November 2010

Opening Ceremony for the New Library
After a construction perriod of little more than 6 months the new library building was completed on schedule. The opening ceremony on November 21 was attended by representatives of the ministry of education, by local government officials and by many school children from Pujehun. The pupils are very happy about their new, bright and spacious library and are making good use of this new opportunity. As an example, there is a 'news club' consisting of school children who meet regularly every Friday to go through the newspapers and to discuss latest news..

September 2010

Construction of the new Library Building
The construction of the new  library building has started and is making progress.. Unfortunately, prices of some construction materials have gone up significantly over the last year which puts a strain on our project budget.

26 June 2010

New 10 Euro Supporting Membership for School Children
The KNSL general assembly has voted to promote a new  reduced tariff for supporting membership of school children.

February 2010

KNSL receives donation from Gymnasium Grotenbach
This month our organization received a very generous donation from Gymnasium Grotenbach in Gummersbach. Board member Brigitte Steinmetz who is a former student of this school accepted a cheque about € 4.000,- for our construction project of the Pujehun Community Library. This donation was part of the overall revenues generated by students, teachers and parents during this year's Christmas bazar.

Please, take the time to read the full report on the donation campaign and the other supported social projects on the homepage of Gymnasium Grotenbach.

14 January 2010

KNSL gives a Lecture on the Peace Project at TU Berlin
Edward Mando from KNSL was invited by the Society for International Development to give a lecture on the Peace Project that we conducted together with our partner PYD in Sierra Leone. You can find the slides with Edward's presentation here.

25 July 2009

KNSL at the UN Peace Festival in Berlin
Our organisation was represented with an exhibition booth at the UN Peace Festival in Berlin, right in front of the Brandenburger Tor. Weather conditions were less than optimal, nevertheless this was a good opportunity for discussions with visitors and representatives from other NGOs.

March 2009

KNSL report on Peace Project 2008
The Peace Project 2008 was successfully finished. Please, read the project report on our Projects page.
The German Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IfA/Zivik has added our project to their list of good practice examples.  

December 2008

Hospital beds handed over to Pujehun Hospital
The hospital beds donated in September were shipped to Sierra Leone and have been handed over to the Pujehun Hospital. We say a big 'thank you' to the donors..

Our international liaison officer, Edward Mando, handing over the hospital beds to Pujehun Hospital.

 September 2008

KNSL helps to coordinate a donation of hospital beds
The 'Herzzentrum Dresden' hospital has provided 22 hospital beds as a donation to hospitals in our project area in Sierra Leone.  In addition to these valuable goods they also contributed an amount of 1.000 Euros  to pay for transport costs. A similar donation was made by Herzzentrum Cottbus. KNSL assumed responsibility for coordinating the transport and for handling import procedures in Sierra Leone.

Employees of Herzzentrum Dresden Haustechnik help to load the donated hospital beds into a van.

 June 2008

KNSL annual meeting in Berlin with Guests from Sierra Leone
This year's general assembly of KNSL took place on June 7 in Berlin at the Africa House. As a special guest we could welcome councillar Emanuel Callon from PYD who was on visit from Sierra Leone. Mr. Callon reported about his very positive experience in working with our organization as District Councillor and as a PYD official. He praised our engagement for the school project and the peace project and especially  emphasized how important the Food Security Project is for the Pujehun region.

 March 2008

KNSL report on Peace Project 2007
The Peace Project 2007 was successfully finished. Please, read the project report on our Projects page.

 June 2007

KNSL and PYD resolve Chiefdom Uprising in Sowa
As a part of the ongoing peace building project KNSL and PYD conducted workshops  to analyze and resolve an urgent leadership conflict with an imminent uprising against the current chief of Sowa. As a result, an agreement between the chief and the opposing party was negotiated.  This important success of our project received press coverage and is documented in the following article by the Sierra Leone Awareness Times

 May 2007

Peace Building Project extended in 2007
The peace building project from 2005/06 got an extension from IfA to be carried on in 2007 which is a critical election year in Sierra Leone. A focus  topic will be capacity building for our local partner organization PYD. Other components of the project will be training seminars for Peace Monitors and a continuation of the Peer Mediation Programme for youths in the district.
We will also start building a library with training materials for teachers and students.

 30 March 2007

KNSL 'on air'  at Radio Wanjie in Pujehun
Board members  of KNSL had the opportunity to participate in a programme on Radio Wanjie in Pujheun via teleconference from Berlin. We presented our organisation and responded to questions about future plans and activities for 2007.

