A Letter From Eugenia Chinsman

The provision of quality education and Education for All (EFA) is an ambition and a goal that can not be acheived by the efforts of just one person. Such levels of education can only truly be acheived with the support and aid of others. This is especially true for a country like Sierra Leone where more than 70 % of its citizens live on less than a dollar a day. A large majority of these people come from a rural area known as Waterloo. Without aid children of all ages especially girls will not have access to a quality education which can enable them to have a brighter future.

Waterloo is a highly populated village that has only two Junior Secondary schools. The vast majority of students travel every day to the city to access their education. The cost of transportation coupled with the distances they have to travel can leave these young children exposed to various risks like road accidents, gender based violence, sexual abuse that may in turn lead to HIV/AIDS, etc. The provision of school facilities to more girls will greatly reduce the financial burden on parents having to send their children daily to the city.

Over a year ago I brought this project to the attention of Grace Episcopal Church Outreach Program, Norwalk CT. As a result, Grace Episcopal Church Outreach Program agreed to support this project through The Forum of African Women in Education (FAWE).

A number of fund raising efforts were held during the course of last year and proceeds from the events and contribution from the church funds enabled us to construct a classroom which was meant to house one class but at the moment houses two classes. Most of the girls at FAWE school in Waterloo were abused and raped during the devastating war in Sierra Leone and an education will allow them to make a better life for themselves and arm them with tools that can never be taken away. This project calls for the construction of three additional classrooms and the provision of furniture and other teaching and learning materials.

In order for Grace Episcopal Church to continue with the project, we are inviting you to our Sierra Leone Day fund raising effort which will be held during our regular Sunday 10:00 am service on June 1, 2008 at Grace Episcopal Church, Union Park at Mott Avenue, Norwalk CT.06850. The service will be followed at 11:30 am by lunch and some presentations on Sierra Leone.

We are appealing to Sierra Leoneans and non-Sierra Leoneans to come in numbers to support Grace Church Outreach program in a huge way. Sierra Leonean foods and of course monetary contributions will be greatly appreciated. Please remember that one of the greatest gifts anyone can give is education . We are appealing to you to be a part of the future education of these girls. Attached is list of Sierra Leone food which you can donate.
May God Bless you all

Eugenia Chinsman
GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OUTREACH PROGRAM

A Letter From Eungenia Chinsman

Dear All,

...

Whilst I was in Freetown I had a meeting with Mrs. Eileen Hanciles, Executive Director of FAWE. We discussed the Waterloo Project and the proposed visit of Grace Church to Sierra Leone. Please find attached a proposal from FAWE for the continuation of the project and pictures of the classroom which Grace Church built. Unfortunately the classroom was built to accommodate one class but had to be divided into two to accommodate two classes. FAWE hopes that they will be able to complete the second classroom and move the second class out of the new building once the funds from Grace Church are sent.

During my meeting with Mrs. Hanciles we spoke about the proposed visit to Sierra Leone by Grace Church. Mrs. Hanciles was extremely excited and has mentioned in the proposal the benefit of such a visit to the Girls at FAWE Waterloo School; the congregation at Grace Episcopal Church and to the people of Sierra Leone.

I am working on the cost of the airline ticket and will inform you all once I have the rates.

See you all on Good Friday.

Eugenia

FAWE's Director of Projects in Sierra Leone Visits Norwalk

Eileen Hanciles, director of the Federation of African Women Educationalists (FAWE)’s projects in Sierra Leone, joined Grace Church’s Sierra Leone project committee for dinner at the home of parishioner Eugenia Chinsman on February 27, 2007.

Ms. Hanciles described the origins of FAWE and the organization’s mission to educate girls and young women throughout Africa. She spoke of the group’s progress in changing cultural biases against educating girls and women throughout the continent and described the specific work underway at the Junior Secondary School for Girls in Waterloo, Sierra Leone.

The members of our project committee - Eugenia Chinsman, Pat Neil, Gay King, Kathy Dies, Doris Ash, John Sutton, and Lois Keen - then presented Ms. Hanciles with $3,300, the first installment of money raised by Grace Church for the Waterloo School Project.

First Secretary of the Sierra Leone Mission to the UN Visits Grace Church

On Sunday, December 3, 2006 the First Secretary of Sierra Leone’s UN delegation, Mr. Kpukumu, visited Grace Church and described the horrors of the war in Sierra Leone, especially those heaped upon women. Mr. Kpukumu also carried a message from Sierra Leone’s Ambassador to the UN offering to join us at our fund raising events.

Among the most compelling observations reported by Mr. Kpukumu was that, like those in post-apartheid South Africa, the people of Sierra Leone are genuinely seeking reconciliation with one another. Rebel soldiers who kidnapped and abused women and girls of Sierra Leone during the war are now actively seeking the forgiveness of their victims. And in the same generosity of spirit and of God’s love that Nelson Mandella and Desmond Tutu led in Johannesburg, the victims of Sierra Leone are forgiving. Our project is intended to support these remarkable people with prayers and funds.
This project also addresses four of the eight "Millennium Goals" defined by the United Nations and adopted by the Episcopal Church of the United States.

Grace Church Undertakes Sierra Leone School Project

Grace Church is raising funds to build-out and improve a school for girls and young women in Waterloo Village, on teh outskirts of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. The funds are being distributed by the Federation of African Women Educationalists - FAWE (http://www.fawe.org/), a group committed to helping the young women and girls who were brutally victimized in Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war. FAWE has provided us with a "wish list" of items from the school that has helped us set goals and drive toward them.