Sierra Leone’s First Lady Opens Africell Newly Renovated School
The First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Madam Fatima Bio has on Tuesday 18 October officially opened the newly-renovated and furnished Saint Luke’s Catholic Junior Secondary By Africell Mobile Company, Sierra Leone at Wilberforce Barracks in Freetown.
Speaking on behalf of the Proprietor of the School, Dr. Joseph Kamanda, commended Africell for renovating and furnishing the school for the children of the school. He expressed big gratitude to the Almighty God as they saw signs of many loving dreams gradually becoming a reality amongst them.
He said establishing the Saint Luke’s Junior Secondary School, should remind all of them of the powerful vision of the highest missionaries, adding that those missionaries of great men and women saw education as a tool for the empowerment of an individual but also saw education as a tool for nation building.
From the Ministry of Basic Education, Jatu Natu, said there is no word or valuable thing worth enough to give a child other than educating the child and as well the school is a hub of education and Africell has made no mistake for renovating such a marvelous structure wherein child can be educated, present children and future children yet not conceived will educate.
The Ministry of Basic Education, she said whose holistic task is to make sure that education becomes part of its nation’s priority, stating that the Ministry is doing a tireless job make everyone the opportunity to education by going through the extent of providing teaching and learning materials today free tuition fees and examination fees for both government and government assistant schools throughout the entire country.
Director of Studies Armed Forces Technical Education Center, Colonel Richard. Bockarie underscored that the event was a “history day” and that they were witnessing a life-changing moment for their children who will continue the affairs of this after their generation. He intimated that they were witnessing the outcome of the diligent work of teachers and devoted staff, the parent, the ministry of education, and above all the state and he said it was therefore appreciative of those who have made it possible for them to witness the official opening ceremony.
In his statement, the Manager Director for Africell Sierra Leone, Shadi Geijawi, said Africell has over the years identified education as a key pillar of their CSR program which is why they approached them with such responses without holding back. He said as Africell they have invested not only in joint projects of this nature of learning institutions but they have also provided basic programming education to students from primary to university level by being the first to offer building classes in Sierra Leone.
Recently, he added they opened their learning center, an e-learning center that will be used as a resource center to train future leaders and he called on parents to send their children to school.
Given the keynote address, the First Lady reaffirmed that education is the only key to success and that education plays a very important role in the lives of everyone. She said with education a nation would press, noting that children are the future leaders of tomorrow.
“We are today to celebrate excellence; we are to celebrate the most important thing in the world which is education. Without education, I wouldn’t say that our lives would not be bright, and our direction would be misdirection. Without education, our children can be the richest in the world but somebody who is educated can be the one managing their resources” she said.
She reemphasized that without education “we will have leaders” that will make the wrong decision because they will have advisers that pretend they are educated and they would be advising them wrongly, maintaining that there is nothing in this world as important as the word education because education is the only thing that makes people equal and that education is the only thing makes the rich man child and poor man child equal and instances a poor man child will be more important than a rich man child.