 November 2006

KNSL at FEZ Berlin
Together with embassies of english speaking countries  the FEZ Berlin organized a week of presentations and exhibitions about people, politics, society and every day life in the partner countries. The event was  targeted at school children and other guests who were interested to learn more about these countries.
KNSL was represented with a exhibition booth, where children could get a glimpse of  daily life in Sierra Leone. They could see and touch fruit and other agricultural products - and they could also try to balance some of the exhibits on their heads - in true African style. On posters and photographs we presented the activities of our organization in Sierra Leone.

We'd like to thank the organizers at FEZ and the members of KNSL who participated in this event.
 

August 2006

Peace Building Project 2006
The first phase of this year's Peace Building and Conflict Resolution Project has been successfully finished. The training programm with workshops and seminars on conflict resolution, peace building and human rights has been extended to two additional chiefdoms, Sowa and Yakemokpukumu Krim.
An important project measure was the discussion and resolution of local conflicts within the so called 'Grievance Committees': with our project staff serving as mediators, the conflict parties would meet for a precisely organized discussion trying to find an agreement out of court.

As an example, a long standing conflict between the neighbouring villages of Gbeworbu und Niagorehun over the use of land could be successfully resolved. Adherence of the parties to the committed agreement was monitored by our project staff in subsequent onsite visits.

 March 2006

Follow Up Project on Peace Building in Sierra Leone
Our Peace Building pilot project in 2005 was very successful. You can find detailed information and pictures on our project page. In 2006 there will be a follow up project with additional seminars and workshops held in those chiefdoms that were not reached by last year's pilot project.The new  project will be funded by the German Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IfA).

12 Nov 2005

Inauguration of the Gbondapi Community Center
The new  community center in Gbondapi was opened in the presence of numerous guests and local dignitaries. The speakers expressed their gratitude and appreciation for the support of this project by KNSL. The opening was accompanied by a lively cultural programme of music and dance. See our project page for additional information and pictures.

 23.Sept.2005

School festival for Africa at Hainwaldschule in Peine
Children, teachers, parents and friends of Hainwald Primary School in Peine showed a real sign of dedication for Africa during this year's school festival. .

The proceedings of nearly 1.700 Euro were donated to Kindernetzwerk Sierra Leone e.V. We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who contributed to this great success.

 Mai-Nov. 2005

Pilot project for Education of Peace Monitors in Sierra Leone
The German Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen and the German Foreign Ministry have approved a pilot project for the education of so called 'peace monitors' in Sierra Leone. Our Liason Officer Edward Mando will travel to Sierra Leone to hold workshops with up to 20 trainee groups. The project is scheduled to last 6 months and will be carried out in cooperation with a local NGO, the Sulima Fishing Corporation.

 Feb.-Mai 2005

Community Center for Women in Gbondapi
Under the supervision of our partners from PYD the construction of a community center for the women of Gbondapi is planned and carried out. Our organization pays construction materials not available locally in the village, the work of external specialists as well as a food for work programme for local construction workers. The building will house a seminar room, a PYD office, a room for the local women's organization and a small kiosk.

August 2004

Field Visit to Sierra Leone
Our Liaison Officer Edward Mando travels to Sierra Leone in order to assess the situation of our sponsored children and to gather requirements for further support. He also supervised the transport of goods donated to KNSL.

 16 July 2004

Used Clothes Donation
HUMANA Kleidung für Entwicklung gemeinnützige GmbH in Berlin made a donation of three 450 kg bags of used clothes and also gave two sewing machines with tables for the people in our project area in Sierra Leone.
Our member Gunther Steinmetz from Gummersbach helped to drive the van with these donated goods from Berlin to Amsterdam.
We would like to thank everybody involved in this activity.

Edward Mando and Brigitte Steinmetz loading the donated goods into the van together with Gunther Steinmetz.
 

 28 June 2004

Memorandum of Understanding with SAIDAC
The board signed a memorandum of understanding with SAIDAC, a private Technical and Vocational Institute accredited by the Government of Sierra Leone. The organization is dedicated to education, traning, technical support services, empowerment of women and children and to general poverty alleviation. Their headquartes are located in Bo in south eastern Sierra Leone. Please, find more information about this agreement here.

 April - July 2004

The value of Mobility - Used Bike Donation
KNSL receives a donation of 42 used bikes with spare parts.
The bikes were donated by M. Reichold from Gummersbach and spare parts were given by Ralf Bohle GmbH in Reichshof, Radsport Nagel and Fahrradland Jansen in Gummersbach.

 16 Feb 2004

Employees at the British Embassy collect money
Employees in the Media and Public Affairs Section of the British Embassy in Berlin have made a money donation to Kindernetzwerk Sierra Leone. Instead of spending money on a birthday present for a colleague, the sum was donated to our organization.

 January 2004

Support for  6 additional Children
A group of 6 children has been added to our sponsoring programme, bringing the total from 9 up to 15. Most of the new kids attend Primary School in the remote village of Begani, which can be reached from Pujehun only by boat.