First day of 2018-2019 school year at St. Anthony's School

OPENING OF SCHOOLS!

Today marks the official start of the free quality education program in all government/government assisted schools in Sierra Leone.

We are thrilled to welcome 5 college interns to our team. They will be joining us for about 4 to 6 months bringing along their abilities, strength and youthfulness to continue our vision and dreams for our future generation.

We also had a surprise visit from the Minister of Education, Hon. Alpha Timbo.

Our computer lab will be very popular this year with the boys and girls classes where they can learn the computer skills that will help them to become the future leaders of Sierra Leone.

We also had an ice cream station and popcorn.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Regent, Freetown Mudslide - 1 year ago today

On this day one year ago over 1000 people including children lost their lives from the deadliest Mudslide in Regent, Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Since this incident, Hope for Lives has committed with helping the survivors and schools around vicinity. Several efforts has been accomplished towards the development and well-being of survivors and the children of Regent. 

There’s a lot more needed to be done and Hope for Lives will continue to do the best we can in collaboration, teamwork and support from everyone.

So far, efforts like post traumatic counseling, distribution of shoes and clothing, feeding efforts, and most importantly emphasizing about education by distributing books, pen and pencils to students in Regent. 

Our future plans still stands for schools in Regent having a computer lab around the vicinity, a replica of St. Anthony school library and computer lab. 

Please let continue to lift the Regent community in our prayers especially a day like today.

Key Center School Shoe Donations for Sierra Leone

KEY CENTER ACADEMY!!!

Yesterday was another blessed day for Hope For Lives. Many thanks again to KEY CENTER SCHOOL in Virginia for donating boxes of shoes, clothing and school supplies. We also received dry-erase boards for some of our isolation schools in Sierra Leone.

Distributing food to remote provinces in Sierra Leone

Holy Month of Ramadan - 2018

The 2nd week in June was the final week for this year’s prayers and fasting for the Ramadan season. Hope for Lives was able to provide and distribute food and drinks for 12 villages during this 2018 Ramadan's season:

1) KARANEH, 2) GBINTI, 3) MASORIE, 4) KALANGBA, 5) MATOKRO, 6) RO-THOK, 7) MATHORR, 8) ROSARR, 9) ROSENT, 10) MAGBOLONTHO, 11) ROGBLONTHO, 12) ROGBOM 

We would like to say thanks to Dr. Majid and Ms. Saffiatu in California for their support.

The Hope for Lives Dream Team

We have SO much catching up to do reporting our efforts in Sierra Leone. The last 6 months from December, 2017 to May, 2018 have been some of our highest activity to date. Hope for Lives Team members have been visiting schools throughout remote areas of Sierra Leone including Waterloo, Regent, Wilburforce and Rotefunk, providing donations of books, schools supplies, donated clothing and shoes (thanks to Shoe Train in Potomac, MD). The Dream Team has visited dozens of schools and provided donated goods to tens of thousands of school kids in areas that are not supported by the government at all. Visit our Flickr photo gallery for many more images of the Dream Team in action.

Donate Now to our relief efforts for the Regents mudslide

We're making an urgent appeal to our friends and donors to support the relief efforts in Regent/Freetown, Sierra Leone. The death toll from the massive mudslide is reaching 500, with perhaps another 600 still missing. 6 weeks of heavy rains have flooded the entire region, displacing 20,000 people including 5,000 children. There is a great risk of another massive mudslide that could affect an additional 70 acres of mountainside communities. Our goal is to raise $8,000 to $10,000 to assemble a large shipment of goods to support the community. We're collecting more clothing, medical and other supplies for the relief effort, but what we need most are cash donations to cover the cost of shipping and port fees. Bobby Smith's plan is to receive the container(s) in Sierra Leone and distribute these goods personally to the families affected by this tragedy.

Bobby Smith visited the Regent area of Freetown on one of his recent visits, talking with students and teachers at a few different schools in the area. Some of the kids in these photos were killed or are missing and certainly all of them will be affected by this ongoing tragedy. Access to clean water will be particularly difficult in the wake of the landslide. The cost of food has spiked considerably and families can't afford even basics like rice and oil. The challenges in Regent will continue for many months to come. Please DONATE TODAY to help us pay to ship the goods we've collected. It takes 4-5 weeks from the ship date for the container to arrive, so please DONATE NOW!

International Day of the African Child Events

In early July, 2017, Hope for Lives in Sierra Leone helped to celebrate International Day of the African Child. With the help of our good friends and partners, the staff of the Hill Valley Hotel in Freetown, we prepared meals for over 3,000 school kids, teachers and administrators. We also made use of our new ice cream machine for a cold treat on a hot day. There was also a soccer tournament, for which we prepared a trophy for the winners. You can see more great photos of the festivities on the Flickr page.