Sarah’s Story

I was born in Sierra Leone and experienced a significant lack during my early years. I loved going to school where I mainly rote-learned English tenses and times tables. For me, storybooks were a luxury. There was the odd Enid Blyton, tattered and torn with missing pages, but I enjoyed reading them and my favourite was The Famous Five…until I read Chike and the River by Chinua Achebe! This story is about a boy in a village who craves to go to the city. He sets out on an adventure, met good fortune and becomes a hero. I thought, gee, that’s easy! But I longed for more challenging adventure stories and became an avid reader. My love of books continued through high school. I remember having to sit up all night till seven the next morning to complete reading Jeffery Archer’s Shall We Tell the President. The next person in line was at my door at exactly 7am to pick it up. This was a book I literally grabbed from a friend after he approached me with his two hands behind his back. I knew he was carrying something good.

A new life began for me when I arrived in Australia in 2008. Soon after, I started working at my public library. I was amazed at our huge collection of children’s books in particular. My dream of helping young disadvantaged children with access to a generous collection of books was conceived. Excited young faces exploring big beautiful books with bright coloured pictures flashed in my dreams. I started collecting books. In 2012, I established the Sierra Leone Book Project, which became Sierra Leone Education project and now, Sierra Learners.