UK aid at work: A final update on how support from the British public supported thousands of children in Sierra Leone go to school

In late 2023, Street Child ran a Christmas appeal in The Times and The Sunday Times that reached over 70 million people. The campaign was supported by match funders including the UK government, raising more than £1.4 million in just eight weeks — a record amount for an international charity. 

The UK Aid Match funding supported a 21-month education programme across four districts in northern Sierra Leone, where thousands of children are growing up without access to education - kept out by poverty, disability, and social attitudes towards schooling. Street Child has been working to change that since 2008. 

Here's what your support made possible...  

For most families in northern Sierra Leone, poverty is the single biggest reason children are not in school. Costs like a uniform, a bag and stationery can be unaffordable for families who don’t have a consistent and reliable source of income.  

Through our Family Business for Education scheme, caregivers received a one-off grant of  $80 alongside practical training in how to start and run a small business. Many used it to set up small enterprises, selling goods or offering services in their local area, and the income they built made school costs manageable. 

Hawa*, a single mother of three from Makeni, had been unable to send her children to school for two years after losing her household income. She used the grant to start a small business selling cooking ingredients, built it steadily, and now runs it independently. As a result, her children are enrolled and attending class regularly now. 

Poverty isn't the only barrier keeping children out of school in Sierra Leone. In some households, caregivers didn't see education as a priority. In others, children had been out of school for so long that returning feels overwhelming. 

Our social workers visited some of these families, took time to understand their situation, and worked with them to address the specific reasons children weren't attending school. Once children were ready to return, they received uniforms and supplies to ease the transition back to into class. 

For children with disabilities, the barriers are often even greater. Many face negative attitudes from those around them, and some find it physically difficult to get to school or follow lessons. Where needed, through this project, children received equipment such as wheelchairs and hearing aids. Street Child social workers provided dedicated support to these families, while community members and local leaders worked together to challenge the attitudes that too often keep children with disabilities out of education. 

Alongside getting children into school, communities took steps to strengthen child protection more broadly. Working with the Ministry of Gender and Children's Affairs and the Ministry of Social Work, communities across all 17 chiefdoms (similar to local councils) set up or reactivated Child Welfare Committees — local groups made up of community members, leaders and government officials who identify children at risk, respond to concerns and connect families with support. 

By the time the programme closed in December 2025, over 4,750 children had accessed education, surpassing our original target of 4,500. We are especially proud that among them were more than 2,500 girls and 500 children with disabilities, two groups who face some of the greatest obstacles to schooling in Sierra Leone. 

Most importantly, 90% of those children were still in school after their first year of enrolment – demonstrating how sustainable Street Child’s interventions were. Additionally, by the programme's end, 89% of participating caregivers had met or exceeded their savings targets, signalling that many of these families are now well placed to keep their children in school independently.
  

We are extremely grateful to the British public and to the UK government for making this possible. Education is transformative to children's lives. It builds confidence, opens doors to opportunities that may have otherwise been closed, and crucially gives children the chance to shape their own futures.  

But with the UK's international aid budget facing significant cuts, fewer education programmes like this one will be possible — and fewer children will get that same chance. Sustained investment in education changes lives. It is what Street Child was founded to champion, and it is why we will keep making the case for it. 

This programme was funded by the British public and matched by the UK Government through the UK Aid Match scheme.
 

*Name changed for safeguarding purposes.