Early this year, the organization was able to have donated library materials from Abax Kingfisher Pty Ltd, a company based in Australia, library shelving and furnishing worth over $250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand dollars). The materials arrived in Sierra Leone on March 19, 2018 and since then they have been stocked at the Queen Elizabeth II as a result of the transition from the past regime to the current Bio Administration, which prioritizes free education for primary and secondary school pupils. The materials, which are mainly for the Sierra Leone Library Board and Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), have gotten the blessing of government, which has promised to help with a duty waiver.
“However, because of the elections and the transition of the new government, the demurrage is closer to Le100, 000,000 (one hundred million Leones) which we don’t have considering the materials are going to be donated for free to the above institutions,” Kallon remarked.
“Our dream is to establish libraries in each and every corner of Sierra Leone including schools and community libraries. We are in contact with the government which has promised to help with duty waiver and permits,” he said.
Report states that Madiba Project Incorporated has also succeeded two weeks ago finished loading another container of educational materials like computers, classroom chairs and tables to be shipped to Sierra Leone. This can be done speedily after the current containers are cleared at the Quay, Officials say.
The Madiba Project is a non-profit making and charity organisation established in Australia to help relieve poverty and distress in underprivileged communities in Sierra Leone.
It has several key projects in development and currently running in Western Sydney based high schools for onward distribution of educational materials to schools in Sierra Leone. The project fosters relationship between vulnerable students in Sierra Leone with students in Australia whereby they organise and collect used educational materials from schools in NSW to support the underprivileged children in Sierra Leone.
“We have engaged with over 70 Australian Primary and High Schools through the project,” Kallon revealed. In 2016, a 40ft container left the shores of Australia with educational materials for Sierra Leone. Kallon with other members of the Madiba Project travelled to Sierra Leone in December 2016 to oversee the distribution of the materials to schools across the country.
He assured that his organization is more than willing to ship more containers to Sierra Leone to boost the country’s free education project.
