{"id":3775,"date":"2009-11-28T23:10:54","date_gmt":"2009-11-29T04:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=3775"},"modified":"2009-11-28T23:10:54","modified_gmt":"2009-11-29T04:10:54","slug":"generosity-inspires-man-to-now-give-something-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=3775","title":{"rendered":"Generosity inspires man to now ‘give something back’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The founder of a charity set up in memory of a generous Harborough woman will be heading to Sierra Leone this month to promote and establish a base for its work. (Photo: Abdulai Dumbuya known as Abs)<\/em><\/p>\n

When the late Dorothy Springer, of Roman Way, Harborough, anonymously funded Abdulai Dumbuya’s education in the UK she helped transform his life.<\/p>\n

Crippled by polio as a five-year-old in the West African country, Abdulai – known as Abs – grew up in a home run by the Leonard Cheshire charity.<\/p>\n

An attempt to come to study at a college in Harborough failed through lack of funds but when he finally did escape his war-torn country in 1992 to work in the UK as a community service volunteer, the connection paid dividends.<\/p>\n

\"Margaret<\/a>

Margaret Atkins with some of the donated computers in 2007<\/p><\/div>\n

Margaret Atkins, administrator at the Harborough College, had kept in touch with him and, completely unknown to him, her mother Dorothy decided to anonymously fund Abs to complete A-levels in Kettering, and a degree and a doctorate at Loughborough University.<\/p>\n

It was not until Dorothy passed away in 2003 that Abs found out about her kindness, which led him to set up the charity in her name – The Dorothy Springer Trust.<\/p>\n

Abs, now 36, said: “I want to be able to give something back and that is why I set up the charity.<\/p>\n

“What Dorothy did for me was amazing.”<\/p>\n

In 2007 the Mail reported that Abs and Margaret, a trustee of the charity, helped the charity deliver more than 100 computers to disabled people in Leonard Cheshire homes in West Africa.<\/p>\n

Abs is now taking an unpaid career break from his job at Transport Research Laboratory in Bracknell to establish the charity in Sierra Leone with a long-term goal of raising money to support five young people with disabilities through formal IT training.<\/p>\n

They need up to \u00c2\u00a325,000 to do this and have already raised \u00c2\u00a37,000 through fundraising in the UK.<\/p>\n

Abs, who visited Margaret and her family in Harborough last week, said: “I’m going over to get the charity running. I want to be able to set up an employment agency once the training is complete.”<\/p>\n

To find out more or to donate visit www.dorothy-springer-trust.org.uk<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sorie Sudan Sesay, Information Attach\u00c3\u00a9, Sierra Leone High Commission, UK\/NI<\/address>\n

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

The founder of a charity set up in memory of a generous Harborough woman will be heading to Sierra Leone this month to promote and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,1],"tags":[1817,1818,1819],"class_list":["post-3775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-uncategorized","tag-abdulai-dumbuya","tag-margaret-atkins","tag-the-dorothy-springer-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3775","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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3775\/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=3775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}