Our Founder on Building K2G

Why did you decide to build a school in Kailahun?

I was born in Kailahun and spent my early years there before my parents moved us to the United Kingdom. When I got older, my parents took us back every year to see family and friends. During that time, I never realised the lack of facilities for children to play and have fun until I took my own children there in December 2022. I did a bit of research and the local community confirmed that there was a lack of open, free spaces for children to play. This led to me having the idea to create a multipurpose building that can be used for playing and learning in the community.

How did you fund this project?

At the start, it was all self-funded as I was only planning to do a small park. My parents gifted the land, which saved me a lot of time and money. As we began building in January 2023, we had another idea of making it into a school. By May, I had spent just over £30,000 on equipment, building materials and labour to clear the land, build the school and cover material shipping costs. That's when I decided to set up a Go Fund Me page to raise more money to complete the project.

Did you have any challenges along the way?

There were a few challenges, but the main one was keeping within the budget. My project team had so many good ideas and really wanted to build a high quality school with all the latest gadgets for the children. However, we had to stick to the plan and do what we could to complete it on time.

How did you build a school in Kailahun whilst living in London?

Well, since Covid I've learnt how to work remotely lol! Luckily for me my parents live in Kailahun so they were my proejct managers. They worked tirelessly with the builders for 6 months to build the school. We spent hours on the phone via calls, messages and video calls to bring my ideas to life. I went to see the site in June and was there helping for about a month. They whole team did a great job!

So what was your role in the project?

I worked on the the project plan, promotion and fundraising. I spent a lot of time buying equipment and shipping them to Sierra Leone. This was very time consuming as I'd have to find things we needed such as toilets, paint, the park quipment, books and toys for the school, order them and deliver them to the shipping warehouse. I'd handle all the invoice payments and make sure we were keeping to budget.

What are you plans for the school?

Due to the high demand of parents wanting their children to attend the shool, I'm raising funds to build two additional classrooms to accommodate more children.