Why We Need A Preschool in Blama

Fr. Fatorma Augustine Combey, Parish Priest Holy Rosary Parish, Blama 

Blama is located in Small Bo Chiefdom in the Kenema district, in the eastern province of Sierra Leone, West Africa. The name ‘Blama’ implies a road junction or a place where people separate to other parts of the country. Today, Blama is a cosmopolitan town located in the Bo-Kenema High way with an average population of over 6,500. Apart from the teachers, police and agriculture officials, the majority of adult are subsistence farmers and business people.  Most of the women in Blama who are bread winners of their families are involved in petty trading. The youth population is high in this town. Hence Blama is a school community.

There are two secondary schools and ten primary schools but only one recognised pre-school which was established in Blama by the Catholic Mission after the civil war in 2002. This pre-school (Holy Rosary Pre-school) has attracted many women who are bread winners and at the same time need a day care center for their children while they are away in their farms or doing petting trading.

Our major problem in running a pre-school in Blama has been the absence of an adequate space and conducive environment for preschool education. Every year, the headmistress of the school is compelled to turn down so many children from attending our pre-school because of lack of space and to avoid overcrowding in the two class room we are using at moment. Faith had worked in Blama as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1973- 1975. After the war, during one her of her visits in 2008, this problem was shared with her.

So since 2010, we have been working together with Faith to raise funds internally and externally for a preschool structure for 200 children, with accommodations for the Headmistress.

Formerly, pre-school education was only limited to Freetown as private institutions for well to do parents who can afford to provide such education for their children. It was the Catholic mission who took the initiatives to introduce preschool education in Catholic schools all over the country. Today, pre-schools are established in parishes all over the country.

Preschool education has become the foundation for the primary school education. Children who have a pre-school education aquire the base for reading, the alphabet and usually are able to read and write to some degree. They have the ability to memorise, articulate clearly and distinctly, many the English words.

Pre-school education also exposes children to learn how to live outside their homes and see the world in reality. They are more easily able to work and get along with their fellow children as well as their elders in the same environment.

Nowadays, preschool education has become part of the education curriculum for school educations. It is now mandated by the government to establish pre-schools as the base for primary school education in Sierra Leone.

As a Parish community, we have started working toward this direction with Blama Preschool Project.  But we need your support to help us complete and furnish a standard pre-school for Blama Community. $10’s contribution from you will help us to complete our pre-school project, a suitable learning environment for 200 children who are desperately in need of  a structure to learn how to read and write. Thanks in advance for your generosity.

Fr.F.A.Combey,

Parish Priest-Holy Rosary Parish, Blama.

Email:combey532@hotmail.com

Tel-076-977-304