We did it!
Tina Beattie raised £9,728.21 from 194 supporters
or
Start your own crowdfunding page
Closed 31/03/2024
Iʼve raised £9,728 to send £300 each month to the Byseee school project in Sierra Leone, providing a holistic education for girls and support for poor families.
- Camber, Rye
- Funded on Sunday, 31st March 2024
Don't have time to donate right now?
Story
Catholic Women Speak (CWS) is raising funds to support Byseee Preparatory School for Girls and Day Care Centre in Freetown, Sierra Leone. We currently send £300 per month, which allows the school to run a feeding scheme as well as providing regular support for teachers' salaries, school uniforms and supplies and maintenance. Our funds have helped to dig a well which is providing fresh water for the school and the local community. The feeding scheme is our latest project, providing regular meals for under-nourished children, who often arrive at school hungry. We'd very much like to increase our monthly contribution to £400 which would allow them to offer the children two meals a week.
The school, which comes under the auspices of St Peter the Rock Parish in Calaba town in Freetown, is run by Yema (Gertrude) Jusufu and her sister Edita Fofana, who are both members of CWS. When asked to explain the puzzling spelling of the name "Byseee", Yema wrote that their late mother was asked to start a girls' school by parents in the community. She had six children - three girls and three boys - and she used the initials of each of her children to name the school:
Bernadette - Yema - Sydney - Edward - Elis - Edita = Byseee
Byseee school offers a wide range of educational and care facilities to women and children, particularly orphans, girls from broken homes, and single mothers. It follows the formal school curriculum but extends this to develop the children holistically and spiritually. The aim is to help them to recover a sense of personal dignity and self-esteem after the traumas of war and amidst the ongoing challenges of poverty, violence and abuse.
The holistic education and support offered by Byseee School, which is rooted in the Catholic tradition but informed by the particular challenges of gender-based inequality and violence against women and girls, expresses the ideals and visions of our global Catholic Women Speak network. While we are not a fund-raising or charitable enterprise, we seek to express our commitment to the promotion of the full human dignity of women and girls by offering practical support to Yema and Edita.
Thanks to a generous donation from Ursuline High School in Wimbledon, London, we have recently been able to provide computers to the school so that the older girls can gain essential IT skills before going on to high school.
Here is a short video we made of the children, staff and parents in the school: Byseee School and Community Project
Updates
25
- 6 months ago
Tina Beattie
6 months agoThank you to all CWS members and friends who continue to support the Byseee Project. The time limit on our current JustGiving page has expired, so I've started a new page where you can continue to donate on a one-off basis or on a regular monthly basis. Our new page is at this link: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/byseee?utm_term=wr2ENegvW. Your generosity and faithful giving enable us to continue to send £300 every month, and please remember that everything you give goes to Byseee. There are no deductions for overheads.
Share this update to help us raise more
- 1 year ago
Tina Beattie
1 year agoThank you to all who continue to support this project. Your donations ensure that we can meet our commitment to send £300 every month to provide lunches for the children, as well as helping with salaries, supplies and maintenance for the school and daycare centre. All funds received are sent to Yema through Western Union, with no deductions for overheads. Yema sends regular photos and news. Here is the latest update for October 2023.
Share this update to help us raise more
- 1 year ago
Tina Beattie
1 year agoHere is the latest news from the Byseee School and Community Project. Please keep in your thoughts and prayers the family of little Fuwad Kanneh, one of the kindergarten children who sadly died in early August. Please also remember Yema Jusufu, who has been in poor health recently and who carries a heavy load of responsibility for the school and the local community. Thank you to all who so loyally continue to support the project. Every donation counts, and we are making a real difference to children's lives.
Share this update to help us raise more
Tina Beattie started crowdfunding
Leave a message of support
Supporters
194
Jacqui Stewart
Mar 3, 2024
Thank you for what you do!
Rachel Caseby
Mar 1, 2024
£20.00
Ann and Maureen
Mar 1, 2024
Glad to be able to contribute to this important initiative
£20.00
Mary Kennan
Mar 1, 2024
Great work Tina
£25.00
Mary Hanrahan
Mar 1, 2024
£20.00
Anonymous
Feb 29, 2024
Think of you often! Love, Celia
£120.00
Alison Concannon Kennedy
Feb 5, 2024
£20.00
What is crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is a new type of fundraising where you can raise funds for your own personal cause, even if you're not a registered charity.
The page owner is responsible for the distribution of funds raised.
Great people make things happen
Do you know anyone in need or maybe want to help a local community cause?
Create you own page and donʼt let that cause go unfunded!
About CrowdfundingAbout the fundraiser
Tina Beattie
Camber, Rye
CWS is an international forum of Catholic women committed to awareness-raising, theological education, solidarity and dialogue to promote the dignity and equality of women and girls in society and the Church. We support the Byseee school and community project in Sierra Leone.