Leading Young Writers Workshop

In the photo you can see teachers from four rural junior secondary schools on the Freetown Peninsula, busy discussing how conferencing works in the writing process. I'm so pleased at their expertise and level of participation, and we are all learning from each other.

We took a break for the Id ul Fitr holiday, and are back at work today. Our 40-hour Leading Young Writers training is now half-way through. In our group we have teachers from Goderich, Hamilton, Sussex, Kent, and even the Koinadugu District in the northern province of Sierra Leone.

Getting Underway in Goderich

The SRWP is excited to start conducting a third Leading Young Writers training tomorrow, this time for new facilitators from junior secondary schools on the Freetown Peninsula. They will be joined by new facilitators from schools in the Koinadugu District; teachers replacing others who have moved on to employment elsewhere.

We appreciate so much the support of the Deputy Director of Education, Western Area Rural District, Ms. Frances N. Kamara, in introducing us to JSS schools on the Peninsula. We're also very grateful to the administrators of Lady Patricia Kabba Memorial JSS in Goderich, Mr. Mansaray and Mr. Cole, who agreed without hesitation to let us hold the workshop in their school, even though they are busy teaching summer school classes for incoming JSS I students.  We're all working for the same goals!

See for yourself!

Are you thinking of supporting SELI's work? Or have you already donated? We've come across a wonderful video by Kewulay Kamara that will help you see what Sierra Leone is like, and the difference between urban and rural Sierra Leone. You will see children from our Young Writers club in Dankawalie Secondary School dancing in a community event on the school grounds. The title is Ta Boh M'bareh Dankawalie. See it for yourself! 

Non-formal Education

Let's highlight again the point made about non-formal education in the last post.

Especially when we read articles such as Steve Bradshaw's "Sierra Leone's School-Time Blues," we realize what an important need there is for non-formal education and community schools in Sierra Leone. Children need to be taught in their own context, with parents (whether educated or not) playing an assertive role in keeping conditions safe and conducive to learning.

Teach Somebody (to Read and Write)!

September 8th is International Literacy Day. Here are some statistics from UNESCO's site at http://www.unesco.org/new/en/dakar/education/literacy/

·       "Learning to read and write is a fundamental right. Yet, 38 % of African adults (some 153 millions) are illiterate, two-thirds of these are women.

·       Africa is the only continent where more than half of parents are not able to help their children with homework due to illiteracy.

·       Adult literacy rates are below 50% in Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and The Gambia.

·       Only 1 % of national education budget of most African governments is earmarked to address the issue of literacy.

·       The situation is alarming as literacy is a crucial step to acquire the basic skills needed to cope with the many challenges children, youth and adults will face throughout their lives.

·       For many disadvantaged young people and adults, non-formal education is one of the main routes to learning. Non-formal education reaches people in their own context and ideally in their own local language."

SELI encourages mother-tongue literacy in Sierra Leone through its Heritage Writers program. We offer five writing lessons to formally-educated native speakers, and then try to move them toward authoring books in their own languages. Literacy isn't very useful if, once you achieve it, you can't find anything interesting to read. If you are not already teaching somebody to read and write, please support Heritage Writers by clicking on the DONATE button here!

Publishing our Writing

Starting with issue 3.1, the Young Voices newsletter of the SRWP (Seli River Writing Project) will be publishing the writing of our Young Writers during the coming year. (Check out Young Voices 2.1).

All Young Writers receive a typewritten copy of their final drafts that to show their family and friends. Selected pieces will make it into the newsletters. To the extent that our finances permit, issues will be shared among the participating schools and to friends and supporters of the SRWP. Few of our students have access to the internet, but the newsletter will be posted here, too, so watch for Young Voices 3.1 and expect to see Young Voices often to catch up on what the students are writing about and on progress in the SRWP. This will give the students' writing wider exposure than do the in-school notice boards where some schools display Young Writers writing.

Would you like to support SRWP newsletter production during the year? Please make a PayPal contribution using the Donate button on the right! 

Library-in-a-Box

SELI has been carrying out a "Library-in-a-Box" project with Dankawalie Secondary School, one of the Koinadugu District schools in the SRWP.

