December 2, 2019
By: Frederick V. Kanneh
Street Sports Hope Sierra Leone (SSHSL), an organization that focuses on taking vulnerable children out of the streets through sports, has on 26th November given out business grants of le 500,000 each to five parents of vulnerable children under their watch.
Speaking to the parents before the distribution of the grant at Yams Farm community, Chief Executive Officer of SSHSL, Alie Sesay, recalled that in the recent past, the organisation had provided grants to parents in its six operational areas in Sierra Leone, thus that was the third set of business support that SSHSL had given to parents whose children are under the purview of the organization.
He added that the business grant was a complement to the school and sports support that the organization had given to the vulnerable children on its data.
“If we have succeeded in taking these children out of the streets through sports, and we have sent them to schools, its but fitting that we empower their parents with small business capitals which will be used to support these children while going to school and doing their different sports of choice,” he said.
He concluded that the monies were not meant to be eaten at a go by the parents but to be invested into a small business which profits would be used to provide lunch for the vulnerable children.
He added that recipients of the grants will be saving le 7,000 per week and that after twenty weeks, their complete monies will be given back to them.
to add on their businesses.
The Operations Manager of SSHSL, Mohammed Musa, appealed to the recipients to comply with the savings method as explained by the CEO, adding that the money was totally meant for them and that the savings method was just a way of teaching them business savings skills.
“Please don’t go into hiding when you see our field workers coming to collect the weekly savings. As an organization, we just want to teach you the habit of savings in business,” he reiterated.
One of the beneficiaries of the Business Grants, Jariatu Sesa, said she noticed that SSHSL was different from other Non-Governmental Organizations the very first day it gave School Support to her two children, nothing that she was still thinking of a way to show gratitude to the organization because of the positive way it has impacted her entire family.
“It is very difficult to see an organization that would provide for a whole family without expecting anything in return, but SSHSL has done that to us for which I am very grateful,” she said.