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| A village school in Sierra Leone. |
For Rogbere, only two of the eleven villages nearby have schools. Of these two, only one educates students up to 6th grade. For some children in this area, it means walking over 5 miles to and from school every day. The nearest Junior High and High School is located in Newton, which is about 20 miles away from Rogbere. Many students grow weary of walking long distances to school and drop out.
For us, there is access to K-12 public education
right in our immediate communities. And for children who don’t want to walk to
school, we have school buses that pick children up within a couple blocks of
their home. Walking miles and miles to school is not an problem for us.
Healthcare
Access to health care is a serious problem as none
of the villages near Rogbere have a health center. The nearest one is located
in Newton, which, again is 20 miles away. This is representative of Sierra
Leone as a whole, which has the worst infant mortality rate in the world andhas a life expectancy of 45.3.
We have very broad access to healthcare here. Yes,
we complain that it is expensive, but we take for granted that at least we have
the ability to see a doctor or to get medicine or to go to an Emergency Room.
Water
Water
Access to safe drinking water is a serious
problem. Rogbere does not have a well that can provide clean water. This
upcoming year of our partnership will help provide clean water for Rogbere,
along with building sanitary toilets.
Our access to safe water is unlimited. In fact,
Cedar Falls was recently awarded for having some of the best tasting water in
the state. Not only is our water safe, but it tastes great! Let’s be truly
thankful for what we have as we pray for Rogbere.
