These are teachers of a Hearing Impaired Primary School in Makeni. It was founded in 1987 to educate the hearing-impaired (deaf) children of Makeni and the country as a whole. This school is one of two hearing-impaired schools in the country. The school has a total of 150 pupils drawn from all over the country and a staff of twenty-eight teachers. Since its inception in 1987, the school has trained many deaf children in the art of reading and writing, lip reading, carpentry, sewing and agriculture.

Unlike its counterpart in Freetown, this school teaches maternal reflective methods (lip reading) in addition to signing/finger reading. However, the school faces some great challenges. Many parents of the deaf tend to use the school as a dumping ground. They bring their children to the school and never again come to see how the child is progressing. Some parents do not care about giving support to their deaf children. And during holidays, some of the parents will never again bring the children back to the school.

This is the first loan this school is seeking from SMT/Kiva. With this loan, they will be able to invest in some petty-trading in order to supplement their monthly salaries. Some however will use theirs to either buy pieces of furniture or in constructing houses. This loan will definitely improve the economic status of these teachers.

Aloysius D. K. (left) is the head manager of this school. He has been a teacher at this school for twenty-one good years. Mr. K. was born in Makeni, in northern Sierra Leone. He is fifty-nine years of age, married with four children. One of his children is in secondary school, another in college, and the eldest are already grown-ups. With this loan, Mr. K. will pay school fees for his children.