go to school together. We play together. We do everything together.

07:45

07:49 Every

day two students are responsible for fetching water so that everybody can wash their hands after using the latrine. Today it’s our turn.

With your UNICEF support...

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) The dire situation of school water supply and sanitation in Sierra Leone is a major impediment to children attending primary school and completing their education. Nationwide, only 23 per cent of all primary schools have a functional improved water supply facility and fewer still have separated latrine blocks for boys and girls. The safety and privacy these offer are an important factor in retaining girls in school, especially as they start menstruating. In working to roll out the child friendly schools initiative nationwide, UNICEF is working with the government and other partners to provide integrated WASH facilities and promote good hygiene practices—especially hand washing with soap—in 2000 schools in six of Sierra Leone’s 14 districts, thereby benefitting approximately 400,000 children. To make more schools truly child friendly, this essential programme must reach many more schools. Its scale up is curtailed only by funding shortages.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 21

07:54 Then 22 UNICEF Sierra Leone

we skip rope until it is time to line up for assembly.

08:11

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 23

TS Y COS YEARL ura a Sam b m u s) K (Leone Child: Price Items

s charge

school m unifor

shoes school ooks cise b r e x e 12 ocks 3 pr s 4 pens Food

fee study

0 75,00 0 40,00

20,000 12,000

We believe Kumba is a serious girl and she wants to move forward. We pray that God will help her. We know that one day she will become a nurse and do something good for this community.

2,000 500

00 360,0 5,000 4327 US $1=

—Fatmata Kamara, Mothers’ Club Chairwoman Leones

08:40 My

first class is Agricultural Science.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 25

FATMATA KAMARA Chairwoman, Musaia Mothers’ Club

Before our lives were not like this. Many children were not in school.

They would go with their parents to the farm to work. For those who did put their children in school, the girls were taken out and married early.

At that time women didn’t speak in public or even stand in a crowd.

They would move off to the side and sit alone or with the other women.

Since the Mothers’ Club was set up, things have changed. Now women not only speak in public, we find ways to help our school and our community. We have small businesses that we do to earn money, like soap making, gardening and farming. By pooling our money and our efforts we can help the school and we can help some of the children in our village who have nothing, like Kumba, continue their education.

Right now we support six children like Kumba. But there are still many children in this village who are not in school. Most don’t go because their parents can’t afford to send them. Unfortunately we don’t yet have the resources to take care of all of them, but we are glad to be making a difference for the children we support and for all of the others in the school. They will go to school, finish school and go off to university. By God’s grace life is getting better for all of us.

26 UNICEF Sierra Leone

09:13 ”Every

day members of the Mothers’ Club look in on all of the classrooms,” explains Chairwoman Fatmata Kamara.

Having extra eyes in the school keeps the teachers on their toes, and makes the school stronger, but it is also critical to keeping attendance rates up. “If a child is absent, I visit their house and I ask the parents why their child is not in school. If the child is out harvesting rice, I will talk with the parents about the importance of education, and if the child is sick, I take him or her to the hospital if the parents cannot afford to do so.”

10:43 We

have new textbooks in science class. It’s fun to look at the pictures.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 31

10:55

AUGUSTINE GANDI Headmaster, Roman Catholic Primary School, Musaia, Koinadugu District

Since it was introduced in 2010 the Mothers’ Club’s has contributed endlessly to the development of the life of this school, its children and this community.

As a result of their sensitisation of parents to send their girls to school, for the first time there are now more girls in school than boys— this year we have 111 boys enrolled and 143 girls.

They are also working to keep children—especially girls—in school.

A few years ago they stopped a case of early marriage. That girl was just 13 or 14 years old when she was forcibly taken out of school for early marriage. The mothers’ club intervened. As a result, she came back to school. Thanks to their continued support, she has stayed in school and next year she will start senior secondary school.

By supporting orphans and other disadvantaged children like Kumba, whose parents are not there or cannot afford to send them to school, they are doing more than just keeping them in school. Previously, many of these girls ended up being teenage mothers who could not afford to take care of themselves or their children. So these are the kinds of children who really need their help.

In terms of their direct contribution to the school, at the beginning of every academic term they do a thorough cleaning of the school. They are also responsible for the school garden, where they plant vegetables like

With your UNICEF support...

