95% van de volwassen bevolking van Dibiyya is door de extreme armoede analfbeet. Door de burgeroorlog heeft een hele generatie geen onderwijs gekregen. Dibiyya Development project is vanaf 13 maart 2010 begonnen met een opleiding voor volwassenen in leren lezen en schrijven (engels). Er waren 122 inschrijvingen, jammer genoeg kunnen maar 76 mensen (mannen en vrouwen) aan de lessen deelnemen. Sponsors gevraagd voor het jaar 2011 en verder.

Implementatie:

Voorbereidingen

In januari 2010 heeft  Mahmud Bangura, onze vertegenwoordiger in Sierra Leone een presentatie gegegeven aan de dorpsbewoners van Dibiyya tijdens een dorpsvergadering. Het idee om een opleiding lezen en schrijven te verzorgen, werd door alle aanwezigen enthousiast begroet.

 

Dorpschief:             “Educaton is the key to development of the people”

 

Dorpsbewoners:      “We have  a lot of problems because we cannot read and write in English” .

 

Mahmud Bangura stelde daarna de inschrijving voor de opleiding Adult Education open.76 mensen, mannen en vrouwen schreven zich in als leerling voor de opleiding. 

 

Op 20 februari 2010 na aankomst van Suffian in Dibiyya heeft hij met Mahmud Bangura en mevr. Fatuh Sankoy de opzet van de opleiding doorgepraat om de details verder uit te werken.Hierbij is het volgende besloten:

• de opleiding wordt verzorgd door 4 onderwijzers gezien het grote aantal inschrijvingen· De cursus duurt vooralsnog 1 jaar. Na 1 jaar doen de leerlingen examen en krijgen een rapport. Bij goed gevolg gaan de leerlingen over naar de 2e klas. Zij die niet slagen, doen het jaar over.
• De cursus volgt de onderwijsmethoden van Sierra Leone voor kinderen.
• Examens vinden plaats in maart van ieder jaar.
• Dibiyya Development Project garandeert de kosten voor het 1e jaar. Voor de volgende jaren worden sponsoren gezocht.
• De opleiding vindt plaats in St. Francis Primairy school nadat de lessen voor de lagere school en secundairy school afgelopen zijn. 

 

 

De onderwijzers zijn:

1. · mevr. Fatuh Sankoh                  salaris:         LE 40.000 per maand
2. · Hr. Lamin Kamara                                         LE 35.000
3. · Hr. Mahmud Bangura                                    LE 35.000
4. · Mevr. Idusa Kamara                                     LE 35.000

 

Salarissen worden maandelijks op de 15e uitbetaald door de heer Karim Bangura uit Freetown. Het totale bedrag voor 1 jaar is bij hem gedeponeerd.

 

Hr. Alex Lahai is de coordinator en hij ontvangt een onkostenvergoeding. Hij rapporteert per 3 maanden aan Dibiyya Development Project via email over de gang van zaken en ontwikkelingen. 

 

Dibiyya Development heeft voor 76 leerlingen leerboeken, paper en pennen aangeschaft in Freetown. De leerboeken zijn gelijk aan die, die ook bij kinderen op de lagere school gebruikt worden. 

 

1e schooldag 13 maart 2010

Tijdens de voorbereidingen bleek dat de lessen niet op weekdagen gegeven kunnen worden. De schoolklassen zijn tot 18 uur in gebruik bij Movement of Faith Secundairy School (morgens) en door St. Francis PrimairySchool (middags). Om 18.30 is het donker, zodat kunstlicht gebruikt moet worden.

 

De door Philips beschikbaar gestelde solar lampen en de zelf aangeschafte solar lampen geven te weinig licht om een klaslokaal te verlichten. Of de onderwijzer ziet niks of de leerlingen zien niet wat de onderwijzer doet..Besloten is om de lessen vooralsnog op zondag van 10-12 uur te houden in 4 klaslokalen. 

 

Tot grote schrik, maar ook blijdschap kwamen op de eerste schooldag 122 leerlingen opdagen. Hierop was niet gerekend. Besloten werd de 46 extra leerlingen op een wachtlijst te plaatsen. Ook kwam de vraag uit de andere dorpen om ook in aanmerking te komen voor de opleiding. Zodra lessen in de avonduren gegeven kunnen worden, d.w.z. als het lichtprobleem is opgelost, komen ook zij in aanmerking. 

