{"id":19918,"date":"2011-02-24T00:04:28","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T05:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=19918"},"modified":"2011-02-24T00:04:28","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T05:04:28","slug":"sierra-leone-native-raises-funds-to-help-kids-attend-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=19918","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Leone native raises funds to help kids attend school"},"content":{"rendered":"

MANKATO \u2014 A year ago, Sheka Mansaray was asking for money so he could return to his native Sierra Leone and help his mother get out of an impoverished existence.\u00a0 (Photo: Sheka Mansaray (right), a Minnesota State University student from Sierra Leone, is trying to raise money to help children in his home country pay the national fee required of all students. Children whose family can\u2019t pay simply can\u2019t go to school.)<\/em><\/p>\n

When he got there, he helped her. But he found another problem he couldn\u2019t ignore.<\/p>\n

School kids in his neighborhood \u2014 kids who attended the same school he attended \u2014 were being sent home because they couldn\u2019t afford to pay the fees mandated by the national government.<\/p>\n

So he called home, asked for more money, and his fellow African students at Minnesota State University came through. He helped a handful of kids get back in school.<\/p>\n

But that wasn\u2019t enough. He wants to do more. And he wants your help.<\/p>\n

Mansaray has planned a fundraiser to help many more Sierra Leone kids stay in school. The event is Monday night at MSU.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have that kind of impact was big for me,\u201d Mansaray said. \u201cA little bit of money that I take for granted here was able to lift a load off somebody\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mansaray was there, he took photographs and shot video footage of both his mother\u2019s living conditions \u2014 which\u00a0 he describes as horrible until he helped her move \u2014 and of the children he encountered and tried to help.
\n <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>\"\"<\/a><\/em>

School children in Sheka Mansaray\u2019s old neighborhood in Sierra Leone were being sent home from school because they couldn\u2019t afford the government fees. The MSU college student collected money to get some of them back in school and is trying raise more for the same cause.<\/p><\/div>\n

He\u2019ll show these images at the fundraiser and tell people about his trip, his goals and what he plans to do with the money he raises.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach person that comes, it is not mandatory to donate. But even if they can give a dollar, that would help,\u201d he said. \u201cOur goal now is to raise $10,000 to put 50 students in school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mansaray is part of an MSU group called Voice and Vision, which strives to give students an outlet for creative expression. That group is sponsoring this event, as is another group he started called 50 strong 50 wise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we reach more than $10,000, we might buy land and build a school building, and maybe students from MSU who want to come for a month to teach can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Robb Murray<\/em> <\/em>The Free Press<\/a>, <\/em>Minnesota<\/em>, USA The Mankato Free Press<\/a> Wed Feb 23, 2011, 09:14 PM CST <\/em><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANKATO \u2014 A year ago, Sheka Mansaray was asking for money so he could return to his native Sierra Leone and help his mother get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,745,1],"tags":[769,7100,7101,7102,7103,744,5492,7104,7105],"class_list":["post-19918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-life-and-entertainment","category-uncategorized","tag-education","tag-fundraising","tag-msu","tag-school-fees","tag-sheka-mansaray","tag-sierra-leone","tag-sierra-leone-news","tag-sjeka-mansaray","tag-voice-and-vision"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}