Education is the flagship program of the government and that is why the Free Quality Education was launched in 2018 to raise the standard and increase access to education in the country.
In promoting this, the leading mobile network in the country, Orange Sierra Leone has been an integral part of empowering the next generation.
Orange being part of the society they serve, the company made US$1.5 million commitment to education in the country to be spread over the period of five years, that is a little over US$ 250,000 annually. This is by far the biggest commitment made by any corporate body to invest in to education in Sierra Leone.
The investment has come in the form of training kids to learn a vital technological skill like coding. It has also come in the form constructing state-of-the art nursery schools to boost early childhood education in the country.
During the launch of one of the nursery schools Kambia, Chief Executive Officer for Orange Sierra Leone, Aminata Kane Ndiaye said the company is willing to invest in to the future of kids, considering how important they are to the development of the country. She gave her commitment to supporting more projects like these.
During the opening of another one of the schools in Moyamba district, Director of Orange Foundation, Jestina Betts said the ultra-modern facility is an opportunity for children in the community to access early childhood education. She said the company will continue to support the vision of the government to strengthen education in Sierra Leone.
Her statement fits in to the vision of the government to take early childhood education in to these rural areas, that is why the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Dr Moinina David Sengeh said during the opening of the one of the nursery schools in Kambia that:
“The most important thing for these kids is to send them to nursery, then we should monitor their progress to primary and then secondary school. This is the foundation. In rural areas, before now it was impossible to have nursery schools, all the kids were packed in class one.”
Orange Sierra Leone has built and opened three nursery schools for children in Pujehun, Kambia and Moyamba. Most children in these districts will now have the opportunity for the first time to go through early child hood education, for free.
This has also been done alongside some investment in to Technology. Technology is the future and Orange has already started preparing the next generation of leaders with requisite skills to tap in to that future.
The company’s Coding Boot Camp in 2019 brought together hundreds of children to learn about technology, something which a lot of these children didn’t have access to before.
Orange’s development footprint is impacting communities, families and generations. It’s investment has been in line with its corporate vision of selflessness and impacting the lives of everyone.
