Sierra Leone Educational Enrichment Project

Vision Statement

Our founders and staff have spent an enormous amount of time living in Africa. We are deeply invested in the continent and its people. Therefore, we do not place Africa in a subordinate position in need of dire help. Rather, we look at the continent and our work as uncovering untapped potential. There is immense talent on the continent; we merely seek to nurture the talent by providing the necessary resources, mentorship and training. Therefore, our vision is to shape and mold empowered leaders that will train other leaders and pave the way for an Africa that is in charge of her own destiny. We believe that education is the most powerful tool to make this change. Education includes resources, training, networks and mentorship.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to equip young people in Sierra Leone and Zambia with the skills, experience, and mentorship needed to secure livelihoods and serve as leaders of the technology revolution in Africa. While we have been successful in procuring educational resources towards this endeavor, we feel that the next step is to launch a two-year college and training center specializing in technology in order to fully prepare our students for the 21st Century. We have chosen technology because it is an area that has low barriers to entry and high human capital as well as signiicant potential for growth and profitability. Consumer markets with high growth potential incluide mobile phone applications that are in demand wihtin Africa. The demand for mobile phone apps also generates demand for local software programmers. We believe that in addition to providing all kinds of educaetional resources to Africans, training them to be top software programmers constitutes a susttainable and long-term solution to economic development and innovation on the continent. S.L.E.E.P. aims to help the underprivileged students and their communities in Sierra Leone and Zambia by providing educational resources that promote enriching, supplemental educational programs.

Values Statement

Integrity: We operate with the utmost honesty and transparency in what we do, and say and how we hold each other accountable for our actions. We believe in using our donor funds with integrity by allocating the majority of our funds and resources towards our benefiiciaries and living frugally among our staff.

Innovation: We believe in continually learning, using new ideas and methods, and striving to improve. Although we must operate with bureaucracy and regulations in our relations with external stakeholders, we minimize innnovation stalwarts within our own organization. We have discovered that the best way to keep improving is by learning new ideas and sharing with others. We attend and host conferences that promote thought leadership. We also use rigorous research methods and efficient technologies for our Monitoring and Evaluation Programs. We keep up with the latest news, trends and market research in Africa and beyond.

Respect: We acknowledge dignity, intelligent, talent, potential and contributions of our beneficiaries, donors, staff, partners and other stakeholders.

Service: We believe strongly in reciprocity. Our staff, beneficiaries and donors are part of our larger family and we believe in treating them as such. We keep our stakeholders informed of our latest projects, how we are using our resources and ways in which we are training our students to pay it forward. This is a core value that prompted our founders to start this organization and it continues to be our core value as we forge ahead.

Visionary Thinking and Action: A visionary is a person with ideas about what the future will or could be like. We encourage visionary thinking and action and cultivate it among our students and staff. We also consider our organization a pioneer on this front. We subscribe to the notion that nothing is impossible. It begins with a vision, filled with audacity, imagination, inspiration and insight. We believe that the world needs more visionary leaders and we are here to nurture their development and be models for future leaders.