We have had a wonderful year with many accomplishments. Our President, John Fofanah was in Sierra Leone in the winter and made arrangements for a water well estimate to be completed. A private donor funded the well and it is now built, thanks to the on-site supervision of our Coordinator, Memunatu Kamara who was there for three months overseeing all our projects. The junior high school is completed as well as latrines, and both schools have been approved by the Sierra Leone government.

While Memunatu was in Sierra Leone, a film shooter named Jimmy Bustos accompanied her for the first 2 and a half weeks. This is what he had to say to our Board meeting on May 12 about our schools:

“The schools are functioning very well. It is amazing that with all the problems in Sierra Leone, the lack of infrastructure, the poverty, the corruption, how hard it is to just do the simplest thing – in spite of all this – you have this remote village that has the best school in the country. You should see the other schools. They are falling apart and have nothing organized, there is so much discouragement and hopelessness. But your project is not just running, it is beautiful, excellent, the people are happy and encouraged. They are all involved and working hard to make it successful. And of course, this is because of Memunatu. Her vision, her hard work and her sacrifice. You can be very proud of this work in Sierra Leone.”

Tamaraneh Society accomplishments 2007-2008:

  • completion of a functioning local water well
  • three major fundraisers
  • completion of school latrines
  • completion of primary school extension
  • completion of junior high school
  • completion of school furniture for both the extension and the new junior high school
  • approval of the primary school by the Sierra Leone Ministry of Education, resulting in teacher salaries being paid for primary teachers as of January 1, 2008.
  • securing friendly government/project relations and the promise of junior high school approval by the Ministry of Education of Sierra Leone: 4 government Ministers attended the reception for Memunatu at Romano Village in March. This resulted in subsequent meetings in Freetown where Memunatu was able to speak directly to government officials about our project and to ask for support of and approval of the junior high school. The ministers gave a very favorable report of the school and the project saying it is the best in the entire country. Both schools have been officially approved but the junior high school approval is conditional upon the successful national examination results of the grade 6 students.
  • payment of teacher, administrator and custodial salaries for primary school until January 2008 and for three months of salary for junior high teachers in 2008.
  • securing of 25,000.00 grant from the Wild Rose Foundation for international development. This is the second year we have been approved by the Wild Rose Foundation for international funding. Our last year’s grant was 20,000.00.
  • attraction of significant media attention to our project
  • launching of a Tamaraneh website, thank you to Steve Melnyk
  • creation of a project power point using photographs of all 1,100 students in both our schools, thank you to David Shkolny and Sullay Kanu
  • survey of all the land belonging to the project, the receipt of a deed of land and blueprints of the buildings

Additional accomplishments by Memunatu Kamara:

The Tamaraneh Society for Community Development and Support wishes to thank Memunatu Kamara for her vision, hard work and devotion to the people of Romano Village. We appreciate her efforts and recognize her extra work.

  • Initial construction of a community health centre
  • completion of local church reconstruction
  • personal contributions on an ongoing basis to complete projects the society did not have enough funds to provide
  • payment of all her own travel and living expenses in Sierra Leone with the exception of 2,000.00 from the Society towards rental of a vehicle while supervising the project
  • shipping of supplies and materials from Canada to Sierra Leone via ADRA, help from a local individual, and a Romano local church leader