By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Plan International Sierra Leone has launched a sponsorship alumni association comprising former sponsored children, graduates and beneficiaries of Plan’s program in the country.
The Regional Sponsorship Manager for West and Central Africa, Nsah Juli Coulette, told Politico during the program that the initiative was one of the many ways the organization had targeted to be able to help 100 million girls in the world to “learn, lead and strive”.
Country Director of Plan International Sierra Leone, Evariste Sindayagaya, said her organization “sees the Alumni Association as an opportunity to strengthen its influencing and achieve its global ambition because former sponsored children and graduates of Plan International programs have a better understanding of the social and cultural context of their communities, and have the knowledge and technical abilities to give back to their communities.”
The organization currently supports 1.4 million children in the world through its sponsorship program and in Africa it has up to 700,000, 17,000 of them are in Sierra Leone.
As part of the work alumni groups in different countries will be doing, they will help to sponsor children and mobilize resources for projects. They will also counsel, mentor and volunteer for other social work to support children in their respective countries.
Dr Momodu Turay, one of the beneficiaries of the Plan sponsorship program, said the organization put him through school at a very difficult period in his life.
“I am happy and grateful for what Plan International did for me. They put me through school with this sponsorship program. With their program they paid my fees and bought books every year till it was time for me to go to college.”
Rev. Jane Lahai is a parent whose child also benefited from the sponsorship scheme. A single mother in Moyamba district with four children, she said “Things were so difficult [that] on Fridays I would move to go and fend for my children. Plan International picked my child Martha Lahai from class 2. I will never forget the day I was approached for her to be registered for sponsorship.”
She went on: “Today, Martha has graduated, and she has been working with Plan International as a social worker in Moyamba”.
Plan International officials said they would now rely on the alumni organizations to design their own programs to help strength the work for children in their respective countries.
This launch comes just weeks after the unveiling of the Girls Get Equal campaign by the organization in Sierra Leone.
Plan International is a child-centered organization which works to influence policy and practices to promote the rights of children.
© 2019 Politico Online