 

 

Periode 13-18 maart 2010

Konklusies:

1. De Volwassenen Educatie voorziet in een grote behoefte.
2. De dorpsbewoners zijn zeer enthousiast de lessen te volgen en zich het lezen en schrijven in het engels eigen te maken.
3. De capaciteit van de school is vooralsnog te klein om alle belangstellenden toe te laten.  

Aanbevelingen:

• Dibiyya Development stelt zich garant voor de kosten voor het 1e jaar. Voor de volgende jaren zal financiering gevonden moeten worden, anders zal het aantal drop-outs groot zijn. De dorpsbewoners zijn veelal arme boeren, die zich geen schoolgeld voor zichzelf kunnen veroorloven. 
• In het dorp is geen electriciteit en het gebruik van dieselgeneratoren is te kostbaar. Voor de continuiteit van de school en het groot aantal leerlingen zal hiervoor een oplossing gevonden moeten, zodanig dat ook overdag les gegeven kan worden. Philips Lightning Eindhoven heeft ons gevraagd een aantal solar lampen (plafonnierres) uit te testen in het dagelijks gebruik.  
• Deze volwasseneducatie zal goed gemonitord moeten worden, zodat tijdige bijsturing mogelijk is. De coordinator zal hierin een grote rol spelen door middel van de voortgangsrapportage. 
• Vanuit het dorp Dibiyya kwam ook de vraag gekomen om vakopleidingen te verzorgen. Vooralsnog is dit een project voor de toekomst, wel kan een haalbaarheidsonderzoek gedaan worden naar noodzaak en wenselijheid.
• Het project Adult Educatie van Dibiyya Development Project na 1 jaar evalueren en eventueel qua opzet aanpassen aan de opgedane ervaringen, daarna DICAALM als zelfstandige onderwijsinstelling in Sierra Leone registeren. Tevens kan dan fase 2 Opleiding “Home-economics” gestart worden, mits Derde werkplaats Teteringen materialen ter beschikking kan stellen. Er is inmiddels een aanvraag voor een project bij Derde Wereldwerkplaats ingediend. De verwachting is dat dit project eind 2010 gerealiseerd kan worden.

 

 

Projectvoorstel

Dibiyya Development Project is a non-profit organization founded in 2002 by the women of Dibiyya communities in the Kambia District Sierra Leone. After the war in 2001, the women of Dibiyya and the surrounding villages came together to discuss issues on how to develop themselves and how to get a better future for their children.

With the help of Mr. Alex. J. Lahai, a former project co-ordinator of an international organization called AMRICA REFUGEE AGENCY. organized these communities and founded a community based organization (CBO) and in 2008 the CBO has been registered as a local Non Governmental organization. (NGO)

Suffian Allieu Badara, born in Dibiyya, came to Holland in 1998 as a refugee, got Dutch nationality returned in 2004 and met the CBO during his 10 days visit to these communities and took interest in helping them to extend and broaden their network outside Sierra Leone. Back in Holland he started the Stichting Dibiyya Development Project with the help of Nanne J. Visser, the secretary and Ruben H. Janssen, an expert in business Economics and project researcher. They developed and implemented several projects since 2006

The goals of DIBIYYA DEVELOPMENT PROJECT are to reduce the extreme poverty of the inhabitants of Dibiyya area by
Organising people in development projects
Creating (new) emploment
Increasing the knowledge and capacities of the people
Implementing sustainable projects to improve the well-being of the villagers

Dibiyya Development Project tries to give a solution to the socio-economical problems of Dibiyya by implementing integrated projects of development of rural areas in close cooperation with the local communities and the local authorities and ministeries. Dibiyya Development Project also wants to contribute to the milenniumgoals

Dibiyya Development Project works in Sierra Leone close together the Catholic Mission of the Bishop van Makeni and has good contacts with muslimorganisations in Sierra Leone. Dibiyya Development Project has built very good contacts with local authorities and government.

In the recent years Dibiyya Development Project Sierra Leone has already implemented  projects on Agriculture, employment, and education.
Dibiyya Development Project has interviened for the people Dibiyya to get micro-credits to increase employment, marketing and start agricultural seedbanks.
Dibiyya Development Project is in Sierra Leone registered at het Ministery of local Government and Community Development in Sierra Leone onder nummer : CBO/SL/KAM 135 dated 10-10-2006.
From February 2008 Dibiyya Development Project has been registered as local NGO in Sierra leone.Dibiyya Development Project is member in Sierra Leone of National Association of Farmers of Sierra Leone number DODEP/D3/471/ NGO/025 NAFSL/NS/NK418

Dibiyya Development Project Nederland is a stichting (foundation), registered at Kamer van Koophandel (Chamber of Commerce) Breda number 20121906.

