ACAYO donates school materials to vulnerable pupils

By Alhaji Haruna Sani

Allen town Community Advocacy Youth Organisation (ACAYO) has on Sunday, October 30, donated school materials worth millions of Leones to sixty (60) vulnerable primary school kids.

School materials donated included school bags, books, pens, pencils, crayons, erasers and geometry sets, all of which worth over Le 15,000,000 (Fifteen Million Old Leones).

The event brought together community stakeholders including teachers, parents, celebrities, entrepreneurs, other community-based organisations (CBOs) and local politicians from the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the All People’s Congress (APC) party, all of whom contributed to the success of the event.

In his brief opening remark, Abubakarr Barrie, Press Secretary, ACAYO, said the organisation was celebrating ten years of doing great things in the Allen town Community. He said ACAYO is keen in maximizing the welfare of people around the Allen town community.

“Our activities are not limited to education but also entertainment, sports, sanitation, community development among others. We do all out of membership contributions and donation from some community key stakeholders,” he said.

Explaining to the gathering, Alfred Fofanah, Head of Education Committee of the organization said the materials were donated to the most vulnerable kids from ten (10) selected schools within the Allen town community.

Fofanah said prior to selecting the kids, the Education Committee of the organization went to each of the ten schools and identified six of the most vulnerable kids for the supply.

“We were able to identify those kids through the kind of uniforms and school bags they use in their various schools. In fact, almost all the kids selected were using plastic shopping bags to place their school materials, and their teachers confirmed the extreme level of vulnerability,” he explained.

Sylvester Bona, Chairman of the organization said ACAYO started donating to pupils since 2012 when the organization was founded. He said the organization was formed as a way of payback to the community.

“While most of us where in various universities across the country in 2012, we realized the need for helping the most vulnerable kids in the community, hence we galvanized and raised some fund which was used to buy some set of school materials that were donated to five schools within the Allen town community. Since 2012 we have been giving back to our community in diverse ways. We strongly believe that people should be defined not by how rich they are but by what they give out”.

Beneficiary, Hawanatu Kamara, a class two pupil of the Faith in Christ Primary School, lower Allen town, thanked the organization for the aid. “I was using plastic bag to place my school materials and my pencils and erasers were easily misplaced. Now that I have gotten a secured bag, I am very happy because my items will no longer be missing.

Another beneficiary, Hassan Sesay, class three pupil of King Fahad primary school, Allen town, also expressed gratitude for the supply. “My colleagues use to mock me when I was using a shopping bag, and that was discouraging me from regularly attending school. Now that I have gotten this beautiful bag and books, I will be the first to arrive in school every week day,” he vowed.

Parents and guardians also expressed gratitude to the organization and vowed to take good care of the materials by mounting effective monitoring of the materials and activities of the kids with regards the supplied items.

The event was climaxed by stakeholders pledging money and school materials in support for the upcoming event which would be staged by ACAYO next academic year.