Bambai Bling is pleased to announce a partnership with Batonga, the new non-profit organization created by West African singer, songwriter and UNICEF International Goodwill Ambassador Angelique Kidjo to support secondary school and higher education for girls in Africa.

Batonga is involved in granting scholarships, building and supporting schools, improving the quality of education and advocating for community awareness of the value of education for girls. With the goal of having a pan-African impact, they have begun operating in five countries: Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mali and Sierra Leone.

Batonga and Bambai Bling are collaborating on several projects in Sierra Leone in the field of education.

Community life is still very fragmented following the war, and it is difficult to introduce new ideas related to agriculture, sustainable development and the efficient use of resources. This is due in part to a lack of grass roots access by the emerging network of non-governmental organizations that have the technical know-how and expertise in development fields.

Bambai Bling's response is to create community resource centers that are operated in conjunction with the schools we are supporting. Each center will vary according to local needs, but the elements common to each will be a garden to supply fruit and vegetables for the school (with excess produce being sold to help support the school), a clean water source for the school and surrounding community and a free meeting place for use by local residents. Students, their families, teachers and school staff will all be involved in the operation of the centers, including the garden.

Popular culture has been used by politicians in Sierra Leone for decades, but rarely by non-governmental organizations to deliver social or development messages. Such non-traditional means of social marketing are particularly important in a country with low literacy rates (46.9% for males, and 24.4% for females).

Bambai Bling's response is to link development with sports, music & popular culture by working with soccer players and hip hop musicians, and sponsoring cultural events such as free outdoor projections of films�all combined with social and development messages.

Close to 70% of the population lives below the poverty line, partly owing to the estimated 70,000 former combatants who were disarmed and rehabilitated after the war and who have swollen the ranks of young people seeking employment.

Bambai Bling's response is to support micro-enterprise by offering training and financial support to non-governmental organizations that want to establish or expand their micro-finance and/or small business grants and training activities. In some instances direct grants or loans will be made to startup micro-enterprises.

While an average of 41% of primary-age children are in school, that number drops to only 14% for secondary school (grades 7 to 12) and a much smaller percentage for higher education. The government abolished primary school fees a few years ago, but parents must still pay tuition from grade 7 onwards.

Bambai Bling's response is to grant scholarships to enable girls and boys to attend existing secondary schools as well as for youth to attend university, vocational school or other skill-based learning programs.

There is currently a severe shortage of secondary schools throughout the country, and the government has very little capacity to build more. They do, however, have the capacity to administer schools once they have been built.

Bambai Bling's response is to build & support secondary schools in a limited number of communities where the schools, once built, will be operated through ongoing government and community support that is supplemented with some initial operational funds and in-kind contributions such as computers and training in the use of computers.

Conditions in most schools throughout Sierra Leone, both primary and secondary, are grim. Pupils often have to sit on the floor because there is no furniture. More than 40 percent of all teachers have no qualifications or formal training, and they often need to have a second job just to survive. Textbooks are scarce, and few families can afford to buy notebooks for their children.

Bambai Bling's response is to explore alternative education models such as mobile secondary schools and radio-based distance learning for remote communities.

There are an estimated 8,000 amputees in Sierra Leone who had limbs cut off during the civil war from 1991 to 2002. To many, they are a reminder of the war and are shunned and placed in camps out of site. The government does not have the resources to provide much assistance, and most amputees feel they have been abandoned.

Bambai Bling's response is to provide support for amputees by integrating them into the range of our projects in the fields of education, vocational training, community development and micro-enterprise.