FOLLOWING UP WITH THE KIDS FROM B2RD

Contributed by: Dave

PART I

Yesterday was emotional. Today was fun.

At every stop on the festival circuit, people ask the inevitable question, “Where are they now?” We’ve been able to give vague updates gleaned from letters and emails, but today, we got to ask that question ourselves.

One-by-one, we brought in the kids from the film to hear what they were up to now. We don’t want to give away too many spoilers from our upcoming DVD release, but we can tease it a little. Balla is doing fabulously. Not only has he continued to draw, he’s working as an apprentice at a graphic design shop. Apprenticeship wasn’t for Emmanuel, who decided to open his own small business (wait til we share his new setup). Chief (Abdul) is killing it in school and is on a university track. Gladis is still teaching others how to dance… and still dances with Augusta. Augusta is enrolled at one of the top girls’ schools in Sierra Leone and just represented her school in a dance competition that she placed second in. We couldn’t have asked for better updates—they’re all doing so well.

Aunty Musu attributed a lot of the children’s success to the secondary school sponsorship program we established in 2009 through Schools for Salone. Not every child has a sponsor (hint, hint), so she makes sure the kids know that having one is a privilege. She has told them that they must earn these scholarships and if they don’t, they will be given to a more deserving student. Every night, she says, the students rush to the table to do homework together. Aunty Musu and Aunty Sento get progress reports every two weeks and the results are glowing (they could hardly contain their pride when sharing this with us).

We also sat down on camera with each child that has a sponsor. Consistently, we heard the same thing. The sponsorship changed my life. Without education, I am nothing. I will make you proud. Truthfully, communication back and forth to Salone has been a challenge to the sponsorship program, so hearing that the program is having the desired results was extremely reassuring (and if you happen to be one of our sponsors, look forward to getting a video message soon!).

During the interview process, Chief, Balla and E stuck around, but they didn’t just hang out, they helped. We may have first seen it yesterday, but today we really witnessed how these kids, if we can still call them that, have transitioned into leaders of their community. Given the necessary resources, they are going to, as Balla said he wanted to do in BROWNSTONES, “Push Salone forward.”

We can’t wait to see them do it.