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cdpeace is Reviving Local Traditional Music with Youths

By Mary Hawa Turay | Published: March 11, 2011

Money was raised by Logan MacGillivray in Canada for cdpeace to buy local traditionally made musical instruments for children to use at the Listen to the Children Resource Center which is under construction at the cdpeace headquarter, Mayagba, Sierra Leone. When the construction of the centre is completed early this summer, cdpeace is going to setup a Youth Peace Band that will have both local and international instruments. Logan has collected a grand piano, Guitars, drums and other Western instruments that were shipped to cdpeace in Sierra Leone.

Dr. Thomas Mark Turay, cdpeace Co-founder’s Comments: “The Head Teacher at Mayagba told me that one of the effects of the 11 years of war is that young people have lost local tradition knowledge. For years now, students have not been exposed to playing traditional music. In a sense, Logan is helping the schools to revive a worthwhile tradition that is almost being lost”.

Samples of Local Traditionally Made Musical Instruments

Video of Youth Peace Band (Beginners)

The attached photos and video are from students at R. C. School, Mayagba, beating some of the drums and other instruments that have been collected. cdpeace hopes to get all the musical instruments of the 13 major tribes in Sierra Leone for the Listen to the Children Resource Center. But will have to search for some of the instruments in neighboring country Guinea since many of the crafts men and women who knew how to make them have either died or migrated to other parts of the country. It is worth noting that Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Republic of Guinea share similar cultures.

View Pictures of the Construction of the "Listen to the Children Multi-Purpose Centre"

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cdpeace Partner, Logan MacGillivray: Received the Red Cross 2010 Young Humanitarian Award

By Mary Hawa Turay | Published: November 12, 2010

Logan MacGillivray loading the 1st container for Sierra Leone

“Logan has done it, and he will do it again”

Well, Logan has done it again. cdpeace joins to sing with the children of Maso Community School that composed this song for young Logan MacGillivray in 2008 who was 10 years old when he shipped his first 40 ft. container from Canada to Sierra Leone.

On Wednesday November 10, 2010, Logan MacGillivray from Bedford Nova Scotia, Canada was honored by Red Cross as the Young Canadian Humanitarian Award Winner for his work with cdpeace at the World Trade Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada. Logan is the Founder of “Listen to the Children: A Journey of Sharing” Charity. This is the 6th. Award that Logan has received since he started working with cdpeace.

Logan started working with cdpeace when he was 10 years old in 2008. Inspiring others to realize they can make a difference, Logan has campaigned across Canada and beyond to support children in Sierra Leone. With the guidance of cdpeace, Logan worked with many volunteers to ship two 40-foot containers filled with building, school supplies and sport equipments. Logan depicts this journey in a short documentary/music video and he is now raising funds to build a multi-purpose Centre for children at the cdpeace headquarters in Mayagba , Sierra Leone.

“When you are trying to do something good, people will come forward to help,” he says. “So nothing is too big to do.”

“I wanted to create awareness of Sierra Leone by making a documentary/music video so others could see that they need help at this time. All proceeds from the sale of the Listen To The Children videos after costs for duplication and shipping will be used to help construct a community resource centre for students and teachers at the cdpeace headquarters at Mayagba, Sierra Leone. Amongst other good things, the resource centre will assist in the training of local teachers and the coordination of getting school supplies to local schools.”

Mrs. Mary Hawa Turay, cdpeace Co-founder was asked to propose a toast to the good health of Logan.

Mary Hawa Turay’s Speech: “I’ve come to know Logan MacGillivray very well when he was 10 years old in 2008 when he started working with The Centre for Development and Peace education (cdpeace), a centre founded by myself and my husband Dr. Thomas Mark Turay to support community development, education, health and economic development.

Logan’s fundraising work has led to the shipment of two 40-foot containers of supplies for two rural communities in Sierra Leone, including educational material, sports equipment, building supplies, health supplies, and more. His work has benefitted two Chiefdoms in rural Sierra Leone that are home to about 66,000 people and I can tell you that Logan is a household name in these communities.

His documentary has inspired people here in Canada, but it also motivates youths in Sierra Leone to get involved and develop leadership skills. I’m happy to report that with the support of Logan, the construction of the children’s multi-purpose resource centre is underway. Once complete, it will have classrooms, a computer lab, a music room and an outdoor playground.

I raise my glass to honour Logan MacGillivray, the Red Cross 2010 Young Humanitarian Award Recipient. Thank you Logan for your passion, your generosity and kindness to my people in Sierra Leone.”

