In 2018, British NGO Street Child of Sierra Leone, or SCoSL, came to head teacher Samuel Koroma’s* primary school in Sierra Leone. The U.K. government-funded education improvement project renovated his school, provided teacher training for Koroma and his team, and set up income-generating activities that ensured parents could afford to educate their children.
Over four years, SCoSL’s Right to Learn supported more than 20,600 children to enter education in Sierra Leone and built or renovated classrooms in 40 rural primary schools. But the project has become a casualty of aid cuts from the U.K.’s Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office, which has begun to wind down investment in its former colony.
“Britain has been the big donor in Sierra Leone,” said Street Child U.K. CEO Tom Dannatt — for all NGOs in the country, not just his own. He founded Street Child in Sierra Leone in 2008 and expanded it to more than 20 low-income and disaster-affected countries.
About the author
Gabriella Jóźwiak@GabriellaJ
Gabriella Jóźwiak is an award-winning journalist based in London. Her work on issues and policies affecting children and young people in developing countries and the U.K. has been published in national newspapers and magazines. Having worked in-house for domestic and international development charities, Jóźwiak has a keen interest in organizational development, and has worked as a journalist in several countries across West Africa and South America.
