Over the past several days, we were traveling from Accra, Ghana, to Freetown, Sierra Leone. Once we arrived and stayed the night in Freetown, we drove 3 1/2 hours yesterday (Tuesday, Jan 8) to the south-central city of BO, where SHGO and our staff from Seven Hills, and my students from Clark University have been working since 2009. BO is where we have—with our partner Zion Ministries—a 4-acre campus with a medical clinic, birthing center, dentistry, a school for grades 1-6, and a multi-denominational church. By the way, after we constructed the church 7-8 years ago, my wife, Dr. Kathee Jordan, and I renewed our wedding vows in front of over a thousand villagers, many of whom walked miles to arrive. But that’s another story for another day.
Today started early and ended late into the evening. I continue to be amazed at our team's resiliency, good humor, and dedication this year has shown. Sarita, Ashish, and Barbara—our Clark School of Business graduate students— along with Pastors Samuel Kariuki from Kenya and Rev Barbara Asempa from Ghana, have all been remarkable in pushing through their exhaustion and sore muscles from trekking through the bush from village to village today. The temperature hovered around 90 degrees with 80 % humidity, and it took its toll after many hours. Yet, the team was determined to visit several remote villages and see the depth of material poverty here. At the same time, however, they were able to witness the deep love freely extended to us by children and adults alike (many of whom have never seen someone from the West) in each of the villages we walked through. Our journey included a trek by jeep as far as it could go, then a motorbike, and finally hiking until we reached the village of Kaogabu. This village is where, in January 2024, we dedicated the latest of our SHGO primary schools, serving 6 of the most remote villages we serve.
This is the first school EVER to support children in this remote part of Sierra Leone, and the 55 students who are now enrolled in grades 1-3 are the first group of children to receive a school education—EVER. It was a miracle to ask the children simple arithmetic questions and have them proudly scream out the correct answers. Education for the children who live in the deep jungle is their only way out of poverty, so seeing children so eager to learn was beyond description. After Kaogabu, we walked several miles into the bush area on narrow, decades-old paths cut through the jungle. At our next village, we met with the local chief to discuss their dire need for clean water, given that the nearest stream is 3 miles away and the stream water is filled with animal and human fecal waste, causing a variety of diarrheal and other diseases. Since 2010 we’ve installed hand dug clean water wells in 25 of the 26 villages we serve. Sarita learned how to grind rice in a century-old wooden pestle while the rest of our team talked with local villagers about their needs in the village. Arriving back at our guest house after a long day, we were ecstatic to see that we had electricity today and could wash ourselves.
Tonight, we traveled to the center of the City of BO to view the Drs. David & Kathee Jordan Community Library, with its 20,000 books, is one of the largest collections in the nation. We built this library through donations made to SHGO in 2022, and it continues to serve the local community's needs.
Tomorrow, we return to the Jordan Library to formally break ground on a new senior school for grades 9-12 that SHGO is building on land adjoining the library. By April, we hope the new senior school will be ready, allowing another 100 primary school children in grades 1-3 to backfill the older students who will be relocating from our BO city school.
Over the past 15 years through our SHGO work, we’ve impacted the lives of thousands of children and their families through the continued efforts of Seven Hills staff and Clark students who leave the comfort of their homes and friends in Central MA to come to those communities around the world in which we join with indigenous people to establish clean water systems, schools, and medical clinics for the benefit of those in desperate need. Continue to follow our work tomorrow as we return to our SHGO - Zion Ministries School in BO to meet with over 400 children!
Thank you for following our work. I hope you will consider joining me next year on our January 2026 SHGO visit to Sierra Leone and Bangladesh. Until tomorrow …
Dr. David A Jordan
President Emeritus, Seven Hills Foundation, 1995-2023 &
Dean of the Clark University School of Business
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