The idea for ‘Schools for Sierra Leone’ came in partnership between Street Child and Ballard School in the New Forest, England. Ballard’s Director of Estates saw an opportunity to reduce the waste of usable materials at the school and try to give them a second lease of life.

Textbooks, for example, are sometimes removed from the syllabus or new versions are published rendering the previous year’s resources surplus, thus resulting in large volumes of books needing to be recycled. Seeing these perfectly good resources going to waste drove the idea that they could be reused by others who do not have the same curriculum parameters.

As changes in curriculum are usually country wide, there would need to be an end user outside of the UK who would want the resources, who valued education, spoke English and had logistical means of receiving the items. A worldwide charity focusing on schools would be a perfect fit, and so the search began…

Street Child is an established charity with a long history of supporting countries and children requiring an uplift in educational resources. One of the countries where Street Child has a large, successful presence is Sierra Leone. Charity members are on the ground year-round supporting schools and communities who are hungry for educational support.

Conversations were had between Ballard and Street Child and the ‘Schools for Sierra Leone’ campaign was born. A plan was devised to consolidate items at Ballard School into a shipping container, raise funds for transportation and then ship the container to Sierra Leone for Street Child to distribute to schools. Ballard School alone would not have enough resources to fill a shipping container, so other schools were approached, and the idea was met with resounding support. UK school participation is growing, and applicants are welcomed by Ballard to get in touch and come on board.

With more schools joining the ‘Schools for Sierra Leone’ campaign, funding can be spread and the quantity of items to be shipped will increase, which is a positive for all involved. Funding is required to purchase and ship the container to Sierra Leone so please use this JustGiving page when donating. As more schools hear about the ‘Schools for Sierra Leone’ campaign, Ballard and Street Child hope to be able to increase the size or frequency of shipping containers to meet the demand.

Having started with just books, Ballard understands there is also an appetite for other educational items, for example, games, PE equipment, educational furniture, water bottles and stationery are also gratefully received. The in-country Street Child charity representatives will be able to assess what items are most useful so that future resources for shipping can be tweaked as the demand changes.

The hope is that the relationship between UK and Sierra Leone schools will become personal. Ballard will also decorate the container and place personalised messages to the children who will be receiving the items. Long distance friendships and inter-school competitions may be struck up and multi-cultural activities could be co-ordinated between UK and Sierra Leone schools.

Schools that are already taking part:

Ballard School, New Milton    

Dean Close Foundation, Cheltenham

St Mary's Calne and St Mary's Prep, Calne

Plymouth College, Plymouth

Sherborne School, Sherbourne

Sherbourne Girls, Sherbourne

Sandroyd School, Salisbury

Twyford School, Winchester

St Neot's Preparatory School, Reading

The future is bright for all involved in the ‘Schools for Sierra Leone’ campaign and the hope is to expand this initiative in time and for Street Child to expand their reach to more schools in need. Ballard and Street Child are excited to see where the ‘Schools for Sierra Leone’ campaign will leads, and all eyes are on the first container being shipped in late summer 2025.