Making Mothers’ Clubs more effective Networking is a valuable tool. UNICEF is working with Mothers’ Clubs to: • Plan quarterly networking events that allow different Club members to meet to share ideas, experience, challenges and opportunities.

• Hold regional Mothers’ Club summits that bring Mother’s Clubs and other partners together to showcase the groups’ successes, discuss their challenges, and build partnership with institutions, including micro-finance, adult literacy, and agriculture. This empowers mothers to take responsibility for the education of their children, especially girls; to support nutrition, health and sanitation interven-tions going on in their communities; and to facilitate mother/child and parent/ parent peer counselling, especially on sensitive issues such as early marriage, teenage pregnancy, rape, FGM and other reproductive issues.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 33

With your UNICEF support...

Expanding the role of Mothers’ Clubs UNICEF is working to expand the scope and effectiveness of Mothers’ Clubs by: • Providing the women with literacy training; • Linking them to the ongoing monitoring of the schools in their communities. In many rural communities schools are not regularly monitored by state education personnel due to shortages of personnel and funds. With sufficient training, Mothers’ Clubs are the ideal candidates for helping to keep a watchful eye on their schools—including the teaching and learning process in the classrooms, community participation in the school, and the effectiveness of school leadership and management.

• Providing them with trainings on a range of issues including education, child protection, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, early marriage, sexual and reproductive health, teenage pregnancy, etc.

34 UNICEF Sierra Leone

peppers and ground nuts. They also help with the school farm, harvesting five, ten, fifteen bushels of rice a year which provide income and food for the school. They also make soap and provide us with some every week for our hand washing facilities. They help to pay for repairs to the school structures and furniture and some of the teaching and learning materials. Last year they paid to fence the school grounds so that we could keep out the cattle, sheep and goats and they organized and hosted a three day sports competition that brought together 16 primary schools and people from 42 villages. And this year they are planning a big end of the year school picnic. They are always coming up with new ways to make the school better. They want to do even more, but the money is not there. Their money is small, but their will is big.

As I said, they have also had a big impact on the community. Just four or five years ago, women were at the back. They did not have a voice to speak. Wife battering was common, early marriages were rampant and teenage pregnancy was on the rise. Now, the Mothers’ Club is taking up the challenge. Women speak their grievances and they challenge the issues that confront them. Today, if a man in this community beats or even threatens to beat his wife, she will say to him, ‘I will report you to the Mothers’ Club.’ And if she does, the Mothers’ Club will report the incident to the human rights group and they will send the police. So the impact of the Mothers’ Club is really being felt everywhere, even in the children’s homes.

11:28

12:18 Jemeba 36 UNICEF Sierra Leone

and I eat the leftover ‘pap’ for lunch.

12:23 My

aunt sells vegetables from the garden on our verandah.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 37

12:58 In

Social Studies we learn about other places. If I could go anywhere I would go to Liberia because you have to go there on an airplane. And I want to go on a plane.

JOSEPH BANGURA Regional Manager for Northern Sierra Leone, UNICEF Partner, Cause Canada

With your UNICEF support...

Supporting girls’ education

The Mothers’ Clubs have played a very important role in getting girls into school. Just four or five years ago parents didn’t believe in education for girls. They thought only boys should be educated. Then the Mothers’ Club members started going house to house sensitising parents about the importance of education—particularly for girls. This is what they would say: a boy being educated is like a miner who is mining goal or diamonds. They dig a pit using a shovel and every time they raise the shovel it throws everything in contains away from the pit. The boy who is educated usually supports his own family—his wife and children—not his parents. He is like the shovel, sending resources away.

On the other hand, a girl who is educated is like a farmer with a long hoe. He sends the hoe far away but it pulls everything it captures back to him. An educated girl, even if she goes to America, or London or any other part of the world, will always send anything she gets back to her home. The home always benefits.

When we tell people this they recognize it and they see the truth in it.

Because even within this setting there are some boys and girls—now men and women—who have gone away to school. And the families with the girls receive more support from them—always—on a regular basis.

They see it happening, but they just haven’t put it together in their minds before. So when they do, they say ‘Wow!’ This is why, over the years, we have seen more and more girls enrol in school.

