Sunga Primary School

Sunga is 5 miles southwest of Tikonko Town in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone. The road between Tikonko and Sunga is a dirt trail, and difficult to navigate during the rainy season. The adult literacy level is extremely low with only 5 women and 10 men able to read or write. The main source of income is subsistence farming for both men and women, growing rice, cassava, bennie (sesame seed) beans, and yams. Sunga has a Christian church and a mosque (Islam) with Christians and Muslims living in harmony. Sunga has only one water pump which is often faulty, and the school has no well, so the swamp is the source of water. Sunga is 5 miles from the nearest health facility and hosts one of RHCI’s mobile outreach clinics.

Sunga Primary School, grades 1-6, is a government-assisted school. Enrollment in September 2022 was 200 pupils as some pupils had not started attending due to agriculture work and the rainy season (At the end of the last school year, 300 pupils were attending). In addition to Sunga, enrollment includes pupils from the villages of Magbema, Mbawomahun, Gibina and Sogbehun. This school, established in 1999, is about 30-40 meters from the village and has only 2 paid teachers and one volunteer.