
Catholic Women Speak is crowdfunding
Weʼre raising £4,800 to send £400 each month to the Byseee school project in Sierra Leone, providing a holistic education for girls and support for poor families.
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Catholic Women Speak (CWS) is raising funds to support Byseee Preparatory School for Girls and Day Care Centre in Freetown, Sierra Leone. We are committed to sending £400 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.
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. We are grateful to Chantal Götz, Director of the Fidel Götz Foundation, for agreeing to underwrite this project.

To find out more about Catholic Women Speak, please visit our website. You can read more about the Bysee school project at this link .
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Updates
8
14 days ago
Catholic Women Speak
14 days agoThank you to all who have once again given to our Byseee School and Community Project fund. We have sent £400 as our donation for May. Please continue to support this if you can afford to do so. Every contribution is gratefully received and acknowledged.
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2 months ago
Catholic Women Speak
2 months agoYema Jusufu sent these short videos of the Byseee community celebrating on a field trip and picnic. It's time to send our monthly donation of £400 to enable the work of the school and to support the weekly feeding scheme which provides the children with lunches. The children often arrive at school hungry, so we agreed with Yema that we would increase our monthly contribution from £300 to £400 to cover the cost of food and cooking equipment. Thank you to all who continue to support this project. It wouldn't be possible without each of you.
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3 months ago
Catholic Women Speak
3 months agoWe have sent £400 to the Byseee project for our February contribution. Here is a photo sent by Yema Jusufu of the nursery children enjoying their outdoor activities. Thank you to all of you who through your generosity make it possible for us to sustain this commitment. The increase from £300 to £400 monthly makes the task of fundraising more challenging, but it allows us to provide two lunches a week to the children who come from poor families and so often arrive at school hungry, in addition to the support we provide for ongoing expenses.
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Catholic Women Speak started crowdfunding
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Supporters
46
Anonymous
May 4, 2022
£20.00
Rachel Caseby
May 2, 2022
Wishing everyone at school a very happy Summer Term x
£25.00
Katie Humphrey
May 1, 2022
A small contribution along with prayers for all of the wonderful work you do x
£10.00
Ann Smith and Maureen Treacy
May 1, 2022
Delighted to be able to support this project
£20.00
Mary Kennan
May 1, 2022
£20.00
Anonymous
Apr 27, 2022
Hope you and the children are well!
£100.00
Ann Smith and Maureen Treacy
Apr 1, 2022
Delighted to be able to support this project
£20.00

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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 nonprofit.
The page owner is responsible for the distribution of funds raised.
About the fundraiser

Catholic Women Speak
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.