First trip to West Africa since Covid lockdowns

Dear friends and supporters,


I am just about to head back to the UK from a trip to West Africa visiting some of our current projects in The Gambia and Sierra Leone. This is our first visit since before Covid and I am delighted to share with you all that the projects are progressing well. 


I am in a reflective mood thinking about all the educators and students I met, and the stories they shared with me. I’m also thinking about my friends and family who are preparing for the festive season in the U.K. Despite extreme challenges; cost of living increases, climate change and inequality, our colleagues are passionately committed to providing access to quality education for all children. 


Despite the traffic jams, the dust as we are nearing Hammatan, and the football focus, we shared some laughter and joy. I had an incredible trip, and I would like to feedback to you the difference your support is making. 


Here are just a few highlights:


The Learning resource centre in The Gambia is providing a vital space for teacher training and for educators to carry out research.



I was honoured to meet with 40 SSF young ambassadors in Banjul and Basse who are campaigning for the right to education for all children everywhere, as well as improved conditions for their teachers. 



We looked at our Change makers Speak Out Challenge - The School I want to Learn In together and the students came up with some inspiring ideas for the future of education. 


Sign up here to get involved in our Change makers Speak Out Challenge: 


Change makers Speak Out Challenge


We visited an SEN school in Banjul and the teachers there touched my heart at their incredible passion and love for the students in their care. 



Inspiring stories


I was nspired by a young woman who shared her story with me. She was married at 15, has a baby daughter and due to violence from her husband she ran away. She is 17 now and living with her aunt and she is attending school every day. She is hopeful for the future for her and her daughter. How incredible is that story and the support you have given to enable us to host training on gender based violence is absolutely having an impact on people lives.


In Sierra Leone, my colleague Isata has just had a baby boy Mohammed, and it was a joy to spend time with them both. 


The learning resource centre in Makeni is really coming together, and Isata now has 1 staff member, and 5 volunteers, who are making great progress.



Positive Periods programme


Meeting teachers and students who benefitted from the Positive Periods and Gender Based Violence training, and hearing their testimonies, assured me that our work is having a huge impact on people’s daily lives. 



I was honoured to meet some of the SSF young ambassadors who told me how the Positive Periods program has not only impacted their own personal lives, but the lives of girls in their wider community as well. 


The Foundation works in a way that fosters trust with our partners, builds ownership and sustainable practice on the ground. We listen and we care about the future and I am proud to say our method is working. 



Support our work


However, the list of requests for replication of the work is long and we cannot expand our work without more support. 


If you could find it in your heart to support some of our projects directly by purchasing one of our eco-friendly charity gifts this December, it would make a big difference to so many people. We have gifts priced to suit all pockets, take a look here: https://www.stevesinnottfoundation.org.uk/gifts/


Or you might want to support us to foster a sustainable future for education by making a monthly donation from as little as £5 to any amount you can afford. Click here for a form.


Finally, a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart to you all, for supporting access to education for all. 


Ann





This page presents country specific information including national reports, country commitments, data, and examples of good practices submitted by partners - Sierra Leone


This page presents country specific information including national reports, country commitments, data, and examples of good practices submitted by partners - The Gambia

Steve Sinnott • December 7, 2022

36 Bicycles. Countless Futures in The Gambia.

By Ann Beatty • May 20, 2026
How a simple act of practical solidarity is transforming the journey to school in The Gambia’s Central River Region North Policies have been written. Schools have been built. Yet for many children in The Gambia’s Central River Region North, access to education is still measured in kilometres, not opportunity. 

Education for Hope in Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous Times