Stichting Dibiyya Development Project

The village Dibiyya and the surrounding smaller villages are in the most rural parts of Sierra Leone. Dibiyya lies in the middle of bush and contact with the outside world is very difficult and limited.

The villagers are farmers and live from the products of their own small fields and have some farm animals. The harvest of their fields is small. Every year there is shortage of food. Many people never leave their village due to the lack of funds, transport. Roads are extremely bad, especially in the rainy season. The civil war in Sierra Leone 1991-2001 changed it all. Dibiyya became victim of a cruesom fight due to its rural environment. That’s why many inhabitants flied to Guinee or even to Europe. After the war people came back from the refugeecamps in Guinee and started to pick up their normal lives again as good as possible.

The women had seen the beter developments in Guinee and decided they want to improve their lives for their children. As a group of women they formed a “ Community Based Organization “ (CBO). As they realised that they had to forget the cruelties of the war and had to put their attention to the future. Self-development was the only solution to improve their conditions of live for their children and to escape the extreme poverty. Community Based Organization  was called Dibiyya Development Project, as the idea came from the women of Dibiyya. Soon other villages in their area joined in. Through this project people got hope that a beter future for them is possible.

Suffian Allieu Badara, 38 years old, living in Roosendaal, The Netherlands, Dutch nationality, a ex-refugee from Dibiyya visited his village in 2004. He made contact with the women of Dibiyya Development Project. The women told him about their daily struggle with poverty and lack of knowledge in their communities
After thoroughly discussions it became obvious that only self-development was the way-out from poverty and lack of knowledge. As women are carrying the burden of a community the development of women is the only key for the survival of the community in the future

The project is based on the idea that cooperation in a project will benefit the whole community and that the cooperation will effect the whole community. Every one who contributes will receive thanks and respects from the community.
De Community Based Organization was convinced that self-development starts with education and it essential to get a school where children can get a good education.

Projects implemented:

St.Francis primairy School
Children from several villages had to walk long distance to go school. Therefore the CBO decided to build a provisional school (a shed with roof of leaves) and some villagers were appointed as teachers.
The community paid the salaries of the teachers. Children were applied to National Primairy School Examinations. Despite the limited education circumstances the children got good result at the exams.

Because the school has a roof of leaves the school did not get any support of the government of Sierra Leone. The villages had to pay all education fees, which was a problem for many parents. Therefore many girls could not go to school
For the women the replacement of the old mud school by a modern school was absolutly neccessary. Also the school must be embedded in the scholar system of Sierra Leone to get all children, boys and girls a good education.

Back in Holland started to contact many educational and/or charity funds to raise money for this project. He made contact with Nanne Visser and together they managed to raise enough money to implement the project in 2006.
A school with 6 classrooms, office and waterwell was build in October 2006 and finshed in January 2007. The school is according to the regulations of the Ministerie of Education and other authorities. After the Catholic Mission has left Kambia in 2009, the school was taken over by Movement of Faith, Port Loko who supervises the school.

Secundairy school
On request of the villagers of Dibiyya Movement of Faith started a Junior Secundairy in the schoolbuilding in 2009. This causes the school to be overcrowded being both Primairy school and Secundairy school.
Dibiyya Development Foundation has made a research to build a new secundairy school in Dibiyya in 2011 together with a Dutch foundation and Sierra Leonian NGO.

Vocational school in 2008: 
A container with computers, tools, sewing machines was sent from Holland to start the School in Kambia.
Unfortunately a lot of problems arose. We decided to share the computers and sewing machines with 2 secundairy schools in Kambia to start lessons in  “computer and home economics” for their students. The tools were given to FAO in Kambia for their production of agricultural tools.
On the request of the secundairy schools in Kambia Dibiyya Development Project, Holland will send another container with computers, tools, sewig machines in 2010

WATSAN project: Water and Sanitation in 2008
10 waterwells and 150 latrines
As the rate of water-related diseases in Dibiyya is very high, (cholera, typhus) due to the lack of safe drinking water Dibiyya Development project build 1 waterwell and 15 latrines in 10 villages.

