Fawe Secondary School, Waterloo Group

Last academic year, the school sent thirty-three candidates for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (NPSE) and twenty-six candidates passed with flying colors. This was a very good result by national standards. FAWE, a donor-supported school, is the only school in Waterloo small-town that teaches basic computer skills to its pupils. However, to assist other schools, FAWE allows pupils from other schools to take computer lessons in their school.

Teachers and other professional workers come to SMT to seek loans for different reasons. For some, since salaries are usually very small, they are prompted to engage themselves in businesses to supplement their meager salaries. Others, however, can not directly do business themselves; rather, they will invest whatever little they have into their wives’ businesses. Some seek a loan in order to pursue further studies or to pay school fees for their children. And others want a loan in order to buy pieces of furniture like chairs or a bed. Some want to either start building a house or continue with a house-building project they have already begun. It is for some of these reasons that teachers from FAWE have come to SMT to seek a loan.

Aminata Victoria Lamin (first row, second from right) is the acting principal of the school. She has been in the teaching profession for thirty-three years. She was born in Songo, about eight miles from Waterloo. She is fifty-five, a widow with five children. Two of her children are grown-ups, one is in his second year in Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, the next is in Port Loko Teacher’s Training College and the last is in secondary school. With this loan, Mrs. Lamin will pay for her two children in college. This will make her a happy woman as she was having sleepless nights wondering where to get the money to pay her children's fees.

Note: SMT has just opened a new branch in Waterloo and teachers of FAWE are the first individuals to collect a loan from this branch. Waterloo is twenty miles (32 km) from Freetown.




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