SIERRA LEONEANS IN UK CONCERN IN COUNTRY'S EDUCATION SYSTEM

Diaspora Education Forum to boost education in Sierra Leone

http://www.awoko.org/2012/04/13/diaspora-education-forum-to-boost-education-in-sierra-leone/
Sun April 15, 2012

Sierra Leone was once referred to as the “Athens of Africa” by virtue of the high quality education it offered to nationals of various African countries in those glorious days. But over the years, marred by the unproductive period of the civil war and the previous years when education seemed less considered, the country had since lost that glory- and it is now grappling with ways to retain this lost accolade.
The brain-drain the country suffered during the war and certainly before the war started could be attributed to the socio-economic hardship that left Charles Darwin’s theory of “survival of the fittest” into play and it was this situation that sent many of the brains of the country to seek greener pastures abroad.
Gainfully, that brain-drain injury that the country suffered is seemingly beginning to heal up (even though it involves a lot), as well-meaning Sierra Leoneans living in the Diaspora are bringing up programmes that would partly address this dire need.
The Sierra Leone Diaspora Education Forum (SLEDEF) yesterday revealed a research that clearly pointed out reasons that have contributed to the downfall of the country’s educational system.
Alex Blanshard (Dr.) who heads SLEDEF’s research unit in a power-point presentation at the Miatta Conference Hall unraveled statistics showing the awful performance of students both at external and internal exams.
He squarely blamed these “unspeakable performances” on the non availability of up-to-date materials that would enhance quality education for all, coupled up with the less attention that has been given to education over the years.
As explained by Blanshard, SLEDEF seeks to create the enabling condition in which effective learning can thrive; help in the addressing of effective teaching strategies and continuing professional development, while help in the area of designing and implementing of curricula structure, content and organisation to ensure that learners grow and the needs of the country are met.
He said they will help in the establishment of “a culture of quality assurance” as a means of embedding accountability and ensuring effective interventions, and promote governance and finance.
Alex Blanshard also commented seriously on the massive pamphlet productions in schools which he said “are very substandard” and “mostly do not have much effect on the positive outcomes of students in schools and colleges”. He said even though there is need to produce pamphlets, SLEDEF would recommend that pamphlets produced be developed and standardized to match up with the modern educational system.
Horatio Nelson-Williams who serves as Executive Secretary for the Basic Education Commission at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology re-emphasized the need to improve education through innovative techniques, and assured that SLEDEF’s help would essentially be needed to make progress on the appalling educational system for the betterment of present generation and generations yet unborn.
A student of the Annie Walsh Memorial School, Deborah Koroma expressed bitterness over “teachers’ negligence in their subject areas”. She claimed that most teachers are not practically qualified to teach areas they claim they qualify. She exemplified her claim on the teaching of French in which she said some teachers are employed to teach French just because they speak, read and write French, when in actual fact they do not have any practical teaching experience of French.
As part of her disgust, she claimed that some teachers have more than one school they teach. She said they teach in private schools and pay more attention on them, neglecting public schools on the excuse that government does not pay them salaries on time.
The Head of Sierra Leone Healthcare Professional Organization in London, Mrs. Elizabeth Conte, emphasizing on the fact that health and learning are two sides of a coin, she said that education needs to be provided in the area of health care, especially to its providers. She said they set up the organization in the UK to help develop the capacities of their compatriots so that in return they would be in position to assist the country in the area of proving learning facilities and equipment to boost the healthcare system.
The Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Algassimu Jah, before the launch of the forum, noted that “there are massive educational reforms going on in the country”, and that “these are projects the government is vesting lot of interest in a bid to actualize the need for education”.
He expressed optimism that sooner than later the country will begin to make desirable progress in education, considering the “immeasurable contributions Sierra Leoneans in the Diaspora have started making”, the Minister noted.
By Poindexter Sama

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY- IS SOLAR POWER THE ANSWER IN SIERRA LEONE?

FROM: The Patriotic Vanguard.Com

http://www.thepatrioticvanguard.com/

President Koroma Commissions Solar College

 - Friday 13 April 2012.

By Jarrah Kawusu-Konte, Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Sustainable renewable solar energy has been identified as an alternative source of energy and as pivotal to the realization of government’s commitment to electrify every city and district headquarter, every home and business, village and chiefdom in Sierra Leone.

