News
Generous donation toward the education of close to 5000 children in Sierra Leone
Olafur Olafsson, executive chairman of Samskip and his wife Ingibjorg Kristjansdottir, landscape architect recently gave a generous gift of over 500 thousand dollars, to the educational project of UNICEF in Sierra Leone. The gift will be used to build 50 schools in rural regions of Sierra Leone where close to 5,000 children between the ages of 6 - 9 will receive the foundational education. In addition, the gift will be used to buy school supplies, train 100 educators and build bathroom facilities and provide clean water for the schools.
Sierra Leone is second on UN's list for poorest nations in the world and nowhere in the World are there worse conditions for children. The rate of infant mortality is extremely high and the nation is healing after over two decades of civil war that ended four years ago. Only 42 percent of children in Sierra Leone have access to educational system and it is estimated that about 300 thousand children in the rural areas are waiting the opportunity to receive the basic education of reading, writing and arithmetic. The gift of Olafur and Ingibjorg will be used where it is most needed.
Ingibjorg and Olafur have a long history of humanitarian work. Olafur sits on the board of Icelandic Red Cross and Ingibjorg is a member of the board of UNICEF in Iceland.
More information on the educational program of UNICEF in Sierra Leone and how you can participate in the program can be found on the UNICEF website www.unicef.org
