By Mustapha Kamara Jnr
In fulfillment of their corporate social responsibility, Mercury International, Sierra Leone’s leading sports betting company, has presented a cheque of Le150M to EducAid Sierra Leone.
The cheque was presented to EduAid by the chairman of Mercury International, Samir Hassanyeh at a ceremony held over the weekend at the Furlonge EducAid Senior Secondary School in Rolal, Porto Loko District.
According Mr Hassanyeh, the money was meant to support pupils so that they would be able to offer a course in Leadership Management which is being offered by EduAid in partnership with the University of Makeni. The Mercury boss said he was impressed with the effort made by EduAid Sierra Leone’s country director, Miriam Mason-Sesay, a former teacher in the United Kingdom, for her efforts in promoting education for young people in the country.
“What we have seen here today is commendable,” he said.
“We have seen how students are studying under very difficult circumstances.”
Martin Michael, Managing Director of Mercury International, said the betting company was happy and proud to associate itself with the charity organization, whose work he described as extremely important to the development of education in Sierra Leone.
“One of the most fascinating things we have seen today is that students who work under extreme difficult conditions have the enthusiasm to study, to impress and to be the next great leaders of Sierra Leone,” he said.
EduAid Sierra Leone is a charity organization that has been providing free education for over 800 less privileged pupils in different schools in the Western Urban Area, Tonkolili and in the Port Loko Districts since 2000.
Receiving the cheque, Mrs Mason-Sesay thanked the CEO and management of Mercury for their support.
“This is enormous for us. We are endeavoring to bring high quality education to many vulnerable young Sierra Leoneans as we can and this is not possible without this sort of support,” she said.
The support provided by the sports betting company, she said, was to help 60 young people to enroll for certificate, diploma and degree courses in Leadership and Management that is being offered by EduAid in partnership with the University of Makeni.
“Tertiary education now seems to be beyond people’s pocket…and we have good students with university requirements but they do not have the financial support and the means to get into university,” she said.
The Leadership and Management Course will provide knowledge and skills for these young people to become good leaders in their communities, she said. She promised to ensure that the money received would be used for the purpose for which it was given.
Since 2000 EducAid has founded 3 schools and has been asked to run five more schools.
“There are now nine schools run by EducAid in the Western and Northern Provinces with more than 3000 pupils being educated, fed and, in many cases, housed by our strong network of teachers and staff in our sites across the country,” said Mason-Sesay.
(C) Politico 11/05/16
