Saving Mohamed

Mark G Wallace on a charity offering hope in Sierra Leone When Mohamed Sannoh was six years old he fled his village as it burned to the ground. At an age when most British children are enjoying life with their parents and friends, he spent over a year in the West African bush, fearing for his life. More than once he was nearly killed by soldiers mistaking him for a child combatant. He faced horrors beyond the imagination of those who have lived in peace and prosperity all their lives.
Today, thanks to an extraordinary project in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown, Mohamed is at university studying to be an accountant. When you meet him, you would never guess his story: he has a wide grin and a big personality, but his small frame tells the tale of his years foraging for food. His home village of Luwma is near the border with Liberia; during the civil war the only building left standing was the mosque.
Mohamed fled with many other villagers some time around 1992; in common with many Sierra Leoneans, he does not know his date of birth, as there is no central registration of births and deaths. He tells of more than a year in the bush with a variety of people similarly displaced. In one particularly horrific incident, all the men and bigger boys he was with were rounded up and killed; only his diminutive size saved him.
Mohamed's education began with him being found by a teacher at a school for displaced pupils in Freetown. Transferring the application and focus which had kept him alive to his school work, he became an exceptional student. Once in secondary school, however, he faced problems, as he had no means to pay for his education; Sierra Leone, then as now, had no free secondary school provision. In 1998 he met Miriam Mason Sesay, a British teacher who later moved to Freetown with a tiny charity called EducAid. He became one of the first students to be sponsored through secondary education by EducAid, eventually completing his studies in 2005 at its new school in the suburb of Lumley.
EducAid was founded after two Christian students visited Sierra Leone in the 1990s. Appalled by the suffering they witnessed in the civil war, they came to the conclusion that the only way to help was to promote education, to raise a new generation of citizens who could earn their own bread (to borrow Salesian language).
They began by sponsoring individual students through secondary school, but soon realised that the only way to fulfil their aims was to set up their own school. Miriam Mason Sesay gave up teaching French in Battersea, south London, and arrived as the charity's country director in 2000 with this brief.
Today the charity runs three schools: as well as the one in Freetown it has two up-country. in the desperately poor areas of Rolal and Magbeni. They have over 900 students, with many on the waiting list. Young people here face serious obstacles to education. They are often expected to be breadwinners; the value of education is suspected by the majority of people who are themselves unschooled. This is a country where life expectancy is just 40, with infant mortality rates among the world's highest and it sits at the bottom of the UN's human development index.
EducAid believes that the key to ending this suffering is education. Miriam says: "Only through education do people know why they should not drink dirty water. Only an informed generation which is equipped to ask the right questions will be able to build a functioning democracy and get over the everpresent, grinding corruption which affects every part of Sierra Leonean life."
And free education means free: there are no expensive uniforms, and learning materials and lunch are provided, so that there is no disincentive for desperately poor young people to attend.
The whole experience has been a learning curve.
Realising that, for many cultural reasons, girls were under represented, Miriam set up a women's project at the Freetown school 2007, which led to the number of girls increasing from around 20 per cent to closer to 35 per cent; similar projects are being rolled out at the other schools.
EducAid's success stories are many. Along with Mohamed. they now have former pupils studying medicine, engineering, teacher training and other subjects. Many former students give something back to the schools, working as teachers or teaching assistants themselves. Since returning to Luwma for the first time in 2005, Mohamed has helped to set up education projects there, and in addition to his studies he helps with the organisation's accounts.
These pupils, educated in a Christian environment with daily assemblies, are poised to have a huge influence on Sierra Leone's future. EducAid's chairman, consultant paediatrician Dr James Boardman, says: "We hope to encourage a generation of young people to build a better future for Sierra Leone. When we first visited the country, the situation seemed so hopeless. But we've seen that you can build hope one person at a time."
From more information visit www.educaid.org.uk or write to EducAid, 89 West St, Harrow-onthe-Hill, HAI 3EL