Nourishing Young Minds & Bodies: Sierra Leone
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August is the hardest month in Sierra Leone, well into the rainy season with dwindling food supplies in subsistence farming communities. It’s especially hard on kids. In what has become an annual program, Karim Kamara, a young Sierra Leonean, is planning a month of extra schooling and nutritious meals for 125 students at the King Kama primary school in Lunsar. Five teachers, including head teacher Mr. Alie F. Kamara (no relation to Karim), will be employed to teach the children—many of whom are orphans, and all from poor families where one meal a day is the norm for August.
August 2019 Nourishment Program at King Kama
For just $3100, the teachers will be paid, midday meal served every day, and all children provided clean water, and books, pencils, paper and other school supplies. Hygiene supplies—soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo—will also be given to the children to take home.
Karim—whom I know personally (see below)—is motivated to continue and expand this program because he was once an orphan being raised by an impoverished aunt who did her best, but never had enough. He found a school for poor kids like him, which provided an education and a daily meal, and it changed his life. He credits a lot of his success to the boost from that school, and he is determined to give as many other kids the same chance he got. He’s already proven himself, not only in running successful August programs nourishing minds and bodies, but with other accomplishments. Still to come, Karim has a vision of starting a new school himself, especially for orphans and really poor kids.
I met Karim in September 2019, when a malaria research project took me to Sierra Leone. While there, I arranged to spend a day with Bikes for the World partner, the Village Bicycle Project , a US non-profit, headed in Sierra Leone by 26-year old Karim.
Hellen and Karim in September 2019, Lunsar, Sierra Leone
About Karim Karama—aka Stylish
Check out this feature on Karim (better known as “Stylish”) from Vice magazine, July 2019, by writer Tom Owen: "How a Young Sierra Leonean Is Fighting Poverty with Bicycles ." Here’s an excerpt:
"Stylish is a born organiser in one of the least-organised places you've ever seen. Earlier this year he won his country's Young Philanthropist of the Year award – a recognition of his work over the last six years, running a feeding programme in Lunsar every August, when the constant torrential rain makes it impossible to harvest crops and a lot of people in Sierra Leone go hungry. Last year he provided meals for 80 neighbourhood kids, making them attend maths and English classes in exchange for a meal.
"They have to give something in return for the food," he tells me. "I don't want to just create another thing where I am giving and they are taking." The programme is funded entirely by donations from people he has personally met, both in Sierra Leone and abroad.
Stylish's main income is as a country manager for Village Bicycle Project– a US-based charity that focuses on sustainable bicycle transportation in Africa. He delivers workshops all around the country, teaching people ... how to ride bikes."
All this while also having started and nurturing the Lunsar Cycling Team—Sierra Leone’s largest at about 30 members, including the country’s fastest woman cyclist (who, by the way, Karim helped start her own bike shop). Find out more about him in the full Vice article.
About Hellen Gelband
I’m a global health expert and a Bikes for the World founding board member (and board member and secretary through 2019). I’m now an independent consultant, working on various projects, including in Sierra Leone, investigating malaria mortality. More about me in a 2017 profile in The Lancet: "Hellen Gelband: Botanist Turned Policy Guru in Global Health ."
August 2019 Nourishment Program at King KamaFor just $3100, the teachers will be paid, midday meal served every day, and all children provided clean water, and books, pencils, paper and other school supplies. Hygiene supplies—soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo—will also be given to the children to take home.
Karim—whom I know personally (see below)—is motivated to continue and expand this program because he was once an orphan being raised by an impoverished aunt who did her best, but never had enough. He found a school for poor kids like him, which provided an education and a daily meal, and it changed his life. He credits a lot of his success to the boost from that school, and he is determined to give as many other kids the same chance he got. He’s already proven himself, not only in running successful August programs nourishing minds and bodies, but with other accomplishments. Still to come, Karim has a vision of starting a new school himself, especially for orphans and really poor kids.
I met Karim in September 2019, when a malaria research project took me to Sierra Leone. While there, I arranged to spend a day with Bikes for the World partner, the Village Bicycle Project , a US non-profit, headed in Sierra Leone by 26-year old Karim.
Hellen and Karim in September 2019, Lunsar, Sierra LeoneAbout Karim Karama—aka Stylish
Check out this feature on Karim (better known as “Stylish”) from Vice magazine, July 2019, by writer Tom Owen: "How a Young Sierra Leonean Is Fighting Poverty with Bicycles ." Here’s an excerpt:
"Stylish is a born organiser in one of the least-organised places you've ever seen. Earlier this year he won his country's Young Philanthropist of the Year award – a recognition of his work over the last six years, running a feeding programme in Lunsar every August, when the constant torrential rain makes it impossible to harvest crops and a lot of people in Sierra Leone go hungry. Last year he provided meals for 80 neighbourhood kids, making them attend maths and English classes in exchange for a meal.
"They have to give something in return for the food," he tells me. "I don't want to just create another thing where I am giving and they are taking." The programme is funded entirely by donations from people he has personally met, both in Sierra Leone and abroad.
Stylish's main income is as a country manager for Village Bicycle Project– a US-based charity that focuses on sustainable bicycle transportation in Africa. He delivers workshops all around the country, teaching people ... how to ride bikes."
All this while also having started and nurturing the Lunsar Cycling Team—Sierra Leone’s largest at about 30 members, including the country’s fastest woman cyclist (who, by the way, Karim helped start her own bike shop). Find out more about him in the full Vice article.
About Hellen Gelband
I’m a global health expert and a Bikes for the World founding board member (and board member and secretary through 2019). I’m now an independent consultant, working on various projects, including in Sierra Leone, investigating malaria mortality. More about me in a 2017 profile in The Lancet: "Hellen Gelband: Botanist Turned Policy Guru in Global Health ."
Organizer
Hellen Gelband
Organizer