Thanks in part to UNICEF’s work, the gender gap has nearly disappeared in primary education. But it persists in secondary education and beyond, where enrollment, achievement and completion rates for girls are far lower than for boys.

• Through the Girl Child Support Programme, UNICEF, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, provides psychosocial support to vulnerable girls at the primary and JSS level in 270 schools across nine districts. Through this initiative, teachers and role models in communities are trained on range of topics and are asked to visit the school monthly to support the identified girls.

To date this programme has helped 16,200 girls to stay in school and to perform better in their classes.

• UNICEF also supports Sierra Leone Girls Education Network (SLEGEN) a local chapter of the UN Girls’ Education Initiative, established to promote access to quality education for girls.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 39

13:16 Next

we have English.

Before people thought the school was a government affair, but with the establishment of the Mother’s Clubs this has changed. Before, whatever happened—say there was no chalk at the school—people would shrug waited for the government to provide it. Now, if there’s no chalk the Mothers’ Club will reach into their purse and go and buy two or three boxes. It is amazing really. Over just a few years everything has changed.

Now they consider it their school.

—Joseph Bangura, Regional Manager for Northern Sierra Leone, UNICEF Partner, Cause Canada 40 UNICEF Sierra Leone

13:37 English

and Maths are my best subjects.

13:24 Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 41

15:52 After

school Jameba and I have one hour of afternoon classes and then we go home and study.

42 UNICEF Sierra Leone

15:58

16:33

16:44 I

go to the forest with Jameba to get wood. If I bring an axe I will chop the wood. If I don’t bring an axe I pick up sticks from the ground and tie them together in a bundle. We carry the wood home on our heads.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 45

17:07 46 UNICEF Sierra Leone

17:10 “Several

days a week we stop to check on Kumba,” says Mothers’ Club Chairwoman Fatmata Kamara. “Kumba’s aunt tells us that the girl is doing well in school and that she is helping with the housework, but they do have a problem: today they don’t have enough money to buy rice.

I give them some money and Kumba goes to buy it from the local shop.”

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 47

17:20 48 UNICEF Sierra Leone

17:24 I

fetch some rice from the shop, then Jameba and I help make dinner.

Schools for Africa Kumba’s story 49

17:48 Then,

50 UNICEF Sierra Leone

if there is time, I play with my friends.

18:07

Every child, regardless of gender or economic means, has the right to a quality education.

UNICEF is working with government, development partners, local education authorities and NGOs to empower Mothers’ Groups and other communitybased actors in supporting the education of Sierra Leone’s most vulnerable children.

www.schoolsforafrica.org

ABOUT UNICEF Thank you for believing that all children have the right to an education.

Together with you, UNICEF is working to make a difference for all children, everywhere, all the time. All children have rights that guarantee them what they need to survive, grow, participate and fulfill their potential. Yet every day these rights are denied. Millions of children die from preventable diseases. Millions more don’t go to school, or don’t have food, shelter and clean water. Children suffer from violence, abuse and discrimination. This is wrong.

UNICEF works globally to transform children’s lives by protecting and promoting their rights. Their fight for child survival and development takes place every day in remote villages and in bustling cities, in peaceful areas and in regions destroyed by war, in places reachable by train or car and in terrain passable only by camel or donkey.

Their achievements are won school by school, child by child, vaccine by vaccine, mosquito net by mosquito net. It is a struggle in which success is measured by what doesn't happen—by what is prevented.

UNICEF will continue this fight—to make a difference for all children, everywhere, all the time.

To fund all of its work UNICEF relies entirely on voluntary donations from individuals, governments, institutions and corporations. We receive no money from the UN budget.

54 UNICEF Sierra Leone

UNICEF Sierra Leone

Central Medical Stores Compound New England PO Box 221 Freetown, SIERRA LEONE Tel : + (232 22) 235721 /25/30/32/33/35/37/39/52 Fax: + (232 22) 235059 email: freetown@unicef.org www.sl.one.un.org

The Schools for Africa initiative is a successful international fundraising partnership between UNICEF, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Peter Kr채mer Stiftung. For more information please visit www.schoolsforafrica.org.

Photography, writing and design: Kelley Lynch