CEEPARD Expands Education Support Programme to 2,500 Vulnerable Children in Waterloo
Osman Tolo Sesay The Center for Empowerment, Education, Peace and Agriculture for Rural Development (CEEPARD) has expanded its annual education support programme to benefit 2,500 vulnerable children and women-led households in rural communities in Waterloo.
The organisation launched the sixth edition of its Summer School Livelihood Support Programme for less-privileged children at the Bassa Town Playing Field on Tuesday, September 22, 2026.
The initiative, held under the theme, “The 17/7 Principle: An Assurance to Achieve All-Round Academic Excellence Through Societal Synergies,” brought together children, parents, teachers and community members.
Speaking at the launch, CEEPARD Deputy Executive Director Ing. Mohamed Osman Mansaray said the programme was established to help address challenges that prevent children from enrolling in or remaining in school.
Mansaray described CEEPARD as a community-based organisation working to support less-privileged children while also undertaking activities in agriculture, engineering and other areas.
He said the organisation supported 1,500 pupils during last year’s edition but increased the number of beneficiaries to 2,500 this year.
“This is our sixth edition. We are supporting less-privileged children here within the Western Area. The programme is designed to ease some of the challenges that prevent children from attending or staying in school,” Mansaray said.
He identified the lack of basic educational materials as one of the challenges affecting school attendance and retention among some children.
“We have a lot of school-going pupils that drop out because they say they don’t have bags, pens, or pencils to go to school,” he said.
Mansaray said CEEPARD views the initiative as part of its contribution to expanding access to education and supporting one of the government’s flagship programmes.
“As an organisation, we thought it fit that we need to partner with stakeholders and other partners to see how best we can raise funds and support them to ensure that they go to school,” he said.
He also appealed to parents to ensure that the educational materials provided to their children are used for their intended purposes.
Mansaray further called on organisations, individual donors and other partners to support the programme, saying additional assistance would enable CEEPARD to reach more beneficiaries.
“To donor partners, we are pleading with them to come on board and let’s partner and make this initiative a bigger one. We are targeting over 5,000 children next year,” he said.