By Foday Moriba Conteh
As part of their mission to provide sustainable education and care to underprivileged children through the power of sport in the country, We Yone Child Foundation, with support from The SOL Foundation, on Thursday 17th December, 2020, crowned We Yone Primary School, Kroo Bay, 2020 champions in their just concluded inter-primary school Football competition.
The programme formed part of their Sport for Social Change Project, where six schools participated in their inter-primary school Football, Boxing and Martial Arts competition. This was organized within the Kroo Bay and George Brook Communities in Freetown.
It could be recalled that We Yone Child Foundation, with support from The SOL Foundation on Friday 8th February, 2020, launched a two year Sport for Social Change Project for schools in Kroo Bay and George Brook communities. During which school items and sport kits worth millions of Leones were donated to school-going pupils in six primary schools within the Kroo Bay and George Brook communities.
Speaking to this medium, Founder/Executive Director of We Yone Child Foundation, Santigie Bayo Dumbuya, expressed profound appreciation to The SOL Foundation for supporting the project, adding that the Foundation is using the power of sport on their mission to provide sustainable education and care to underprivileged children in Kroo Bay and George Brook Communities in Sierra Leone. The project, he said, is a sport based programme that uses Football, Boxing and Martial Arts, which in an upgraded version, to benefit children in these communities.
He noted that this project is designed to benefit 1,900 direct beneficiaries, aged 8-18 years, 50% girls and 50% boys, who are at risk of dropping out of school and prone to teenage pregnancy/rape within the two slum communities of Kroo Bay and George Brook. He added that as part of the project beneficiaries, 100 teenage girls will be trained in Boxing and Martial Art skills, which, he said, is on-going as a self-defense strategy against sexual abuse.
Giving a brief background about the Foundation, he said We Yone Child Foundation was founded in 2009 and since then they have been impacting the lives of young people in Sierra Leone, underscoring how they have welcomed new staff and volunteers, introduced new social development programs, trained teachers and other staff, created a plan to guide their projects and nourished long-lasting partnerships.
He revealed that the said project, Sport for Social Change, will use Football, Boxing and Martials Arts to spread key messages concerning sex education and child protection within these communities, as they have already been doing since they commenced the project.
He noted that six schools participated in the Football, Boxing and Martials Acts competition, namely: Way of Truth Primary School, City Mission Methodist Primary School, We Yone Primary School George Brook, Kroo Bay Orthodox Primary School, and We Yone Primary School Kroo Bay, of which We Yone Primary School Kroo Bay (both boys and girls) emerged as winners in the said competition.
A teacher, who also doubles as the coach for the We Yone Primary School George Brook Team, Mary Davies, expressed her deepest appreciation to the two organizations for launching the two year Sport for Social Change Project for schools in Kroo Bay and George Brook communities, adding that such a gesture is really helping them and their children.
She assured the organizations of their commitment as teachers to ensure that they monitor their children, and promised that they will make good use of this available opportunity.
She called on other humanitarian organizations to support We Yone Foundation, as many other children in slum communities are really challenged in terms of accessing school items and sport kits.
Ibrahim Kamara, a pupil of the We Yone Foundation primary school, who was also a beneficiary, applauded the Foundation and The SOL Foundation for staging the Football, Boxing and Martial Art Competition, adding that such a gesture is really helping them as children.
He urged other beneficiaries to take their studies serious and make good use of the opportunity in order to enhance their development as children.
The event was climaxed by the distribution of trophies and certificates to deserving participants.
