Peninsula Education Programme

 Get in touch with PEP (Registered UK Charity NUMBER: 1186007)

 for information about upcoming events  and find out about PEP's work and ways you can get involved: peninsulaeducationprogramme@gmail.com

EVERY DONATION TO THE PENINSULA EDUCATION PROGRAMME IS A VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION

Please DONATE to PEP:

Peninsula Education Programme

Sort Code: 20-31-52

Account Number: 0321 3218

SWIFTBIC: BUKBGB22

IBAN: GB56 BUKB 2031 5203 2132 18

PEP fundraises and relies on donations to do its work.

Your donation to PEP will pay for:

·      Education materials for students

·      Salaries for the PEP facilitators

·      Building maintenance

PEP is grateful to all its donors. Thank you for your support.

 The oil painting (above) of the Sierra Leonean Peninsula by Matthew Pearlberg was gifted to PEP by the artist and raised £550 at an auction in 2022.  

 This is an interview with the founder of PEP, Catherine Okrafo-Smart, and a journalist from the Sierra Leone Broadcasting  Cooperation (SLBC). The interview took place in Freetown in 2022 and is done in Krio. 

A translation and Transcript is provided below:

Interviewer: Yes, Ma’. Please tell people who you are.

Catherine: Catherine Okrafo-Smart.

Interviewer: And where are you from?

Catherine: London, England.

Interview: So, what do you want to say to people?

Catherine: What I would like to say is that we are all one.

I also want to say that I have built the school here to help encourage people who have never had any opportunity to go to school.

Perhaps, they started Primary school, but then they dropped out or finished maybe 20 years ago and they don't know how to read or write. They don't know anything about technology either.

So (At the Peninsula Education Programme) they don't have to pay any fees. Because, with the life that I have left, I want to work for these people, that they will learn how to read and write.

In that way, they in turn will be able to reach their own full potential in life. There will be some equality, some equity in their life as one Sierra Leone.

Interviewer: Where did you get the idea to open a school for people who could not read and write from?

Catherine: That has always been my vision.

If you take 100 Sierra Leoneans, and you ask them why is this resource-rich country so poor, all 100, each one will say something different and provide a unique reason why.

My own number one reason is, I believe that we have a very high illiteracy-rate.

So, I feel it is vital to correct this imbalance. I understand that I cannot do everything. But there is a saying that goes. “Small, small: Out of the smallest mustard seed, is where you get the giant mustard tree.”

So, I feel, with the life that I have left, if I am able to educate 10 or even 20 people even, who weren't able to read and write, so that they can pick up a newspaper and read an article…!

My mother used to say, “Understand the sense and meaning, and not just the words…”

I hope that the learners, will be able to make sense of what they are reading. And understand it. So that they will be able to reflect and gather meaning from the words that they are reading: Whatever they're reading, be it an article or a book.

 I hope that they will be able to make up their mind about what they read; think about it and

come to a sensible conclusion. If I can do that in my life-time. Then I say: let God's will be done.

Interviewer: OK, Ma’. Since you have plans to open this school… Where will the school’s location be? Some people might wonder whether the school has been opened with donors’ money and that is what you are using to build it with? Also will the learners need to pay fees? And when will the school be launched?

Catherine: OK, I hope, and I'm going to answer your last question first, I am hoping that the Minister of Education. Dr Sengeh, who has already agreed that he will open the school, will do the launch of PEP on the 29th of November 2022.

People who are interested are invited to attend from 3:30pm. The address of the school is 35H. Grassfields, Babadorie, Lumley, Freetown.

None of the Learners, and so far, there are 75… 76 Learners, adult learners. They are not required to pay any fees.

The reason being (for the learners receiving the education programme for free), I was thinking, It is not easy to attract and encourage potential learners, who might have a market stall, that they run day to day to try to make their living… how much would I charge them to come to learn?

I could charge them 20,000 Leones, or 10, 000 Leones or 50, 000 Leones, it is irrelevant.

Me, I am retired, full retirement age in England. So I have decided now in my retirement as God has given me the health and the strength… I don't work full-time, but I am working in order to keep this school running, so that we can pay the facilitators (teachers) their salaries and we also have a coordinator that needs to be paid.

I built the school: I had a piece of land that I bought when I returned to Sierra Leone after studying in England in 1976. There was nothing on the land, so I decided to build: It is a small building with two classrooms, two toilets and two shower rooms.

So there's the possibility for the market women for example, after they have finished work and sold their market, to learn at the Peninsula Education Programme for 90 minutes, (one and a half hours) maybe two hours… they will have facilitators ready to encourage them to learn to read and write.

We are using an established curriculum, that has been tried and tested within Sierra Leone, which will respect and encourage adults.

People will say, that I am receiving funding for this venture: The ‘Peninsula Education Programme’ is a Registered UK charity, which means that I have a dispensation from HMRC, which means if a UK Tax payer donates £1 to PEP, we receive an additional 25p for the programme.

Let it be known, despite this super benefit, receiving donations is not that easy, in fact PEP has never received an official donor.

What I've actually done, and I am aware it's a challenging way to raise vast amounts of money, is that we carry out regular fundraising events. The biggest fundraising campaign that I carried out was with an English friend of mine and UK PEP Trustee and Treasurer for the charity: Both of us travelled to Sierra Leone at our own expense, it was her first time in Sierra Leone, in fact, her first time in Africa. We went to Freetown and visited the PEP School when the school building had been completed in 2017.

Myself and the all the PEP UK Trustees do the fundraising. We tend to do walks and get people to sponsor us, we also host Dinner Dances, where we negotiate the price of the hall hire at a hotel with the cost of the meal for a discounted price. We then sell tickets for the event at say, for example £40 or £50 and we pay the hotel £45 and we would get £5.

But everything, PEP has done with regards to fundraising has been value for money!

Interviewer: Thank you very much!

Catherine: Thank you.

Interviewer: Thank you very much Ma’.

Catherine: Thank you Sir.

– End of Interview –

(Krio – English Translation and Transcript done by  – UK PEP Trustee Rachel)

 Take a look at the other ways you can get involved with PEP below:

In order to gift aid donations to PEP: please download the following form, complete it and kindly return it to: peninsulaeducationprogramme@gmail.com