For more information about Logan, visit the following websites:

Logan MacGillivray, the Red Cross 2010 Young Humanitarian Award Recipient. http://www.chsredcross.org/article.asp?id=36232&tid=062

Listen to the Children. http://www.listentothechildren.net/

Online Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/cdpeace1992/2008ListenToTheChildrenFundRaisingFillingTheContainerInCanada

Center for Development and Peace Education (cdpeace). www.cdpeace.org

Building Plan for the "Listen to the Children Multi-pourpose Centre

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cdpeace Interns from Queens University

By Mary Hawa Turay | Published: April 21, 2010

INTRODUCING JENIKA ADOLPH AND TANYA CEROVIC

Jenika Adolph and Tanya Cerovic are Teacher Candidates from the Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, Canada. They were in Sierra Leone for three weeks in March/April 2010. While in Sierra Leone, they worked with cdpeace communities, schools, teachers and students. They also helped to raise funds for our unpaid and untrained Community Teachers’ Scholarship Program. They have raised funds to send a teacher to collage. cdpeace would like to thank Jenika and Tanya for their contributions, particularly for supporting our schools.

Tanya and Jenika

Supporting our schools

MESSAGE FROM JENIKA ADOLPH AND TANYA CEROVIC

Planet Earth: Sierra Leone!

Hello! Our names are Jenika Adolph and Tanya Cerovic. We are Queen’s University Teacher Candidates, studying to become a Primary/Junior Teacher and an Intermediate/Senior Teacher, respectively. Through a mutual Professor at Queen’s, Dr. William Egnatoff, we were connected with Dr. Thomas Mark Turay, co-founder and Director of cdpeace, Sierra Leone.For our final practicum (alternative teaching practice), we opted to take a leap of faith and come to Sierra Leone to work with cdpeace and the Sierra Leonean students and teachers. We are situated in a small village called Mayagba (approx. 12 miles from the largest city in the Northern Province, Makeni), where cdpeace headquarters is located. We were welcomed to the community with open arms and took about a week to shed our ‘orpotho’ (white person) status and establish our identities as the Canadians, Jenika and Tanya (or as the children say, ‘Jen-knee-kah and Chan-yah’)! Using broken Temne and English, our personalities, experiences and local interpreters (English speakers), we are able to share our work with the community.The projects which we are helping to facilitate include: Teacher training workshops, basketball lessons and most importantly, school twinning. Working alongside Adult Literacy Coordinator, Mr. Mark Fornah, Dr. Turay and Dr. Egnatoff, as well as the incredible cdpeace staff, we are connecting Sierra Leonean schools with their Canadian partner schools.Our first official connection began on March 24, 2010, between Mapaki Primary School in the Paki-Masabong region and the Robert Service Primary School in Dawson City, Yukon. We listened to a live radio broadcast sent from the Dawson City classroom here in Sierra Leone, followed by a feedback and question session from the Mapaki students to the Canadian students, online!Due to a lack of resources and Internet access, twinning is a full-time task, peppered with various obstacles and hard-work, however, we all felt it’s well worth it. By creating a network of sharing and learning about and from each other, we’re enabling the development of a truly peaceful and global community.We’re very excited for the next two weeks and what sharing experiences may arise. We know that we will miss our moonlight bucket showers, dusty ‘Okada’ rides and epic ‘Sports Days’, but most importantly, the communities which have so graciously welcomed us and provided us with a second home and Salone family. Thank you cdpeace!

Yours Truly,

Jenika and Tanya

View More Pictures

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Sherry Prenevost: Namasa Ansar (Mother of the Chiefdom)

By Mary Hawa Turay | Published: March 26, 2010

Sherry Prenevost in Sierra Leone, December 2009

Sherry Prenovost is a cdpeace Volunteer in Canada. She initiated Jill’s Kids Foundation in memory of her dear friend, Jill who was very interested in supporting the work of cdpeace in Sierra Leone but passed away in 2009. To honour her wishes, Jill’s family and friends decided to raise funds during Jill’s funeral for the children in Sierra Leone, which has now become Sherry’s volunteer work with cdpeace.Sherry Prenevost first visited cdpeace Sierra in 2008. As a CEO of a charitable organization, she wanted to experience the work of cdpeace and its communities first hand. Sherry was able to visit many schools and communities in the most remote parts of cdpeace’s communities. She connected with all cdpeace staff, communities, elders and children. During her first visit, Sherry was crowned as a Chief in the Gbonkolenken Chiefdom and named Namasa Ansar (Mother of the Chiefdom) by P. C. Bai Sunthumba Osar II. She was the first visitor that was given such honour by one of the Paramount Chiefs of cdpeace’s targeted chiefdoms.Sherry was captivated by the village of Mathombo which was burnt to the ground during the war. The school was burnt down while the children were in school and several students were burnt alive while in the school. Sherry was the first cdpeace visitor who spent time in this community and listened to their stories. Mathombo community had received support CAD $2,500 from CIDA (through Peaceful Schools International) which the community used to collect and transport local material. With Sherry’s intervention, she created awareness in Canada, about the horrible story of the forgotten Mathombo village. With the help of Green Solutions, The NHL organization – Newport Sports Management Inc (Mississauga, Ontario). provided support to build and furnish the school for Mathombo Community. In April 2009, Sherry led representatives from Newport Sport Management Inc. and Green Solutions to officially hand over the school to Mathombo community and the local leaders.