In pursuit of this, President Ernest Bai Koroma recently commissioned the Barefoot Women Solar Power Training Centre at Konta Line, Koya Chiefdom, Port Loko District. The initiative sought to empower women technicians (see photo of women with president Koroma) to collaborate with the Government of Sierra Leone and their Indian partners to provide more affordable electricity for rural communities. The idea is part of government’s strategy to deliver clean and renewable energy on the doorsteps of rural homes and businesses.

According to President Koroma, when he assumed office in 2007, he immediately got to work to ensure peace and quiet prevail in the country. “My first priority was to provide electricity in the country as we were ashamed of the description that Sierra Leone had the darkest capital city in the world”, the president said, adding that he promised to provide electricity in 100 days and delivered it in record time.

President Koroma was very much upbeat about his government’s efforts to deal with electricity since 2007. “As a government, we believe that energy has an important role to play in the socio-economic development of the country. That’s why when we talk about energy we should not limit it to Freetown alone. Because of our determination we decided to expand our vision for energy in Sierra Leone to the provinces and on Tuesday, we would be launching the Bankasoka Mini Hydro in Port Loko. Our target is to make energy accessible and affordable to the rural poor,” the President noted.

He also emphasized that, “We decided to establish an institution to train more women after the intervention of Mr Bunker Roy’s group, to ensure we reduce the cost of flying women overseas to train. What does this training college tell us? It tells us that even those women who are illiterates can be of use to the development of this country. We believe that we are a common man and woman’s party, and as such, we decided to support the Barefoot project to enhance the efforts and standing of the women in Sierra Leone.”

The president observed that since the college can only make provision for about fifty students, the centre needed to be expanded and replicated across the country. “We want to see you servicing all the 149 chiefdoms in the country. On average, each chiefdom has about 150 villages. I want to ensure almost all chiefdoms are electrified by the time I leave office in 2017”, he said, amidst thunderous applause and jubilation.

According to the Chief Solar Technician, Nancy Kanu, “We were trained at the Barefoot College at Tilonia, India. Our training centre is the only College/Training centre built out of the initiative of rural poor illiterate women. The centre is meant for the poor and only for the poor, and it’s the only college in Sierra Leone that is fully solar electrified”.

Edward Anaque, the General Secretary of the Barefoot Women Solar Engineers Association, reaffirmed their commitment to work with marginalized, exploited and impoverished rural poor women and youth living on less than one dollar a day. “Our aim is to lift them with dignity and self respect over the poverty line, that’s why we do not sign any contract with people who want to work in the college. The working relationship more or less depends on mutual trust and faith. Everyone is a volunteer, sir”, Mr Anaque said.

IS THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC) BIASED AGAINST AFRICA

IS THE ICC ONLY FOR AFRICA? WHY IS THE USA NOT A SIGNATORY TO THE PROVISIONS OF THIS COURT?

  
CLIK THE LINK &LISTEN TO THIS BBC INTERESTING  DEBATE.

 THANKS TO SIERRA HERALD - 30 MARCH 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/p00q9kwj/


 The BBC Africa Debate discusses the International Criminal Court, the ICC and asks - Is Africa on trial by the ICC? This interesting, very interesting debate was done on location in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and it is good listening. Good listening because we would want to recall President Ernest Bai Koroma's reminder in the run-up to the November elections that he has invited the ICC to be around
at that time.

Is Africa on trial at the International Criminal Court? When it comes to international justice - is the continent on trial? Why does it always appear that it is only African rogues that are frog-marched to the bowels of the court? Is this to assume therefore that this court was set up to try Africans only given the way it conducts its business of bringing human rights abusers, despots and anti-democratic villains to justice?

Or are we missing something here? Well according to an introduction to the debate on the BBC Africa Debate website, we have this -

While human rights advocates and victims of human rights violations appreciate the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in international justice, some politicians and experts have accused the international court of placing undue emphasis on Africa. Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, whose government had earlier referred the LRA rebel group case to the ICC, complained that, while Africa supported and participated in the formation of the court, "the way it is being implemented [makes] it seem like it is only Africans committing crimes".
...."Why are African leaders not celebrating this focus on African victims?" asked former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who mediated Kenya's post-election crisis. "Is the court's failure to help victims outside Africa a reason to leave the calls of African victims unheeded?"
The ICC's incoming chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda is, from The Gambia says - if anything, the focus on the continent "shows commitment by African leaders to international criminal justice - African governments are saying impunity must end". Some critics, however, have gone as far as accusing the ICC of politicising justice in Africa and undermining other alternatives such as reconciliation and traditional justice.

