This article appears in the October edition of the RGB&I Rotary Magazine
TALES OF ALAN’S AFRICA
I joined Rotary in 2004, and in 2005, having listened to a 10-minute talk about Mercy Ships, I went to Sierra Leone as a volunteer member of a Rotary Mission Challenge Team, to spend 11 days in Sierra Leone and make a real difference.
I went to Africa, believing it would be a ‘one off’ life experience, but the11 days I spent in Freetown were life-changing for him and I have now visited the country 15 times.
On his second trip in 2006, I visited a school where the upper juniors were being taught under the trees, as they had run out of classroom space.
Myself and fellow Rotarians donated personal funds so the school could build a classroom. Once back home, I fund-raised to enable the completion of the work. I returned to the school on a third trip, in 2007. Having seen the difference that had been made, I pledged to work with the school to build six additional classrooms, staffroom and office.
This was the start of Alan’s Africa projects, which was soon adopted as an approved
Banbury Rotary Club project.
Since January 2007, when I began working directly with this first school, I have coordinated, with the assistance of some trusted in-country contacts, the funding of development at ten schools, to varying degrees, and support an impoverished football club community, along with three orphaned teenagers/young adults.
In total, Alan’s Africa has funded the building of 45 classrooms and refurbished a further 23 classrooms. The projects have installed electricity into 13 classrooms and water harvesting systems for 23 classrooms.
Over almost two decades, nine toilet blocks have been built and installed with water
harvesting and handwashing stations in 6 of the blocks.
Three wells have been installed, a further four have been refurbished. I have managed to fund a gravity-fed water system to a school and church community which provides running water and flushing toilets for 1,500 people.
We have also managed to fund the building of a two-bedroomed house for a severely disabled teenage orphan and his carer.
In March 2023, I purchased a plot of land in to establish a small rural secondary school, as the children in the community were having to walk up to five miles each way to school.
The progress has been really good and the funds raised have enabled the building of four classrooms, a staffroom, an office and store, a small toilet block with a water harvesting system together with a handwash station, and the total refurbishment of an abandoned/derelict well which has been fitted with a handpump.
A community garden has been established at the school where children and parents can grow their own vegetables. We are in the final stages of completing the building of a seven- bedroomed staff hostel, with a communal lounge and two washrooms, and the building also has a solar panel electricity supply, and the staff started to occupy the hostel at Easter.
The next planned project is to totally refurbish the community primary school, located a couple of hundred yards away, as they receive no government funding.
They desperately need the galvanised zinc roof replacing, as it is leaking badly in many places. As a result of this, a lot of the ceilings have been extensively damaged and need replacing. The entire building also needs redecorating. The budget for this is £4,550 and I have just started fundraising for this project.
Inevitably, over the years I have encountered a few problems and frustrations. At times, trying to co-ordinate things from the UK has proved challenging. On all the projects, everything on site is done manually using local builders, paying them the going rate which gives them a sense of ownership of the project and puts money back into the local community. Both the ebola and covid situations hampered progress, but despite these issues a great deal has been achieved.
As well as the building programme I have shipped tens of thousands of pounds worth of school furniture, school equipment/stationery, school uniforms, sports kits, and medical supplies.
The Sierra Leone projects are very much a juggling act. I have had to prioritise what
happens next, and sometimes priorities change. But, as long as I am able and thanks to a great network of supporters, I aim to continue to do what I can to support these communities, knowing that together they are making a real difference.
Since January 2007, I have raised a total of £426,400 - £31,000 during this current Rotary year - and undertaken more than 430 presentations about the work in Sierra Leone.
For further information visit alansafrica.co.uk and if you would like to book me for a
presentation contact: alanwooly@msn.com
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