View pictures of the old school in 2007

View pictures of the new school since 2009

MESSAGE FROM SHERRY PRENEVOST
January 15, 2010

“…I call Mayagba home…not because of residence but because of the people and the tremendously warm welcomes given to all who come to work on behalf of and with cdpeace. I have found this part of life here to be one of the most rewarding…that of the welcome; regard; caring; openness; and want of the people to share-give-learn and simply be in our company each and every day. The children are incredible – ever present and full of life and possibilities. Adults and children alike are hungry for all opportunities of advancement; learning and sharing. Every child dreams of an education yet many are unable to attend due to poverty. This is my 3rd trip to SL. The first 2 trips were in the capacity of my work as CEO of an international Charity and the 3rd is on a personal level as I have come to see the level of integrity; commitment and action brought forth by cdpeace. I am here this time to document projects; gather stories of past community and partner collaboration and to visit a school made possible by cdpeace and international involvement – literally built brick by brick by 3 communities and cdpeace. It was a tremendous testimony to the resilience of the people and they speak of this experience as a healing of the losses and fears of the war. …there are opportunities on both professional and personal levels and there is no shortage of areas of involvement/collaboration: health; education – both-adult and child; recreation; nutrition; gender issues; youth; micro finance; entrepreneurial mentoring; community; IT; infrastructure; etc. The opportunities also work reciprocally. Sierra Leone is a county and a people of deep tradition; rich culture and over 14 tribal groups – there is MUCH to learn; share and experience. I wish to finish this note by saying I am here because of the organization that cdpeace has become; because of the integrity and endless work that cdpeace-Mary and Thomas have done; and because of this once in a lifetime opportunity of personal and professional enrichment. I live each day here realizing that 1 person truly CAN make a difference… Mo Mo Nou – Owhy-yu (Thank you – Good bye)”.

Kindest Regards,
Sherry Prenevost

View more pictures of Sherry’s visit in 2008

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Dr. William J. Egnatoff: cdpeace Volunteer and Partner (Queen’s University)

By Mary Hawa Turay | Published: March 16, 2010

THE PHOTO: Was taken at Mayagba, Sierra Leone, West Africa. FROM RIGHT: Dr. Bill Egnatoff (cdpeace Volunteer and Partner), Dr. Thomas Mark Turay (cdpeace Executive Director & Co-Founder), Mary Hawa Turay (cdpeace Director, International Partnership Programs & Co-founder), Francis H. Massaquoi (cdpeace Accountant & Administrator).

INTRODUCING DR. WILLIAM EGNATOFF

Dr. William J. Egnatoff is an Associate Professor, Computers in Education, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. Bill works both as a cdpeace volunteer and has also partnered cdpeace with the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University, Canada. He is working with cdpeace on school networking between cdpeace pilot schools in Sierra Leone and schools in Canada, United States, and Japan. Bill is also providing technical advice to cdpeace on information and computer technology. He has visited Sierra Leone four times. His most recent visit was in March 2011 working on school networking, reviving storytelling in the schools as a vehicle for peace education, and assisting with the installation of the Internet system which will provide Internet services to cdpeace’s Head Office at Mayagba and to the other cdpeace outreach Centres in Mapaki and Makonkorie. In March 2010, two of Bill’s teacher candidates, Jenika Adolph and Tanya Cerovic, in the Bachelor of Education program at Queens University arrived in Sierra Leone to work with cdpeace staff, communities and schools. A year later, he returned with two more teacher candidates, Sara Hailstone and Erin Draper, to work on storytelling in the schools. In March 2012, Bill, his wife Joan, and teacher candidates Allyson Windham and Elizabeth Cloutier, will build on this work.

A MESSAGE FROM Dr. WILLIAM EGNATOFF
January 13, 2010

“My work with Sierra Leone colleagues has me wearing two hats: my teacher educator/researcher hat from the Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, and my cdpeace volunteer hat. This is my third and longest trip to Sierra Leone, the first being in 2006 for just under three weeks, which included only a brief visit to rural areas, which convinced me that was where I wanted to concentrate my efforts in the future; the second, in 2007, nearly four weeks, splitting time between Freetown and the village of Mapaki, and this trip of five weeks, which has been centered entirely on cdpeace work, with Mayagba as residence. I’ve already found myself calling it home. My volunteer work has been concentrated on improving electrical infrastructure and Internet access at two key cdpeace sites, since both of those matters seem to be of strategic importance to allow cdpeace staff and visitors to work effectively and efficiently in getting the organization solidly back on its feet. My teacher education/research work is centered on understanding and strengthening a school twinning program with eleven cdpeace pilot schools in the two chiefdoms in which cdpeace is concentrating its initial efforts. In all of this work, I have placed myself in the hands of the many people who support cdpeace. Everything is planned collaboratively, and adjusted day by day according to ever-changing exigencies. More than ever before in my life, I feel happiness, joy, fulfillment, and peace. Every moment is an opportunity for learning, sharing, and simply living and working together. I’ve especially enjoyed working closely with several young men, whether in school or graduated and working as cdpeace staff or volunteers. Whatever your interests and expertise, if you love working with people, there is endless opportunity…”

From Bill