Sda Primary School, Makeni Group

Presently, SDA Makeni suffers a number of constrains. First, they lack a water-well. The tap-head of the well they used to have has been stolen, forcing the children to fetch drinking water from the neighborhood. Second, SDA suffers from lack of sufficient benches and classrooms. They used to have sufficient benches, but rebels used all of those benches as firewood. Then Plan Sierra Leone (an NGO) provided them with new ones, only for people around the neighborhood to steal all of them again. Thus the children have to carry their own benches from home every day to school.

However, with the change of administration three months ago, SDA Primary school is revitalizing, thanks to the new headmaster, Mr. Benjamin Kamara (not part of this loan). The new administration is able to buy benches for classes five and six through school fees subsidies and development funds. The school has also been able to hire two security guards to keep thieves at bay. And for the first time in the history of the school, they will be organizing athletics for the pupils. This will give popularity and fame to the school.

With this loan, some of these teachers will start a small business and those who are already running small businesses will invest the loan into their business. Some of the staff members will be using the loan to buy pieces of furniture, others to pay either for their children in their education or pay for themselves to pursue further studies. Others will use their loan in home building projects.

Abdul K. Kargbo (back row, second from right) is the leader of this group of teachers. Abdul was born in Mamamah, about 110 miles from Makeni. He is age forty-eight, married to a teacher and the two of them have two children. One of their children is in class four and the other is in class two. Abdul will invest his loan in business and he has been in business for over four years now.





About Group Loans
In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a group of individuals bound by a group guarantee. Under this arrangement, each member of the group supports one another and is responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members if someone is delinquent or defaults. Learn more