MY MARANATHA EXPERIENCE – BY FIONA LUKE
Well another year of the Tebbs SC stationery distribution project has come to pass … After my Christmas vacation in Sierra Leone I came back to London armed and determined to achieve what I thought was the impossible (collecting stationery items for 560 children at the Maranatha School in Regent, Sierra Leone). I had just one month to collect these stationery packs, believing in God that it could be done and praying that our donors would continue in their generosity. I arrived back in London from my vacation on the 8th January 2012 and between then and the 22nd February 2012, all the stationery had been collected and taken over to the shippers!
This year, not only have we been able to donate over 1,000 reading books, we were also able to gift each child in the school (which had a total of 560 students) stationery packs made by Kids Corner, which were donated by our wonderful donors. Each pack contained 2 large exercise books, erasers, sharpener, ruler, pens and crayons. We also donated ‘Times Table’ and ‘ABC’ charts for the nursery classes, black board dusters, chalk and for the very first time we donated a printer and computer equipment to the school.
So I arrived in Sierra Leone on the 11th April 2012 thanks to the generosity of Kevin McPhillips Travel, all set to sort out the stationery items for the distribution due to take place on the 18th of April 2012. However, the schools in Sierra Leone have an Easter break which is 3 weeks long, so a new date was set for Monday 23rd April 2012.
On Monday 23rd April, I arrived at Liverpool Street at 10.30am were my aunty Alfia and Mr Theophilus Jumu were waiting for me with the two other people who would also witness this year’s project. After the arrival of both Reginald Smart and Claudius Ward, we set off to the Maranatha School in Regent. We arrived at the school around 12 midday to find the kids outside practising for their forth coming sports day.
It took the teachers about 20 minutes to round-up all the children who had turned up for school that day and return them to their individual classes for us to start the distribution. We spent about 1 hour going around to each class, introducing ourselves and gifting each and every child our special stationery packs. We all took it in turns to speak to the children about the importance of going to school.
The smiles on the children’s faces were priceless! The kids and the staff were very grateful for the computer equipment, reading books and stationery materials we gave them. The school sits on a piece of land with picturesque views and is surrounded by The American Embassy Grand Estate and other wonderfully built houses, but funnily enough (and not in a laughable sense) not one of these individuals or organisations would lend a hand to help the school.
It’s great to know that not everyone is blind to their surroundings and that some want to make a difference in people’s lives. I know that the work we do does not directly affect our donors and sponsors lives, but we thank you for all your help, as without it we cannot do the work that we do.
