In 2008 I moved from Sierra Leone, where I was born, to Conakry in Guinea to start a work for the Lord which has since become part of Iris Global.
In my first few years here I started many projects to help the local people, including a school, and in 2012 there were almost 1000 children attending the school.
All was well and the children grew in knowledge and prospered, However, in 2015 the Ebola outbreak in the country had a severe effect on those attending school with some dying, some became very ill, and many were too scared to leave their homes for fear of infection
The empty school fell into disrepair and when the epidemic was over, it was too expensive for us to repair it.
This did not stop my heart from being moved every time little hands grabbed my skirt when I went out of our compound, begging to go to school, but sadly I had no more school for them to go to, and with only just enough money to support the 26 children the state had entrusted to my care, I could not afford to send them to another school.
One day, after much prayer, the idea came to us to start basic preschools in our church buildings by inviting all our young church goers aged 3 to 13 that ere not already going to school to attend, and we would hire a teacher to teach them the very basics of what they need to know. We are calling these preschools Hope Academy because that is the way we see them, and the way the children attending them see them...
At the moment it is mid January 2019, barely 4 months since we started the first school, and we now have more than 300 students in 15 classes spread across 5 churches.
We plan to increase the number of schools in the other centers where we have churches so that more and more children who cannot afford to attend a normal school will be able to attend one of our schools.
If you would help us give these children the chance to come off the streets and into school you can do so through