Rural schools, and especially rural schools that are made extra remote by poor roads, have little access to books. So for two years now, SELI has taken some two dozen books each time we visit and exchanged them for the books from the last visit, and handed them over to the club facilitators. Most of the books are leveled readers—either classics or books written in and for West Africa. DSS students share their reading in the journal activity held at the beginning of the club meeting, or sometimes explain why they enjoyed their book in the morning assembly.

Thank you, Lorna and Sandra!

 Because Lorna Johnson and Sandra Leigh sponsored mother-tongue writers at the International Mother Language Day on February 21, 2012, SELI, through its Heritage Writers program, was able to offer five writing lessons for mother tongue speakers of an indigenous Sierra Leonean language. Participants in these classes then formed a writing group. SELI encourages writing groups to meet regularly to stimulate each other with feedback and support.

SELI offered five writing lessons in Krio from May 5th – June 9th, 2012. The instructor was Nathaniel Pearce, who has authored textbooks on Krio.

Krio is a creole language spoken natively by the Krio people in Sierra Leone. It is also the lingua franca of many people throughout the country. Some linguists say Krio stems from a widespread prototype creole; others say its history and grammar identify it as a Niger-Congo language which has borrowed and adapted a large number of words from English and other languages. Other linguists say it's both.

The Krio Five Writing Lessons class was a mixed group of working and retired people as well as students. We soon found that half the group already had mastered writing skills in Krio. Therefore, at each meeting while the beginners worked with Mr. Pearce, the writers took part in a writing workshop with the SELI director, where they were challenged to write personal experiences, do creative reflection, and write poetry in Krio and share it with their colleagues.

 The Krio Five Writing Lessons class now meets as one writing group, the Raytin Kabudu. Members read their work aloud to the group for constructive critique to help them revise. We thank Mr. Pearce for his offer to continue to work with this group on editing and other writing skills. While the Raytin Kabudu members are working on manuscripts, SELI is seeking funds to support publication because Heritage Writers aims to encourage the written literature of all Sierra Leonean languages.

Thank you, Simone!

By sponsoring a mother tongue writer at the International Mother Language Day on February 21, 2012, Simone Anderson made it possible for SELI, through its Heritage Writers program, to offer five writing lessons for mother tongue speakers of an indigenous Sierra Leonean language. Participants in these classes then formed a writing group. SELI encourages writing groups to meet regularly to stimulate each other with feedback and support.

Because Simone helped, SELI offered five writing lessons in Kuranko from April 6th – 21st, 2012.

Kuranko is a Mande language spoken by approximately 268,000 people in Sierra Leone with additional speakers in the region, particularly in Guinea. The language has a strong history of oral literature. Missionary organizations have taught literacy in the language but it is not widespread. The language itself thrives more fully in rural than urban settings, but many children are sent to cities for education. Children in urban areas understand some Kuranko but are more likely to respond in the lingua franca, Krio.

The Kuranko Five Writing Lessons class was a mixed group of working people with strong village oral language skills and secondary school students, some of whom joined under their own initiative and others whose parents saw this as an opportunity for them to get a firmer grounding in their family's language. I found it an exciting class with good, inclusive strategies. Some members have since met as the writing group, Tanyar°, where they are exposed to the writing-craft skills of free writing; of reading work aloud to the group for constructive critique; and of revision. The group was lucky to be visited by a Kuranko traditional poet and performer from New York, Kewulay Kamara, who challenged the members with the promise of an award for documenting Kuranko language traditions.

While the Tanyar° members continue to work on manuscripts with the occasional editing support of their Five Writing Lesson teacher, Saio Marah, SELI is seeking funds to support publication. Heritage Writers would like to see a stronger role played by Kuranko in Sierra Leone's written national literature.

ESL Classes at SELI

The Sentinel English Language Institute (SELI) offers beginning and intermediate-proficiency English classes in Tengbeh Town for teen and adult speakers of other languages who are residing in Freetown. Instruction engages students in all aspects of language—speaking and writing, reading and listening, and grammaring; the beginning students shown here are working on a writing task. The American instructor is an experienced, U.S.-certified ESL specialist. SELI's instructional materials are specifically designed for teaching adult ESL in an international setting.

And just think: all fees are paid to SELI, so ESL learners at SELI are, at the same time, supporting educational projects in other schools in Sierra Leone.