By Laura Griffin • May 13, 2026
‘In a single hour vast tracts of shaded woodland became a jumble of torn trees and upturned soil, exposed to the glare of the summer sun. Such land-clearing events are rare, but forests exhibit remarkable resilience in the face of disaster. I’m told that the Chinese character for ‘catastrophe’ is the same as that which represents the word ‘opportunity’. And, the blowdown, while catastrophic, presented opportunities for many species.’ (Wall Kimmerer, 2003: 89). In the context of a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world (Stein, 2021) what kinds of education for hope might support children’s and young people’s critical engagement in local and global issues? In the spirit of exploring the possibilities of hope further, this short article focuses on the area of global citizenship and sustainabilityrelated education. It will briefly open by sharing commonalities across pedagogical approaches that take up the concept and act of hope more critically, and close by offering reflective questions for educators, with suggestions for further reading. Perhaps it is a kind of hope that is grounded in the present, in future reimagining(s), in ethical solidarity, and an acknowledgement of our deep entanglement with the living metabolism of planet earth 1 our singular home (UNESCO, 2021); a hope that engages with complex root causes and lived realities of multiple overlapping crises in critically reflexive and contextually relevant ways. As McCloskey notes, ‘Hope can fire our collective imagination and critical consciousness as a mainspring to activism and intervention in the world.’ (2025: 3). Commonalities across critical pedagogical approaches to hope include: Acknowledging the context of a ‘seamless single story of progress, development and human evolution’ (Andreotti, V.D.O., 2021b Relating to social and ecological justice and the wellbeing of people and planet Using participatory, action-orientated and inquiry-based learning processes Exploring diverse worldviews and perspectives Practising grounding in the present with opening up possibilities for change (relational, embodied, response-able 2 ) Experiencing ‘struggle’ in different forms (dialogical, selfreflexive, open-ended) Engaging individual and collective agency, action and activism Looking for lifelong and life-wide learning and unlearning. 1 See ‘Co-sensing with Radical Tenderness’, in Machado de Oliveira Andreotti. 2021a 2 See ‘Crossing Borders’ in 2 Depth Education “Depth Education and the Possibility of GCE Otherwise, 2021b. Source: Andreotti, V. 2021a & 2021b., Atif, A. (2025)., Bourn, D. 2021., Bryan. A. and Mochizuki,Y., 2024., Giroux, H.A. 2025., Meade, E. 2025. Whilst engaging in the concept and act of hope more critically reflect upon: What kinds of education for hope might you explore further and why? How might you provide generative spaces for engaging in diverse worldviews and perspectives? In what ways can you facilitate individual and collective agency? How might you support learners’ practice grounding in the present in order to relate differently? In what ways can you support learners in navigating complex root causes and lived realities of local and global issues? As Chief Ninawa Hini Kui affirms, ‘The future depends much less on the images we project ahead than on our capacity to repair relations and build relationships differently in the present.’ (Andreotti et al, 2023: 73. An invitation for further reading: Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future . d’Abreu, C., Belgeonne, C., Bourn, D. and Hatley, J. (2025) ‘Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future’. DERC Research Paper 24. London: UCL Institute of Education. Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism. Machado de Oliveira Andreotti, V. (2021a) ‘Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism’ , London: Penguin Random House. Development Education and Hope . McCloskey, S. (2025). (ed) ‘Development Education and Hope’. ‘Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review’ , Vol. 41, Autumn. Centre for Global Education, Belfast. Link to and download the full reference list here

I heard it said today by a friend that “You learn a language best when you use it to speak and write about things that are important to you. ”

By Susan Piper • May 6, 2026
This summed up to me about why I volunteer for the Hands Up Project. HUP is a charity trust which, through its network of volunteers, connects children around the world with young people in Palestine. By means of online interaction, drama and storytelling activities, it enables the use of creativity and selfexpression to promote mutual understanding, personal growth, and the development of English language skills. I joined HUP in 2020 during COVID. After going to Palestine in 2017, I wanted to get more involved in working with Palestinian children in schools. HUP gave me the opportunity to link up with schools in the West Bank and Gaza. Every week I’d tell them stories from all over the world, then we’d discuss it, play games and I’d get them to retell it. Sometimes we would work from their coursebook English for Palestine’ in mutual team teaching sessions with their teacher. The simple act of telling a story became much more than entertainment. It became connection, healing, and a bridge to the world beyond their immediate reality to help them improve their language skills, and to give them a platform to speak about their lives in a language that connects them to people everywhere. I loved it, every week, seeing their smiling faces on the screen and building long lasting friendships with their teachers. I even went to Gaza in 2023 and met some of the kids I’d only seen on Zoom. It was a beautiful experience and something I will never forget. As hostilities escalated, I lost contact with everyone. I thought about where the kids were and what had happened to them. As I watched schools being bombed, universities flattened, and people killed in their thousands, I thought about where the kids I’d met were and what was happening to them. I kept in contact with many of the teachers I knew and heard daily news of displacement, destruction, hunger and bombing. Recently, I’ve started to link up again with children in Gaza, and it feels wonderful to be back helping them learn after being denied an education for over two years. Connecting with children in Palestine is more than just words. When a child in Palestine confidently tells their story to someone on the other side of the world, bridges are built, empathy grows, and the world gains a fuller picture of childhood in contexts far from peace and privilege. My work with these children is rooted in the belief that education and voice are inseparable. Through storytelling and English language learning, I witness children not just learning new vocabulary, but reclaiming their narratives, believing in their potential, and finding human connection in a world they perceive has abandoned them. And more than anything, this work reminds us all that children — everywhere — deserve to learn, to speak, and to be heard. Links to HUP information, books and resources: The Hands Up Project BY SUSAN PIPER Susan Piper is currently an ESOL teacher in Oldham, Greater Manchester and has worked in education for over 30 years. She is also a volunteer for the Hands Up Project and is the International Solidarity Officer and President of her NEU district. She believes in quality education for all and aims to make her lessons creative and inclusive so that effective language learning can take place.