Founder and proprietress of the Hope Academy for Girls (HAFGs) Junior and Secondary Schools at York in the Freetown Peninsula, Mrs. Alia Kamara, on Wednesday 6th March 2024, informed this medium in an exclusive interview at the school, that it was established six years ago to give less-privileged girls in the country quality and holistic education to achieve their highest potentials, underscoring that “we are here for girls.”
She enlightened that when you educate a girl, you educate a nation, stressing that they engage, educate and empower girls and that plans are underway to equip the Physics, Biology, Information, Communication and Technology Laboratories respectively, as majority of the girls are offering the sciences.
142 mango trees have been planted on the school’s five-acre land, with 34 different species from America, donated by a friend of the school, a vegetable garden with bananas and pawpaw and a playing field. Also, plans are underway to construct quarters for the Principal and Teachers, as well as fencing of the school.
According to the Founder and Proprietress, the school has an enrollment of 70 girls, and that parents believe in the school and are contributing Le100 new Leones per academic year towards the feeding of their girls, reiterating that the girls need love, support and compassion.
The four houses in the school are Adama Wurie, Louise Metzger, Mary Prince and Stephanie Greinam, with Louise Metzger as the top house.
Mercury Betting Company also supported the school to fix the ceilings and windows, while Mrs. Adama Wurie donated Le1 million old Leones in 2013 to help make some chairs and desks.
Mrs. Alia Kamara further disclosed that the school has eight full-time and four part-time trained and qualified teachers with Higher Teachers’ Certificate to BSc levels, but lamented that recruiting and maintaining teachers have been a major challenge, and that they have only two female teachers, including the Principal, asserting that female teachers would serve as role models to the girls.
She further informed that the Head Girl, who wrote the School Song, is now a student at the Milton Margai Technical University pursing her Higher Teachers’ Certificate course, and is being sponsored by her daughter.
Although a private school, HAFGs is tuition-free and also provides free exercise and textbooks in all the subjects, and lunch to the girls; and according to Mrs. Alia Kamara, this year she spent Le20 thousand new Leones to buy different text books.
Since 2017, HAFGs is the first and only girls’ school from Lumley to Waterloo.
The school sent its first set of students for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in 2020, and scored one of the best results in the Western Area, with 100% passes. Nineteen of the pupils had 11 aggregates. The following year, they also had 100% passes, while the lowest pass was aggregate 21.
Donors, both at home and abroad, exclusively fund the school including friends and relatives of the proprietress, but one of the major challenges of the school is finance. The Kenyan community in Sierra Leone donated French books and dictionaries to the pupils.
Mrs. Kamara recalled 1972 when she and her family returned to Sierra Leone and found two girls, who were taking care of her children, but were not attending school, adding that her original dream was to have a home for girls, where care and love would be provided for them and that she wanted a rural-based school for less-privileged girls in Rogebere, in the Port Loko District.
She revealed that the HAFGs started with 25 girls in September 2017, and that the girls are from the John Obey, York and Tokeh communities.
Having taught for nearly 40 years in England, including ten years at the then Milton Margai Teachers College, Mrs. Alia Kamara introduced Business Studies in the college, and when she attained her Master’s Degree in Information, Communication Technology and Business Studies, she was promoted Head of the Department.
HAFGs has a board of trustees and organizes its annual Speech Day, Prize Giving Ceremonies and Thanksgiving Service and also has a School Prayer.