Today was incredibly productive, although it was hotter and more humid than any of us are acclimated to—hydration is a must! Our day began early this morning with a follow-up trip to the site of the Jordan Community Library, where we symbolically broke ground on a new Seven Hills - Zion Ministries School for grades 9-12. Once completed, it will be one of the most modern schools in BO and serve young adults currently housed in our much larger school a few hundred yards down the dirt road. The groundbreaking was accomplished by our entire team, which took turns swinging a pick and breaking the hard ground, along with other community leaders. We hope that a year from today, when we return to West Africa with a new team of Seven Hills staff and Clark University students, this school will be completed and filled with high school students from BO studying Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Algebra, and more.
Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries on earth, yet children starve for an education, knowing that the only way out of abject poverty is through their education. The photos I’ve here show our groundbreaking ceremony - but what’s not shown are the many children on the other side of the camera who witnessed “Hope” in action. For them - this school represents more than just a building - it means a promise of a future that their parents and grandparents could never have imagined.
After our groundbreaking ceremony, we spent several hours with the children attending our BO School—over 400 of them yelling and dancing with delight. Ashish and Sarita were surrounded by the children who wanted to hold their hands and touch the long, dark hair of these “Westerners.” Sheer and utter joy and pandemonium ensued for hours as Sarita, Ashish, and Barbara - along with Pastor Sam Kariuki from Kenya and Rev Barbara Asempa from Ghana met the children in their classrooms.
Our very special guest over the past 2 days has been Mr. Willie Kamara from Garland, Texas. Willie represents an organization called Running-4-Clean Water (R4CW), which, for the last decade, has been a key partner to SHGO in raising funds for our work in Sierra Leone. They have paid for several clean water wells we’ve dug and village latrines supporting 26 remote bush villages. They’ve also been instrumental in helping us purchase solar pole lights, which we are installing in each village, contributing to an emergency food fund that offers rice to starving families, contributing to the construction of the community library, and countless other initiatives that serve to sustain and uplift the very poor in the 26 villages we serve. Thank you for coming to Sierra Leone, Willie, and seeing firsthand the work we have undertaken in Sierra Leone since 2010!
Tonight, before sunset, we drove our jeeps over very rough dirt roads to our SHGO- ZION Ministries “Bandawa” campus. When I first arrived in rural Sierra Leone in 2010 with Seven Hills staff from this country and several Clark University students, it was clear that the mothers and children in the deep bush wanted and needed three things: clean water to drink - medical care so the mothers could safely deliver their babies - and a school so that their children would be offered the gift of literacy. Throughout our time in Sierra Leone, we’ve done just that by building schools, clinics, clean water wells, and sanitation latrines, which today support nearly 20,000 individuals. It is quite impressive to see how our “mustard seed” of an idea has blossomed into an organization that supports impoverished mothers and children in 8 developing areas of the world, financially supported by donations from incredibly generous and deeply empathetic individuals or dedicated community organizations like Running-4-Clean Water. They make our work here in BO and elsewhere possible.
Tomorrow is our last full day in West Africa, after which we begin our long journey home to Central Massachusetts. Please continue to follow us tomorrow as we recollect the significant moments of our 10 days in Ghana and Sierra Leone. Good night for now.
Dr. David A. Jordan
President Emeritus
Seven Hills Foundation & Affiliates (1995-2023)
Dean of the Clark University School of Business
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