On the panel to answer questions from the public from all sides are, among others - Fadi El Abdallah - Spokesperson & Head of the Public Affairs Unit, International Criminal Court, Barney Afako - Ugandan lawyer and expert on transitional justice and Donald Deya - Chief Executive of the Pan African Lawyers Union.

The programme is hosted by Akwasi Sarpong and Karen Allen.

Kindly listen to the debate on this LINK and then decide if the ICC is relevant to Africa - a continent that seems to grow, groom and gather human rights abusers from every quarter and in every form. You decide and if you have a comment then visit the website of the Africa Debate programme and get things off your chest. Say what you think.

Kindly take a look at the pictures above. On the left is the DRC's Thomas Lubanga who is the first to be convicted by the International Criminal Court, the ICC. On the right is our very own smoke and mirrors President who boasted that he has invited the ICC to take a look at the situation on the ground in Sierra Leone as the country prepares for General Elections in November 2012.

We do hope the ICC is watching what is going on now in the run-up to these crucial elections.

The case of the creole settlers

Settlers’ legacy lingers in Africa.

Influence of Nova Scotia immigrants still felt in Sierra Leone community they founded.

Wayn Hamilton, of Dartmouth, displays photos from the time he spent in Sierra Leone meeting families of Nova Scotia Loyalist de­scent living in the west African nation. (TED PRITCHARD / Staff)

