By Saidu Kargbo
Freetown, 23rd September, 2026— In a bid to address the challenges preventing some children from attending school, Center for Empowerment, Education, Peace and Agriculture for Rural Development (CEEPARD) has supported 2,500 vulnerable children and women-led households in rural communities in Waterloo as part of the organization’s sixth edition of its Summer School Livelihood Support Programme for less privileged children.
The program, held at Bassa Town Playing Field, on Tuesday, 22nd September, 2026, brought teachers, parents, children and community members as the organization expanded its annual initiative to support beneficiaries.
The initiative was implemented under the theme: “The 17/7 Principle: An Assurance to Achieve All-Round Academic Excellence Through Societal Synergies.”
During the launch, the Deputy Executive Director of CEEPARD, Ing. Mohamed Osman Mansaray, discussed the establishment of the organization, stating that it is a community-based initiative to support less-privileged children while also engaging in agriculture, engineering, and other activities.
The organization had supported 1,500 pupils the previous year, compared to the growing 2,500 beneficiaries this year, Osman said. This is our sixth edition… We are supporting less privileged children here within the Western Area. The program is designed to ease some of the challenges that prevent children from attending or staying in school.
He stated that some students struggle with their education because they lack the necessary materials, such as bags, books, pens and pencils. “We have a lot of school-going pupils that drop out because they say they don’t have bags, pens, or pencils to go to school,” he said.
Mansaray stated the organization views its intervention as a contribution to ensuring that children have access to education, which is one of the government’s flagship programs. “As an organization, we thought it fit that we need to partner with stakeholders and other partners to see how best we can raise funds and support them to ensure that they go to school,” he reiterated.
He urged parents to use the items for their intended purpose while also calling individual organizations and donors to support the initiative so that they can reach more children in the coming years.
“To donor partners, we are pleading with them to come on board and let’s partner and make this initiative a bigger one. We are targeting over 5,000 children next year,” he said.
