"My Life" Booklets 2018

It's time to say, "Well done!" All the students in the Seli River Writing Project's Young Writers clubs who have completed five final drafts by June 2018 have received personal booklets called "My Life" containing their writing.

Here we see students who received these booklets in Joe Town (near Waterloo), in Dankawalie (near Kabala), in Sussex, and in Lumpa (near Waterloo).

I love that although every part of everyone's book is uniquely theirs—from the photo to the dedication, the table of contents, the text, and the about-the-author page—the whole club already knows and has played a role in everyone else's stories.

Everyone wrote about their personal experiences, and brought their first drafts to the group for oral feedback to help them revise what they had written. They returned to their friends later for peer editing. For this reason, the students in these photos are aware that their accomplishments are not totally individual: they achieved what they did with the help of their fellow students as much as that of their facilitators. While such cooperation to achieve a task is common here in Sierra Leone, it is rare in formal school settings. Instruction in Sierra Leone is generally still very competitive.

This year, we gave out thirty-three "My Life" booklets, which is a record for SELI Young Writers clubs.

The facilitators shared the photos you see here on our WhatsApp forum, but those of our facilitators who do not have smart phones cannot access WhatsApp. The schools whose clubs received "My Life" booklets were Dankawalie Secondary School (Falaba District), REC Bassa Town, Abundant Grace Int'l. School (Sussex), New Apostolic/Wenner Kuhhnle (5:5), Heaven Homes (Joe Town) and the Seventh Day Adventist Primary school (Samuel Town). All but the first are in the Western Rural Area.

Congratulations to everyone involved!