Kayiben community school

Our first project is a community primary school in the remote, rural village of Kayiben in the north of Sierra Leone, West Africa. Here we have established a small school where there was previously none for miles around.

Here are some of the kids form the school.

history

British zoologist Chris Ransom spent a few days here in 2006 with his guide and interpreter Minkailu “Mallam” Bantama, while conducting wildlife surveys. Kayiben is rarely visited by outsiders, and Chris was struck by the warm welcome and great hospitality he received, despite everyone in the village being extremely poor and living a very hard life. He wanted to do something meaningful to repay them, so when he found out that none of the children in the village could go to school because there wasn't one within a ten-mile radius, it became clear how he could help.

Before he left the country, Chris hiked back to the village armed with books, slates, chalk and other teaching materials, which he hoped someone could use to begin teaching the children. Eight months later, back in the UK, Chris received a phone call from Mallam, asking what his intentions were for the school. Mallam told him how the villagers – inspired by his goodwill – had constructed a school building with bamboo and palm fronds and how Chief Bengali, himself educated to the age of 14, had begun teaching the children. Mallam had been the driving force, encouraging the village to make the most of this opportunity.

What started with providing some basic teaching materials to the village has now grown into a fully-fledged primary school in the middle of the Sierra Leonean bush, more than 8 miles from the nearest road. We now have a 4 classroom school building, a well for fresh water, toilets, two teachers and, most importantly, more than 70 children – girls and boys – attending the school. The community is proud of the development of its school and has played its own role in its success, by providing materials and labour for constructions, housing the teachers and passing a bylaw which makes it compulsory for all parents to send their children to school.