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Before & After

Photo: USAID/U.S. Embassy

BEFORE - Koindu's primary school was completely destroyed during Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war. Rebel soldiers used it as a base and training ground - and they used its books and wooden furnishings as fuel for fires. Virtually nothing was left after the war but the shells of roofless buildings.

Photo: USAID/Laura Lartigue

AFTER - With support from USAID, the community rehabilitated several buildings for the Koindu primary school complex. Many of the children who have returned home from refugee camps in neighboring Guinea now attend school there.

In March 1991, rebel forces in Sierra Leone invaded Koindu in Kailahun District and destroyed both the primary and secondary schools. They then occupied the ruins as a rebel training base for several years, using books and furniture as fuel for fire. Community members fled to a refugee camp in neighboring Guinea, only 2.5 miles away. USAID has spent $3.5 million in Kailahun to help resettle and reintegrate displaced communities, rehabilitating schools, markets, roads, courts, clinics and a major hospital.

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