Schools for Salone

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Schools for Salone partners with local villages in Sierra Leone to rebuild the educational infrastructure devastated in the ten-year long civil war that ended in 2002.

Schools for Salone was launched in 2004 by Cindy Nofziger, a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone (1985-1987). During a return visit in June 2004, she was reunited with friends and colleagues she had worked with at the Masanga Leprosy Hospital. One of her friends, John Sasay, asked her if she would help him rebuild a school in his village that had been destroyed during the war. She left Sierra Leone telling him she would try.

John Sasay and Cindy Nofziger

Several months later John sent Cindy drawings by the children in the village. The drawings were turned into Note Cards. The money raised by selling those cards build that first school.

Recognizing the need for local leadership and accountability, Cindy turned to another friend and colleague from her Peace Corps Volunteer days, Joseph Lamin, Executive Director of Masanga Children’s Fund, to manage the project. Joseph began to identify other communities in need of school repairs and construction, while Cindy mobilized support among friends and former Peace Corps Volunteers in the U.S.

All schools are in poor, rural communities. The communities suffer from multiple problems including lack of safe water, poor health and nutrition and seasonal hunger. The communities put a very high priority on the education of their children, seeing this as a means of breaking the cycle of poverty.

Beginning with carefully targeted villages, the schools are community efforts. The community donates and clears the land, provides locally available materials and unskilled labor. Once funds arrive for imported items, such as cement and roofing materials, the schools are completed in less than two months.

Between 2004 and 2011, Schools for Salone has built 15 school buildings, 2 libraries and numerous water wells.

In 2008, Schools for Salone became a 501(c)(3), Tax Exempt, Non-Profit Organization. We have expanded our partnership building efforts to include Supporting Schools, students and teachers, as well as building structures. We also present Educational Events in the US to share information about Sierra Leone and its culture and we invole US Students in helping others through our Education Outreach Programs, helping to connect them with new friends in Sierra Leone through letters and pictures.

You can contact Cindy via email at Cindy@SchoolsForSalone.org

You can help build a promising future for SierraLeone's children.