When Sierra Leone reopened primary schools after months of Covid-19 lockdown, Families Without Borders in partnership with Moms Against Poverty launched a new project to help children return to their classrooms.

Building on experience gained through existing projects, FWB Emerging Leaders delivered a basic reopening package to eight primary schools.The package provides the schools with essential materials for meeting WHO guidelines for limiting contagion. Each of the schools received: handwashing stations, including veronica buckets, footstools and soap; child-size masks; and a sensitization session to teach students and staff the importance of complying with Covid safety protocols, such as wearing masks, washing their hands, and maintaining social distance.

The project is an outgrowth of work our Emerging Leaders have already undertaken to fight Covid. This includes helping to distribute handwashing material in Tonkolili province; leading workshops for teachers and students at schools in Makeni; and mass producing the first cloth face masks made outside of the capital, Freetown, by repurposing FWB’s reusable sanitary pad project.

While the project focuses on schools, its reach extends beyond the children who will be served directly. By helping children stay safe from the highly contagious virus, these tools will also benefit the health of their broader communities.

Sierra Leone has done better than most nations in fighting the virus, but reopening schools is a major step. It is vital that school re-opening does not spark a resurgence of Covid-19. Because coronavirus has been confined to cities in Sierra Leone, FWB has chosen schools in urban areas for this project, four in Makeni, two in Bo and two in Mokondey. The schools have received 4000 masks, one for each student, and 73 handwashing stations, one for each classroom.

Top photo: A student washes her hands using equipment provided by Families Without Borders. The arrangement of the bucket with a tap, placed on a wooden stand at hand height, with a bowl below that collects waste water, is called a “veronica bucket.” It was developed during the 1990s in Ghana by biologist Veronica Bekoe, to encourage hygienic handwashing by using flowing water.

Bottom photo: students wear their masks during class.