Happy New Year! We are truly grateful for the #YearEnd support we received!!

We asked for your help to send Mariama to college and your support made it possible for Mariama to start college this semester.

Mariama made this video of gratitude to you saying

Thank you very much for the support you have given me this past year.  You helped to pay my first-year tuition fees at the University. You’ve really helped me a lot and I’m very grateful.  Thank you very much! 

Did you know that in Sierra Leone, first-year college students are typically asked to pay tuition upfront for an entire semester of college?

This is required before starting college classes. These students also typically do not have access to student loans or financial aid. There are very few and limited scholarships.

Mariama, pictured above, has been accepted to the University, but she will not be able to start classes until her tuition is paid. 

Thanks to countless donors, 31 drums full of school supplies left our Tennessee office on December 1st. The drums arrived at the shipping company in Maryland on the following day. They were then loaded onto a 40-foot container to travel to Africa. Once in Sierra Leone, they will be unloaded and transported to our office in Freetown.

In July, Sevier County schools in Tennessee donated nearly 700 desks to benefit students in Sierra Leone.  News coverage can be watched at https://www.wvlt.tv/2022/07/11/sevier-county-schools-donating-desks-africa/

Twenty-eight students in Bo received school support including school supplies and tuition support. Each of the students was very grateful for your support. They expressed their appreciation in this video saying

"Thank you for supporting us with school supplies. We love you."

Your support recently helped provide Mohamed with school supplies and tuition support so he could attend senior secondary school (SSS) this year. His favorite subject is Economics and he would like to be an accountant when he completes school.

When we give to education, we are building a solid wall by continuing to invest in education for years. We are empowering and transforming lives. As families and communities are empowered, real change occurs.

School is just around the corner.  The Develop Africa Sierra Leone (DASL) team is packing 141 backpacks full of school supplies including- notebooks, erasers, pencils, crayons, rulers, pencil sharpeners, pens, and calculators.

August 12th was International Youth Day. As we observed International Youth Day, Develop Africa reaffirmed its commitment to youth development and empowerment. We lend our voice, support, and commitment to creating a world of intergenerational solidarity among all ages. We agree that the potential of the youth that can be harnessed from continuous collaborations across generations.  In Sierra Leone, Develop Africa focuses on the development of youth to empower them to become future leaders, which is only made possible by generous donors.

Thanks to your ongoing support of girls' education, 100 girls at the FAWE School, an all-girl school, received notebooks to use in class.   A total of 624 notebooks were distributed to the pupils present ranging from class 1 to class 5.  

During the distribution, the girls were grateful for the notebooks they were receiving.  A senior teacher at FAWE said-