Kalanthuba Chiefdom
One Kalanthuba One Family
News
Kamasaypayna
Kamakatheh Section (January, 2023)
St. Henry Primary School in Kamasaypayna has seen a sharp increase in enrollment since completing construction of a new mud-brick building. A total of 148 students—75 girls and 73 boys—are enrolled in classes one through five, up from an enrollment of 53 students in 2017. The surge in student numbers followed on a determined outreach by the local School Management Committee to recruit students who walk from five surrounding villages. The final step needed to make the building usable was a zinc roof, added just this past summer.
Founded in 1999 with support from the Roman Catholic Church, St. Henry is a “community school” supported primarily by community members. The school has received only occasional government assistance. As recently as 2019, only classes one through four were offered, and the school met in temporary structures unsuitable for use during much of the rainy season.
On 15 November 2022, former Kalanthuba Regent Chief Daniel S Koroma presided over a festive celebration at the school, attended by the Kamakatheh Section Chief Sara Kamara and the school’s founder, Daniel Sara Turay. Assembled in front of the school, the student body welcomed visitors with songs, and later in the proceedings one student from each class gave a recitation from memory.
Houghton University professor emeritus Ron Oakerson and 2019 graduate Honus Wagner made congratulatory remarks to the assembled faculty and community members. Wagner, who participated in research on community-school formation in Kalanthuba in 2018-19, was instrumental in raising the funds needed to add a zinc roof to the new structure prior to the onset of rains in June. Wagner was presented with a goat for his service to the school. Following the convocation, traditional dancers entertained the crowd, and community leaders hosted a meal for their guests in Kamasaypayna’s new court barray.
According to Head Teacher Peter L. Bangura and his colleagues, much work nonetheless remains to be done, including the provision of toilets and safe drinking water, plus the acquisition of additional furnishings, teaching materials, and supplies. Attendance can be improved still further by adding a meal for students during the school day, and the future of the school would clearly be enhanced by improving both financial and in-kind support for teachers.
Self-Help Road Work Increases Accessibility in Chiefdom (January, 2023)
The end of the rainy season in November marks the seasonal beginning of self-help road work in Kalanthuba. Self-help means maintenance by local villagers with hand tools supplied through an innovative tool library operated by the Chiefdom in each of its five Sections.
The main focus of road maintenance is on making the chiefdom’s two main north-south trunk routes passable and keeping them open. A western route and an eastern route connect the more populated southern sections of the chiefdom with the two northern sections. As of January, both routes are open at least to motor bikes.
The western trunk route runs from Kamankay (village) in Kasokira Section in the South through Kamakatheh Section and the eastern portion of Kamakihila Section to Kakarima (village), the northern-most village in the northwest section of Kakalain. The eastern route extends from Kamankay (village) in the South to Kawungulu in the northeast section of Follagudu.
In early November 2022, villagers were hard at work on Danah Hill, a steep and rocky portion of the western trunk route just south of Kamasaypayna in Kamakatheh Section. The ability of vehicles to navigate Danah Hill is needed for effective access to the health post and primary school located in Kamasaypayna. After several days of hard labor on the hill, a Toyota land cruiser was able to make it up the hill in mid-November.
The chiefdom’s tools library makes tools available at each of the five section-headquarters villages. Tools are signed out by a chiefdom or section officer and must be returned. Shovels, spades, sledge hammers, chisels, and pickaxes are available. Road work is scheduled for Fridays in the two northern sections and Saturdays in the three southern sections. Each section has a road-work leader who organizes and supervises the work.
Former Regent Chief Daniel S Koroma explains that every village has a strong incentive to assure accessibility by motor bike in order to maintain the accessibility of markets, health facilities, and schools. Responsibility for actually doing the road work falls to able-bodied youth—the young men of the village. What the chiefdom supplies are tools, scheduling, and organization—what CePAD leader Daniel Sara Turay terms an “enabling environment.”
While hand tools can accomplish a significant amount, there are limits to their utility. Maintenance and repair of culverts and bridges require more than hand tools. Engineers with Seli Hydroelectric Project (Bumbuna Dam, Phase II) have recently rehabilitated a southern portion of the Western trunk route, including replacement of a large, broken culvert south in Kasokira Section.
The number of culverts in need of replacement, however, is much greater. Moreover, former Chief Koroma reports that more sustainable improvement of the trunk routes—sustainable through the rainy season—depends on improving water drainage from the road surface, now mostly non-existent.
gallery
