Stepping Forward is trying to raise £8,000 for a bus for the Hosetta Abdulai Special Needs School in Freetown, Sierra Leone through crowdfunding at:
The school is for children/young people with learning disabilities, including cerebral palsy and autism. Many of the children require personal care and are non-verbal. A significant number have severe epilepsy. The School is the most appropriate available provision for the children but most of the pupils simply cannot get there.
There are 73 boys and girls on the school register but some days there are only 3 children at the school due to transport problems. Families face many obstacles to getting their children to school: the daily transport costs for two people (pupil and parent/carer) to travel to school is prohibitive for most families and the average journey in Freetown takes two hours each way. This does not allow time for the parent/carer to work in the day before returning to collect the child.
We have raised £3,000 so far for a bus to take the children to school and now need to find an additional £5,000. The used mini-bus that we plan to buy is in Freetown and has been checked by a mechanic. It is a 27 seater. The owner has reserved it for us and has given us until the end of May 2017 to raise the funds to purchase the bus.
We hope that people will consider supporting the purchase of the school bus – and by doing so supporting the children and young people at the Hosetta Abdulai School to access their right to education.