About Hope Academy for Girls

Hope Academy For Girls (HAFG) is a formal six years of Junior and Senior Secondary School for girls.  Targeted girls are those who are on the verge of dropping out of school due to underachieved grades, financial constraints, abuse or exploitation. These risk factors form part of the criteria and selection process for new intakes.

Hope Academy for Girls is the only all-girls school in the peninsular, and the only school to provide free school meals as well.  The school has been in operation since 2017 under the direction of Mrs. Aliea Kamara, founder and Principal of Hope Academy for Girls.

Location:

The school is located in York Village on the Peninsular Circular Road in the Western Area Rural District. It serves five communities in this area.  The school works in close partnership with the local communities, providing support and resources for community initiatives e.g. water access, community meeting space, adult literacy programs, and community engagement sessions.

Why Hope Academy for Girls?

There continues to exist a striking gender gap in education in Sierra Leone. Roughly 60 percent of girls who enter Primary School do not make it to Secondary School.

This disparity exists for a number of reasons, including:-.

• Unaffordable tuition resulting in the inability for parents to pay school fees and provide necessary school materials. While primary schooling is free, secondary education is not;
• Academic underachievement – students who do not perform well on the primary exit examinations are unlikely to be accepted into a Junior Secondary School;
• Social norms that place emphasis on male education mean that families often elect to invest more heavily in the education of male children;
• Sexual exploitation of girls reaching puberty, resulting in teenage pregnancy or early marriages has unfortunately become very prevalent.

Without equity in education the distribution of wealth will remain skewed, particularly against women. There is a desperate need for well-rounded education which empowers girls in Sierra Leone to achieve their highest potential.  Such that they can be assured of a more prosperous future.