^{Dear All,}

^{Thankyou for your support  and donations for my project in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Five months of raising funds also meant raising awareness for this trip to take place. Many people have supported my trip with generous donations and kind words and also pens and pencils – the vital tools. I have had letters from HRH Princess Anne and RH Gordon Brown – Prime minister. An ever growing amount currently at £6334 has funded our whole trip and there is enough left over to ship extra equipment to the schools in both countries. I couldn’t have carried this project through without the love, support and encouragement from my wife Karanjit.}

^{To put your donations into perspective , one person works a whole day in a diamond mine or in a rice field often walking 30 to 40 kilometres to get there and only earning $1 for the day.}

^{I travelled to Sierra Leone and then to Liberia on the eastern edge of Africa for a two week period from the 5th to the17th of November accompanied by one person from Save the Children, an artist friend from Portsmouth University and a friend who very kindly came to film the trip in view of producing a documentary about the project.}

^{The trip was a personal mission, challenging me physically and emotionally and there was nothing that could have prepared me for it. The journey was more difficult than any, taking us from London to Freetown, Freetown on a fifteen hour drive to Kailahun in the heart of the north-east of Sierra Leone where the civil war hit the hardest and then south and across the border into Liberia and the capital Monrovia.}

^{The projects in Sierra Leone and Liberia gave the children the opportunity to include themselves in the voice of the country to express what peace meant to them and how they would like to see their happy future. Through drawing exercises with pen, ink, mud and several techniques in print making we concluded with remarkably strong imagery that illustrated very deep and disturbing realities. I constructed large murals that we named peace villages collaging together the ideals and stories constructed through each week.}

^{Each day we travelled through the mud roads to and back from the workshop. The children seemed clearly traumatised by abuse, exploitation, poverty and the remembrance of war. They were very distant to begin with but we saw remarkable change in their personalities through drawing and conversation, though I think that often a hand on the shoulder and some love and support made all the difference. We encouraged this in games and activities during the day.  Through the drawings and story telling the trauma became obvious and at times we had to be careful in exercising our right to question. After four days with the same children I found several bonds a friendships made that have made my return to my everyday world so much more difficult.}

^{At Foster + Partners, we collected and recycled over a thousand pens and pencils that I carried to both countries and gave to children in three of the schools that I visited. When I first put my hand in the bag and pulled out five pens the headteacher of the first school gasped in appreciation and then I explained that the whole bag of two to three hundred pens was for him. It was like giving out free ipods in Trafalgar Square! We will continue this initiative and send pens and pencils by DHL directly to the schools every few months.}

^{The schools from where the children came from and the distance that they walked each day to get there alone demonstrated the desire for schooling and a proper education. The schools differed from one extreme to another and posed beauty as well as problems that echoed through each school. The mud wall and thatched roof construction of one is reminiscent of open plan schools and academies that we have designed ourselves in the UK such as Bexley City Academy and had humble rustic beauty. At the same time this school does not have any latrines, running water, books or desks. The conditions here are leading not only to poor educational standards but endangering lives of many young individuals in a time where the country is starving for hope after the war. This school couldn’t be used for six months of the year due to the rain in the wet season flodding it in one to two feet of water. The newer constructions further afar are constructed of concrete, block work and tin roofs. Here the classrooms are hot, dim and wear a prison like appearance that internally harbour abuse and exploitation. Over 90% of the children will have been abused in many ways by family members, guardians or teachers.}

^{It is here that I realised that a project could be realised to construct a new school that could challenge and solve these problems through the architecture of making the building a better place to study, a retreat from the harsh climate and a haven from the trauma that accompanies the difficult lives of the children.}

^{On returning to London I could not wait to share my experience with Lord and Lady Foster and whilst sharing this through photographs, it became apparent to us that the strength of one building in Kailahun, we could influence policy change and guidelines for school building throughout the whole of Sierra Leone and Liberia creating a better education and future for the next generation after the war and paradoxically saving many lives. Like many of the projects that we have worked on together, in this instance more than ever before there has never been a substitute for visiting and experiencing a place in which architecture can better the lives of people.}

^{Through our connections with Save the Children and Architects for Aid, we will pursue the realisation of this school project.}

^{I have so much more to tell you and so I will be giving a series of talks in the new year to present more of the childrens work, more of my photographs and stories, and ideas that Norman and I have had for the new school in Sierra Leone.}

^{Please keep donating.}

^{Best Wishes}

^{Narinder Sagoo}