In 1990, Wayn Hamilton received a letter at his home in Hali­fax from a researcher at Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone.
The researcher, who was studying the history of Black Nova Sco­tians, told Wayn he may have a living relative in Freetown, the capital city of this small West African country.
This relative is Plummer Hamilton, whose ancestors were called the Nova Scotia Settlers, a group of people who emigrated from Canada to what is now Sierra Leone 220 years ago.
The Nova Scotia Settlers were former slaves who escaped from plantations in the southern United States. They were then recruited as soldiers by the British to fight in the American War of Independ­ence. In exchange for their service they were promised citizenship, land rights and freedom. When the war was lost they came to Nova Scotia, where some, in­cluding Wayn’s family, stayed to form what are now the country’s oldest Afri­can- Canadian communities. Others felt unwelcome in Canada, and chose to re­turn to the continent from which they or their ancestors were forcefully taken.
“With the list of the slaves that left and the list of slaves that returned, there was one missing," said Plummer Hamilton.
“We assumed straight away that the brother that didn’t come back is the great­grandfather of Wayn."
This wouldn’t be his great-grandfather in the sense that it was the father of Wayn’s grandfather, but a more distant relative, something like a great-great­great- great- grandfather.
“We knew we had connections, but they were loose connections and we were not able to trace them," said Plummer Hamilton. “We knew some of our great­grandparents were taken as slaves. Some returned and some did not."
Wayn Hamilton wrote to Plummer, and first visited Sierra Leone in 1992 for the country’s bicentenary celebrations. A year later he moved to Freetown to work for an international development or­ganization. It was then he established a family relationship that has lasted for 20 ye a rs.
“People have to realize that our family lineage was broken during the enslave­ment period, and it’s important that we reconnect and that we don’t lose sight of the memory of who we were as a people before we were fractured by the slave trade," said Wayn Hamilton.
The legacy of the Nova Scotia Settlers is at risk of fading in today’s Sierra Leone, but there are still those, like Wayn and Plummer Hamilton, who are trying to keep the bond alive.
In January 1792 , 15 ships left Halifax carrying about 1,200 passengers. In March, they arrived on the shores of the West African colony owned by a British philanthropic organization called the Sierra Leone Company. The Nova Scotia Settlers built houses, established church­es, started families and founded the city of Freetown.
The Settlers would make up part of an ethnic group known as the Krios. Though the Nova Scotians came first, Krios also includes those who arrived later: the Maroons, who were taken directly from the Caribbean, and resettled Africans, who were released from slave ships cap­tured on the high seas before setting foot in the Americas. It was, however, the values brought by the Nova Scotians that would set the dominant tone of the emer­gent Krio society.
“I think we owe the success of this settlement to the Nova Scotians. Because of their background of having gone through so many trials and tribulations, they had the temperament to make a success of the settlement to which they had been sent," said Cassandra Garber, president of an organization called the Krio Descendants Union (spelled Yunion in the Krio language).
“Living as free families was a great achievement for them. They brought with them the good side of what they had learned living in the Western world and developed that as a culture."
In today’s Sierra Leone, those who descended from the Nova Scotia Settlers are a small minority in relation to the country’s indigenous population. In fact, as only about half the original Settlers survived those first hard years estab­lishing the new colony; there are very few who can say with certainty that their ancestors are among those who arrived 220 years ago.
One of the surviving aspects of the Nova Scotia Settlers’ legacy is that they were largely responsible for bringing Christian­ity to Sierra Leone.
Among the first churches to be estab­lished was the Zion Methodist Chapel, created the same month as the Settlers’ arrival in 1792. The church was founded as an obscure evangelical denomination called the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion, brought from a congregation in Birchtown, N.S., and existed only in England, Canada and Sierra Leone. The denomination was created in 1784, just eight years before arriving in Freetown.
Though the chapel is located in the heart of Freetown’s downtown commer­cial centre, the number of regular wor­shippers has been declining. Looking out at an average Sunday church service, the disproportionate number of heads with greying hair suggests many of today’s members of Zion Methodist are elderly.
On March 4, Zion Methodist held a special service to commemorate their 220th anniversary. Like every Sunday, hymns were sung, sermons were deliver­ed, and Communion was celebrated. But unlike most Sundays, the church was filled with worshippers, commemorating this historic event in Sierra Leone’s histo­ry.
“I think if those who arrived 220 years ago were here today, they would be very pleased by what they see," said Rev. Sa­lieu Kamara, chairman of the Countess of Huntingdon Connexion in Sierra Leone, during his sermon. “You might have gone through a lot of difficulties, yet you have gathered yourselves and set this day apart for celebration."
This service is part of a series of events hosted by Zion Methodist that attempt to rekindle the public’s interest in this old Settler church, and plan a way forward that will ensure the congregation’s sur­vival into the future.
Wayn Hamilton is trying to revive an awareness of this shared history by con­necting church congregations in Nova Scotia with those in Sierra Leone through his work as CEO of the Office for African-Nova Scotian Affairs. He says this is part of a larger effort to act as a facilitator between black Nova Scotians and those in the diaspora from other parts of Canada, the United States, or West Africa. In the next two years he says he will be working to establish an interpretive centre for Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, which will involve forming a stronger relationship with Krios in Sierra Leone.
Wayn and Plummer Hamilton cannot say for sure who is their shared ancestor.
This is due in part to the fact that for a long time Africans in the Americas were not provided with official documents that would help identify family lineage. To compound this problem, many of the already sparse records kept of the Settlers’ history were destroyed during Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war, which began soon after Wayn and Plummer met.
“We can only go back so far in the records, but in Nova Scotia there are ac­tually two Hamiltons who left Nova Sco­tia on Plummer’s side; though this is a bit of an extrapolation of history," said Wayn Hamilton. “One of the challenges has to do with identifying that family line to determine whether there are genealogy records or birth records, but it’s hard because a lot of it is spotty due to a lack of continuous recording of who were in the family lines."
To Wayn and Plummer, the bond formed between the two families is more important than the details of how they are related. Both say they won’t let this rela­tionship fade any time soon.
“He knows he’s always welcome," said Plummer Hamilton. “It’s been a fulfilling episode in our lives meeting Wayn and other members of the family. He is one of us."
Wayn’s most recent visit to Freetown was in 2011, when he brought his son to Sierra Leone for the first time. As far as Wayn is concerned, Plummer is his uncle, and Sierra Leone is his second home.
“There’s this idea that we’re a family that has only been separated by water and through time," said Wayn Hamilton.
“We’ve bonded with each other as if we are long-lost relatives."
Damon van der Linde is a Canadian journalist living in Sierra Leone.