There are some 56,000 (!!) registered charities in Australia. Vandy Kamara's “private” charity, the Sonjor Community School, is not among them. With “private”, I mean that Vandy finances this school, located in a remote region of Sierra Leone (West Africa), from his own and some of his friends’ savings. Extraordinary!Located “about 3 – 4 hours’ drive from the nearest town”, the school provides education to underprivileged children. Since his presentation last year, the school has been expanded to cater for the increased enrolments. They have also invested in teacher training and provided learning materials and resources. Vandy is coordinating with the local village chiefs to source some building materials locally. But a lot of building materials such as cement and iron rods need to be imported.
Vandy, who works at Wesley Mission Queensland caring for homeless people in various areas all the way to Katherine in the Northern Territory, emigrated to Australia some 11 years ago. Talking about applying the proverbial Aussie "Have a go" principle! He holds numerous academic achievements, including a Master of Public Health and an Advanced Diploma of Community Sector Management. Although last year his application to a World Peace & Conflict Resolution Scholarship was unsuccessful, our club nominated him again upon instigation by the Rotary Foundation to apply again this year.
Photo: Vandy’ (centre) with President Charles Thomasson, Rebecca and Tanya from Wesley Mission and Ray Higgs. Vandy's presentation is in the Download Section on the right.