WATSAN project: Water and Sanitation in 2009
10 waterwells and 100 latrines
Due to the success of the WATSAN 2008 project 1 waterwell and 10 latrines were build in each of  the remaining 10 villages in the Dibiyya area.

Traditonal Birth Attendants TBA
On request of the Traditional birth attendants and the medical authorities in Kambia Dibiyya Development project send out a dutch medical doctor in february 2009 to train the TBA’s in Dibiyya in order to reduce the high death rate of mother and child before and after birth delivery.

Back in Holland the members of the Dutch Dibiyya Development Project Suffian Badara, Nanne Visser, Ruben Jansen started to develop new projects:
a new project “traditional birth attendants” in Kambia district, to be implemented in february 2010, due to the success of this previous project.
A new project called Livestock will be implemented in Februay/March 2010
studies are being carried out:
  - palmoil plantation (employment)
  - agricultural farm for increase the food production in the area.
                   Implementation expected in 2010 or 2011
  - new secundairy school in Dibiyya
  - medical health centre in Dibiyya
4.  sending a container with computers and tools for secundairy schools in Kambia to  enable them to start computerlessons and Home-economics.

  Problems

Expectation of life in Sierra Leone is dramatical low. With an expectation of 42 years  Sierra Leone belongs to one of the worst countries in the world to live in.

This has several causes like:
1.  It starts already at birth. The death rate in Sierra Leone is the highest in the  world. Usually nobody is capable to supervise a delivery of birth. If there any com plications before, during or after the delivery there is no health care avilable which  can cope with it. In each village there are traditional birth attandents who can  handle simple deliveries without any complications, but all in a very unhygienical  environment. The nearest hospital is about 25 km away on rocky forest trails. For  many the hospital is too far and too expensive

2.  Diseases. Because of the lack of sanition, safe drinking water and famine many  diseases occur. Dibbiyya lies near some large rivers and is surrounded by many  swamps, ideal for musquito’s. The quality of those waters are very bad, many
waters are polluted. Rivers, swamps, bushes are used as toilets, drinking water,  laundry. Often there are outbreaks of malaria, diarhee, cholera, typhus, dysente ria. The people are helpless for these disease.  Often they have many patients of  water related diseases in their small clinic During and after rainy season there
many musquitos,infected by malaria-virus. Dibiyya Development Project has built  a waterwell for the schoolchildren of Dibiyya, but it is not available for the people  of the other villages

3. Housing The people live in houses of mud-blocks with roofs of leaves, ideal for
all kinds of disease-bacteries and insects. Toilets, if available, are just a hole in the   ground and lies often in an edge of the house. That’s why many children die of  cholera, typhus and dysenteria. There is also diarhea, aids, yellow fever, hepatitis  A en B.  Through these problems people can’t work enough on their fields, which  causes food shortage at the end of dry season. This is vicious circle for diseases.

4. Food shortage. Due to extreme poverty in the area the size of the fields to produce food (rice and other crops, vegetables) are small, depending on the capcity of the farmer and his family. In most cases the yield of the field is not enough to feed the farmer’s family from one harvest to the next harvest, or to sell the yield to be able to buy the neccessary things of living. People don’t eat meat except on special festivals or occasions.

5. Illiteracy. The education facilities in Dibiyya always have been on a very low standard. There was a small mudschool, but it offered little education. Teachers were underpaid or not paid at all. Parents were too poor to send their children to school The basic dillemma “food on the table”or “sending the children to school”. The 10 year civil war destroyed all education, so a whole generation of adults did not have any kind of education.

Policy

As in previous chapter mentionned Dibiyya Development Project has developped and implemented projects for item 1, 2 and 3 and will continue to do so, but in the near future Dibiyya development will focuss his projects on agriculture to obtain a sustainable impact of the daily life of the villagers by increasing food production and creating emplyment. Therefore, it will be essential for the success of future projects, that workers from the community are able to read and write in simple English.

Goals of this project

The goals of the project is to reduce the illiteracy in the villages of Dibiyya by:
- Starting a school for adult education with qualified teachers
- Creating employment and income for qualified teachers

Initiative

During the implementation of WATSAN2009 project Suffian Badara and Nanne Visser had discussions with the villagers about education. The people of Dibiyya indicated that 95% of them are illiterated and asked Dibiyya Development project to help them to solve the problem of illiteracy, which causes many problems to them.
As a result of meeting of Dibiyya Development project with the people of Dibiyya and other community meetings in Dibiyya the people of Dibiyya want to create an adult education for those who can’t read nor write. The education will be free and open to every adult, men or women.
As part of the adult education the people of Dibiyya want to start education on so-called “home-economics” like tayloring, masonery, carpentry etc. 

