Cindy Nofziger, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone, traveled back to the country after the long civil war ended in 2002. During her visit, an old friend asked her to help rebuild the education system that had been destroyed during the decade of fighting. Nofziger wanted to do all that she could to help, “Sierra Leoneans gave me so much when I lived there as a Peace Corps Volunteer. When … one of my Sierra Leonean colleagues from that time asked if I would help him rebuild a school in his village that had been destroyed during the war, I told him I would try.”
War had destroyed much of the country’s educational infrastructure. Nofziger returned to the US and brainstormed ways to help. Within two years she had started Schools for Salone (SFS). The organization builds schools in rural communities where the government spends little of its resources. With access to education, children are often empowered to break the cycle of poverty in their towns. Nofziger explains, “I work full-time for Seattle Public Schools and am a single mom with an 8-year-old son, so SFS is done in the wee hours of the AM or night. We are a completely volunteer organization with everyone working full time at day jobs.” The first school was funded by drawings from kids in Sierra Leone who wanted a chance to receive an education. Eight more schools have been built since and others are being constructed and planned.
