09 Mar Light Comes to Centennial School

Rev. Joe Abu, in addition to pastoring Mount Zion United African Church, a UB African congregation in Philadelphia, Pa., is also the official representative of the Sierra Leone Conference to UB churches in the US and Canada. Here, he writes about improvements made to Centennial Secondary School in Mattru, with help from Engineers Without Borders.

Joe Abu

In November 2011, a team from Engineers Without Border of Lehigh Valley left the United States for Mattru Jong in Sierra Leone, West Africa. The purpose was to work with the school community and the alumni association of Centennial Secondary School to install solar lighting in three classrooms and a portion of the administrative building.

Centennial Secondary School, a high school of over 1200 kids, has been in deplorable condition due to the civil war in Sierra Leone, and also due to age of the infrastructure. Engineers Without Borders is partnering with the school’s alumni association (Centennial Old Students Association–or CeOSA) and the school community to rebuild the school.

Here is a quick recap of the partnership activity:

The first trip was for a feasibility study. All partnership stakeholders met and agreed on the priorities of the project implementation.

On the second trip, as a school of numerous students without toilets, Engineers Without Borders worked with the partners on the ground to repair and upgrade the toilet buildings.

During the third trip, in November 2011, the team installed solar lighting in three classrooms, so students could study at night.

There was great joy as we flipped on the light at Centennial Secondary School after decades of darkness. Lots and lots of clapping, loud verbal acclamation, tears of joy, etc. Thanks to our donors, Engineers Without Borders, annual dues-paying CeOSA members,the United Brethren Church in Sierra Leone and America, and of course, the Centennial school staff, students, and community.

The main reason for installing the light was to enable the students to study at night. Bingo! During an unannounced visit after the rest of the team had returned to America, I found students and staff studying in all three classrooms and the breezeway.

During the EWB and partnership feasibility study, it was discovered that the school lacked equipment essential for education (like a chemistry lab and other labs). While one of the EWB team members came home and shared the need to her Keystone Quilters Guild, the 2011 CeOSA convention held in Silver Spring, Md., embarked on fundraising to provide sewing machines for the Home Economics lab. As a result, five sewing machines, boxes of sewing accessories, and a beautiful quilt were presented to the school.

High on the priority list of the students of the school, during the project feasibility study, was a set of marching band instruments. While some EWB personnel intended to do something about it, the people were challenged to seek help within the country. As a result, some magnificent marching band instruments were obtained.

Inspired by this result, the local people went all-out to refurbish one of the unused buildings into a nicely painted and furnished library with a tile floor.

As we thank donors and all participants in the Centennial project, the Church of the United Brethren in Christ in Sierra Leone deserves special gratitude. The venerable Bishop John Pessima and his leadership have been very supportive of the project. He comes to cheer the team and to promote the project each time we were in Sierra Leone.

The next Engineers Without Borders trip will occur in late April 2012. The goal this time is to drill a well to provide pure drinking water to the school. This is a very expensive goal, as the well has to be drilled through a massive layer of rock.