The world of Tzu Chi May 2020 (Vol.122)

2020 • 05 38 Students in class in a primary school in Tombo. This private school was converted from a deserted warehouse. The indoor space is divided by wooden poles and recycled sacks into seven classrooms for a hundred to 150 students. There is no lighting or air conditioning. With so many children crowded together for lessons, the teaching quality and learning efficiency are quite debatable. In Freetown, as throughout the entire country, ambulatory vendors hawking goods balanced on their heads are everywhere. They walk around the streets at any time and place, on the lookout for potential customers. This is how they make a living. A large percentage of people in Sierra Leone strive to keep themselves and their families fed by running this kind of micro-business. Children wait in the rain for the distribution of hot food by Tzu Chi. One of them shields herself from the rain with a container she brought to hold the food.