SAN FRANCISCO, May 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- 26-year-old Santigie Koroma and four other students from West African Sierra Leone coordinated with local villagers to fix a well now serving 750 people who were without clean water for nearly five years.
Typically new wells designed and built by NGOs cost close to $7,000 U.S. When those wells break, if there is someone local who can repair it, the replacement parts are often cost prohibitive for the local people. Broken NGO wells often sit inoperable for years, and people resort to walking very long distances for clean water.
Santigie Koroma's team, while teaching an adult literacy program in the village of Yeli Sanda, identified an old well that could be repaired. They coordinated with local villagers, purchased the needed parts for $150, and together they repaired the well that now serves 300 school children, 400 villagers and 50 college students. Santigie and his team are students sponsored by Families Without Borders.
Families Without Borders empowers future community leaders through a four-year program that has two parts: a scholarship program that supports a four-year college education of their choice; and a community leadership development program that provides immediate on-the-ground training through empowering students to identify and solve local social problems. Families Without Borders recruits top students from economically impoverished families in Sierra Leone. Successfully screened students receive full tuition, room and board to complete their education. Students start serving their own communities from the time they enroll.
Executive Director, Terri Khonsari, built this Bay Area-based non-profit believing that all of us are, in fact, one family. She has reliably fostered successful social projects developed and managed by local people halfway across the world on a tiny budget including solutions addressing waste management, the education of girls, and an afterschool program. In six years, the organization has sponsored 30 students demonstrating success through intertribal community partnership and development.
Families Without Borders' 5th Annual Gala is on Saturday, June 10th at 6:00 pm at the DoubleTree by Hilton - Berkeley Marina. The address is 200 Marina Blvd, Berkeley, CA 94710. Tickets are $150. There are 28 students completely screened and waiting to enter the program.
Families Without Borders
Terri Khonsari, Executive Director
(925) 330-6806
www.FamiliesWithoutBorders.org
SOURCE Families Without Borders
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