A group of eight Oakwood students (USA) visited Sierra Leone to work with, learn from and share dreams with Bumpe High School students in 2011. This life-changing experience was summed up nicely by one of the U.S. travelers:
““As a senior in high school in 2011, I had the opportunity to travel with students from my school to Sierra Leone to learn about the social and political climate of the country, and specifically, the challenges facing Sarah’s community in Bumpe, a small village in the southern part of the country. The opportunity to learn about the history of this country and interact with leaders in education and government from Sarah’s community was a transformative one. Throughout the trip, we spoke with survivors of Sierra Leone’s civil war, attended the community’s church service and collaborated with students from the local school in building a sign post and painting a map of the world on the wall of the school library. Although I found myself impacted by the remnants of the civil war (1991-2002) that destroyed the school facilities in Bumpe, I also found enormous reservoirs of hope in this community. In conversations with the students, I engaged with children that exuded joy and female students who envisioned a life unfettered by social expectations and limited access to female sanitary products. It was these students and these dialogues that became my ultimate teachers throughout this trip, and I am incredibly grateful to have worked alongside and learned from them throughout my time there.” ”
