As we continue to honour our ladies in the Land that we love for our “One Day, One Woman” through The Peagie Woobay Scholarship Fund to celebrate WOMEN, we on day 29 proudly honour a special lady Mrs Marie Vandi, nee Sesay, the first illiterate woman to open first a Womens Education Centre at her Home residence, then a primary school and eventually the Marie Vandi Secondary School at Kissy Shell Company. She was born in Kpendembu Chiefdom, Bombali district around the early 1950s. She was one of 8 kids brought to be raised in Freetown by her late aunt Madam Bakie Sesay. School was never considered for Marie as a child but was taught how to trade. Marie got married at a very early age but there had always been a dream, to be able to read and write. In 1984, she convinced a group of women at their Church to learn how to read the bible. She was 32 when the then Loko Church pastor started teaching them to read the bible. They started by learning to read verses of the bible by heart. People cheered them on womens sundays ceremony as they took the stage. This church school was extended to her home which involved other women outside the church. The women at Kissy, outside Freetown where she had lived since 1975, started graduating from a reading and writing course to home - economics. It became an informal learning centre. She then opened a primary school for poor kids like herself who couldnt go to school mostly because of the parents ignorance. It opened doors to 27 children on its first formal day. It quickly grew and since 2009 there is the Marie Vandi Junior Secondary School. She was also the chairperson of the market womens association, and creator of many self-help organisations for women and the youths. It is remarkable that Marie Vandi has never travelled out of Sierra Leone not even during the war.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 05:14:20 +0000
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