Problem

Dibiyya is a community that has a total population of about 5,000 inhabitants of which 95% are illiterates. These inhabitants have long been marginalized in most of the development activities brought in their community owing to the fact of being unable to read, write and communicate (in simple English).

The high rate of illiteracy is caused by:
- the conditions of the school always have been very poor in the past ,
- underpaid or unqualified teachers
- No facilities were available, hardly any textbooks, paper, pen etc.
- People always have been very poor and could not send their children to school due to high fees. The dillema “Food on the table” or “sending the          children to school”
- Due to the poverty girls were not send to school as they were needed at the fields or at home.
- The 11 year civil war destroyed all education, so a whole generation now in their 20-30s did not have any education at all.

Problems of illiteracy

The inhabitants have long been marginalized in most of the development activities brought in their community. Instead, project implementers usually brought in personnel to do the skilled work. Only the unskilled work was left for them
The inhabitants fear they can’t participate fully in future projects as communication without an interpreter will be difficult.
As all communications is in English information from the outside world can’t reach them and they depend heavily on interpreters and traders for the prices of their goods.

Project justification.

The need for a community based adult literacy movement in Dibiyya is very strong.
Of the towns and villages in the chiefdom (Magbema), Dibiyya is seen as an icon of development owing to the infrastructures and other social amenities brought in by one of its patriotic sons living in the Diaspora (Holland) Suffian Badara in a bid to improve the living conditions of his people. But as earlier stated, the keen and strong desire in the people to fully participate in the development programs brought to their community are being limited due to high illiteracy rate. The community stakeholders came up with the initiative of setting up The Dibiyya Community Awareness on Adult Literacy Movement (DiCAALM), which will implement and carry out this project.

Goals of this project are:

Phase 1: Adult education on learn and write (English) by
        To provide teaching and learning materials for learners.
        To provide them a conducive learning environment.
        To teach adults how to read, write and communicate.
        To make adult aware that all is not lost, and that there is still room to get basic   education and contribute meaningfully in society.

Phase 2: Adult Education on “Home-Economics”
        To teach them crafts, so they can do skilled work
        To teach women to make or repair clothes (tayloring) or anything lessons

The Dibiyya Community Awareness on Adult literacy Movement (DiCAALM) will do for the successfully implement the project:
        seeking the services of trained teachers who will be giving lectures to adult    learners.
        getting the relevant learning materials needed by adult learners.
        using the primary school premises for holding lectures

Dibiyya Development project will provide (DiCAALM) with the necessary funds (see budget) to achieve their goal on adult education phase 1. Dibiyya Development Project will provide (DiCAALM) sewing machines, tools, materials for phase 2 in October 2010 under restriction that DWW (3e wereldwerkplaats, teteringen) can start up a project for DDP and send materials, goods and sewing as required

Learners.
The education is free and open to all people of Dibiyya and surrounding villages. Especially women are invited to take lessons in reading and writing. The capacity of learners in the class will be in total 40 people.

Staff
For phase 1 the following staff is needed:
1 Coordinator   mr. Alex Lahai
1 senior teacher   mr. Mahmud Bangura
1 junior teacher   mrs. Sankoh
The teachers are fully qualified for adult education and able to teach the learners to read and write. The coordinator is appointed by Dibiyya Dvelopment project and is her local representative.
Their duties start when mr. Suffian Badara of Dibiyya Development Project implement this project during his visit 20 February—19 March 2010

DiCAALM has sought the services of 2 teachers that will be teaching four (4) times per week in the evening hours starting from 4—7 p. m on Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. There will be at least two assignments every week in which adult learners will be expected to do.

There will be one test for every month and one examination for every two months that will determine the promotion to a new grade. The highest passing mark is 100%; the cut off point is 50%, i .e any body below the cut off point will be allowed to repeat.
There will be 5 grades for ten months duration and the candidate who attains the 5th level within the specified period will be considered certified to be able to participate fully in the development activities of the community.

The text books will be distributed to learners to enable them practice to read on the condition that misplacement is equals to replacement by the defaulter.