MY GIFT OF GIVING EXPERIENCE – BY FIONA LUKE

Well another year has passed and the 2010 ‘Gift of Giving’ campaign is now complete. I found this year’s project a little easier than the last, as I kind of knew what to expect this time.

The campaign was launched in November 2009, but after 8 months, the donations had virtually ground to a halt – which I’ll admit left me feeling a little paranoid! With so little stationery and so little time, I had no choice but to personally donate £15 worth of stationery each month, in the hope that the project would still be a success.

In July 2010, I was overwhelmed by the favour of Almighty God, as large donations suddenly began to pour in. Our sponsors began to help, not only with their time, but also in helping us to secure an air ticket. During the month of August, the Tebbs SC team worked together to prepare the stationery and books for shipment and despite the odds, we finally shipped the donations to Sierra Leone on 10th September 2010.

Each year I extend an open invitation to supporters of Tebbs SC who may be interested in travelling with me to Sierra Leone to experience the final phase of the project. This year 4 supporters shared the experience; Michael Goss flew out with me from the UK on 1st October, followed a few days later by Lou Cole and Sherri Bonanno from the Louminati Youth Leadership Foundation in the USA, with whom we partnered for one of the schools we were distributing to. Our final team member was Yvonne Garcia, also from the UK.

Most of our first full day in Sierra Leone was spent sorting the stationery shipment into individual bags for distribution to the children, assisted by a number of local volunteers. Over the next couple of days, we rested and collected team members from the airport etc. in preparation for the highlight of our trip.

The distribution began on 6th October at the Hi Lance School in Kingtom. We decided to surprise them, so we dropped in about half an hour before the end of the school day. We did this to ensure that each child would actually go home with the donations they received. A total of 200 bags of stationery were distributed to the children who were overwhelmed and very appreciative!

The following day, we attempted our second distribution which was to 330 students at the Fattah Rahman School, however due to circumstances beyond our control we were unable to do this until the day after. Sadly, not all the children attended school that day, partly because it had rained heavily earlier that morning and partly because it was Friday. Despite this, the distribution was a success and the children were very happy and grateful for what they received.

Most of the remainder of our trip was spent just having fun and enjoying the local culture. We visited the two schools from our 2009 stationery campaign (Bavia School and Lisam School) to deliver a further gift of reading books donated by St Edmund’s Catholic Primary School in the UK. Our final task for this trip was to visit a new school that we are considering for a future campaign.

Once again, this year’s campaign was a great success, but I could not have done it alone. I must say a special thank you to everyone who contributed, including all who donated, the Tebbs SC team, our sponsors and all the local volunteers in Sierra Leone.

Plans are underway for a bigger and better campaign in 2011!