The year 2016 has been a very busy and rewarding year for ECIM. It has seen the newly established community school in Adonkia grow steadily in popularity in the Adonkia and surrounding communities. The Tailoring Centre is becoming popular as well. We started an IT centre that teaches IT to both our school pupils and outsiders.
Our community empowerment programmes would not be possible without the tools donated by the TWAM organisation. We are very grateful for your support and we say a big THANK YOU to you all at twam particularly Graham who has been very patient and kind to us in trying to supply us most of the tools we require to run the empowerment programmes.
Pastor Chris Roberts has been instrumental in advertising our programmes on his radio show to which he has invited us on several occasions. Our activities are widely known in the area now as we constantly have people enquiring and some coming to register for our programmes. Even the school still has many names on our register to start with us from September 2017 when the next school year commences. Any sponsors for the pupils are welcome. £100 per year can lift a child out of poverty by giving him hope and education for a better future.
IN MEMORIAM
We announce with sad and heavy hearts the sudden passing on of our Contractor and dear friend, Mr Zaioux Sesay. He was killed at home in early February 2017 by criminals who had earlier robbed him and been terrorising his area of residence for many years. Pst Clement & Dr Jane spent a lot of time with him in October 2016 during their visit to Freetown, while working on our projects. They were at a memorial service held for him in March 2017 during when we visited his grave. He was a man of integrity and compassion, who had been of immense help to us all at ECIM and made all our projects successful. He will be sadly missed by us and a lot of honest hardworking Sierra Leoneans. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace! Amen.
IT Training Centre
A computer room was opened at the school in early 2016. It is the first IT training centre in the area, for training school pupils and outsiders in the use of computers.
Our community empowerment programmes include; workshops in Carpentry, masonry, tailoring, IT training, training of Bakers, health promotion, enterprise training, youth and adult education in numeracy and literacy. We have created up to 12 jobs in the community with our projects to date and are aiming to create more jobs as we expand our activities.
There is high youth unemployment in the community due to the 11 years protracted civil war that ended in 2003 after destroying the very fabric of the community. The very fast growth of this post war community, Angola Town, is a very attractive destination for youths migrating from the congested cities and rural areas. These youths and women are the main target beneficiaries of our programmes. We have regular ‘community conversations’ with them at these ‘forums’ to find out what they need and tailor-make our programmes to meet their needs.
Tailoring Centre
The tailoring centre is becoming popular with both males and females in and around our community. We have now given out a total of about 20 portable machines to those who have completed the training to start up their own small tailoring business. We shall be following them up to see how they progress over a period of 1 year.
The bakery has trained up 4 bakers who have gone on to get jobs as Bakers in other bakeries. We plan to expand our bakery activities, by recruiting, training and employing more bakers in the nearest future.
Sierra Leone Visit
Our Nigerian Director, Rev. Professor Benjamin Marire, visited us in Sierra Leone in Mar/April this year 2017 while Pst Clement & Dr Jane were there. He came with a team of 3 members that included Rev. Paul Okoro and his wife Mrs Felicia Okoro, a retired school teacher. Rev. Paul will be heading the ECIM Church while his wife Felicia will be heading the school. They were dedicated to start work as head of the Church and head of the school respectively, by a group of Partner Pastors as well as Pastor Clement and Pastor Professor Benjamin. We thank God for their commitment to our programmes to fight poverty & disease in the poorest parts of Africa and for this new milestone in the life of ECIM in Sierra Leone.
With deep gratitude and thankful hearts, we say a BIG thank you to all our supporters particularly the Friends Of Freetown for your continued support and sponsorship of many of our pupils at the school. We believe your good deeds are not in vain as you are investing in a better life and future in these wonderful children. May the Lord reward your efforts as He blesses you abundantly. THANK YOU ALL.
