Thank you for your interest in supporting the work in Madina, Sierra Leone. There are many ways you can support us such as giving to the school or health center, or sponsoring a teacher.

Madina Village School, Inc. is a charitable 501(c)(3) organization based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a Board of Directors giving oversight to the project of education and health care in Madina, Sierra Leone. Our EIN is 90-0927683. 100% of all donations and sponsorships are used to operate the school, feed the children, and build the health center.
Frequently Asked Questions
- We always need money for the feeding program and school.
- We need equipment for the health center, surgical units, etc.
- We need doctors and an administrator for the Health Center.
- We always need more books that are appropriate for our students.
- We need more energy.
- We need prayers.
Madina Village School has been approved for assistance from the Government of Sierra Leone, which has agreed to provide salaries for ten teachers and to provide basic textbooks. A few textbooks have been delivered, but no other subsidies have been received.
School gardens provide some of the food items used in the feeding program. Parents contribute small fees and products for the feeding program, such as wood, palm oil and chickens, but 90% or more are not able to provide the cost of education for their children. Sponsorships of all children and teachers will provide the bulk of operational expenses.
When the health center is completed, fees will be charged to outsiders who receive services, excepting the students, staff and their immediate families. These are not likely to completely support the expenses of the health center.
The annual budget is currently set at $193,000.
There were 200+ donors in 2021, including 170 sponsors of children.
The initial capital for the beginning construction of the school was Francis Mustapha’s retirement annuity, assisted by contributions from his church in Indiana. Many other people have become donors and sponsors in the years since. Help is also given by organizations such as Rotary and Kiwanis and small grants by family foundations. The Mustaphas regularly give presentations at churches, schools, and organizations to raise funds.
There are many short term and long term goals for MVS and its clinic.
In the short term our goal is to provide a strong basic primary education to the children of the Madina area and to improve the health of their families through the clinic. That is stated in our Mission Statement (see above).
The short term educational goals specifically include:
- To operate a well-managed, well-maintained school with high quality teachers who are respected, valued and paid on time.
- To produce students who can all read, comprehend and write proficiently in English and also in Mende, their first language. Reading and thinking will be stressed in all subjects.
- To provide religious teaching that will respect all religions and allow students and teachers to choose to become Christians or not, without coercion or rejection.
The short term medical goals specifically include:
- a system of testing, treatment and prevention of malaria.
- Teaching students the knowledge of hygiene and nutrition to eliminate all malnutrition and worm infestation, and
- prenatal and postnatal education to eliminate the high incidence of maternal and infant deaths.
The long term goals for the school and health center are even more important:
- To create a transforming spirit of hopefulness, Godly lovingkindness, and empowering energy in the community around Madina, to counteract the years of hopelessness and helplessness caused by war, corruption and poverty. This has already begun.
- To build a mindset of integrity, value and beauty into the children of the Madina area by establishing a place of care, safety and creativity for them to belong to and come back to as they spread out through Sierra Leone and beyond.
- To counteract the distrust of modern health care by including the children’s education within the community health center. This goal is not only to improve the health of the children and families, but to inspire the children to believe and choose to become nurses, doctors, researchers, scientists, builders and engineers, ultimately adding great value to the country.
- To add one grade at a time through JSS and Secondary School.
- To build Madina Village School’s reputation of high performance on National Exams, such that the word “village” loses its negative connotation.
- To instill a positive connection to the community by all students being involved in service projects, newspaper writing projects, and school programs.
- To reach out to other schools and the S.L. system as a whole with activities that can be replicated successfully in a wide variety of conditions. i.e. D.E.A.R., writing, drama
- To collect and publish writings by MVS students and teachers, creating the modernization of literacy in Mende, to stop the gradual death of the language.
- To build a library/publishing center to provide and produce literacy materials in both English and Mende.
- To establish students with such strong integrity that as adults spreading throughout Sierra Leone they will substantially impact politics, governance, business, health care and education and transform Sierra Leone.
More than four hundred students are getting a high-quality primary education at Madina Village School and their families are benefiting from the malaria prevention program which provides treated mosquito nets for each home. We are also visited each year by a mission team of doctors who see patients from the community, up to 100 in one day.
The Madina Village School community health center is still under construction. (2021). It is a cross-shaped cement block building with a metal roof. When it is finished and operational it will provide facilities for birthing, health and wellness care of infants, surgeries, treatment of tropical diseases, emergency care, a pharmacy and educational programs for students of MVS and community groups. It will provide for the families of the 400 students and 32 employees and a presently unknown number of other community members.
In Sierra Leone, the school employs 32 adults, including teachers, assistants, cooks, nannies, nurse, groundskeepers and security.
The ongoing hospital construction employs a contractor and a varying number of skilled workers and 12-15 unskilled laborers. When it is complete and operational, it will employ others.
Our mission statement is to provide Christian education to the children of the Madina area and to improve their quality of life through outreach.
Yes. Madina Village School Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization, with an IRS ruling year of 2014, and donations are tax-deductible. Charity Organization Categories: Education and Health Care.