List of Achievements and Projects Completed by the Global Associations
The Washington DC area chapter of the OPWA is part of a global alumni organization of the Prince of Wales School, which includes the Old Prince Waleans Association of UK and Ireland, Associations of New Jersey, Georgia, and California).
The following is a list of achievements and projects completed by these global Associations over the past decade:
- We raised $14,000 in three months from Prince Waleans to purchase and ship 1,000 chairs to the school to ease the chronic shortage of chairs for the pupils.
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We provided the school with a dozen desktop computers in 1999 enabling them to start the first secondary school computer laboratory in Freetown.
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We were the first Association to set up a teacher’s revolving fund that allowed teachers of the school to be paid their monthly wages when the government was delayed in doing so.
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We developed the “Family Fun Day” at the end of summer in the Washington Metro Area, which now encompasses several other Alumni Associations and Sierra Leonean organizations. m We have provided over 30 boxes of scientific equipment, primarily for the Chemistry, Biology and Physics laboratories in the last three years.
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Responding to an appeal by the Principal of the School, we submitted a petition with over 400 signatures of past Prince Waleans to the Minister of Education to reverse the “School of Excellence designation that had been assigned to the school by the previous government’s Minister of Education, that required the Junior Secondary School sector of the school to be phased out. In fact the school had already phased out forms 1 and 2.
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We provide both teaching and non-teaching staff with a Christmas bonus.
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We annually provide deserving students with full scholarships for Tuition, books and clothing.
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This petition in concert with the efforts by the Board of Governors of the school resulted in the Minister of Education reversing this designation and the school resorting to a full Junior and Senior Secondary as other schools. m We raised $60,000 within a year, primarily from Prince Waleans to finance, install and commission a solar powered computer center at the school, including twenty-four (24) laptop computers.
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The school has already recently received over 400 textbooks as reference texts in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Environmental Science. We anticipate that these texts will provide the students additional reference material to aid them in these core science subjects for which the school has already been recognized for.
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On the occasion of the school’s 80th Anniversary, the Associations collectively provided replacement trophies and medals for the annual inter-house sports day, and provided each pupil, teacher and past pupil who attended the thanksgiving Service with a commemorative pen.
We continue to work assiduously in our commitment to provide the next generation of Sierra Leonean leaders, technologists and academics the tools to compete in the global workplace as well as ensuring that we contribute to the communities of the Diaspora.
For more information about the OPWA Washington DC area Chapter please contact Omar Kuyateh atKuyateho@gmail.com, Syl Newstead at zytos@hotmail.com, Desmond Strasser-King at strasski123@gmail. com, or Ahmed Tejan-Koroma at ahmedtejan@hotmail.com.