Mind the Gap – Supporting marginalised children to gain access to and remain in school in Southern Sierra Leone — Street Child

Over the winter of 2019-20, fundraisers across the UK ran marathons, cycled cross-country, held bake sales, and joined Street Child for glittering gala dinners to support our record-breaking fifth UK Aid Match appeal, ‘Mind The Gap’. As a result of these amazing efforts by the Street Child community and the generosity of the British public, a total of £4,000,993 was raised, including £1,933,096 of match funding from the UK government. In our latest blog, Street Child’s Emily Tunnacliffe and Street Child of Sierra Leone’s (SCoSL) Cecilia Mansary report back on how funds generated from the appeal will help to make a difference to the lives of children and their families across the Southern province of Sierra Leone…

The Southern Province of Sierra Leone has the highest primary school enrolment rates nationwide; however, children are not transitioning to junior secondary school leaving thousands of children behind (SL-ESP, 2018). Without specific support, the education gap between the worlds’ most marginalised children and the rest will widen. 

In Autumn 2020, Street Child of Sierra Leone (SCoSL) began working to overcome this gap by supporting marginalised children, including girls engaged in transactional sex, teenage mothers, children living with disabilities, children at risk of trafficking, and street-connected children to gain access to education support across communities in Southern Sierra Leone, thanks to support from the Department for International Development (DFID) now the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and the British public. Over the next three years, 21,000 children in total will be supported to access educational opportunities and support to complete their basic education thanks to £2,201,196 of the total £4,000,993 raised.