Corporate Social Responsibility
Making a difference in Guinea Bissau
In the tiny, impoverished West African state of Guinea-Bissau, educational opportunities are scarce. One of the few resources available was the Tcihico Te Teacher Training College. A group of young trained teachers, unpaid and without schools to teach in, formed T5 [Tchico Te Teacher Training Team], which is an NGO [Non Governmental Organisation - ie no state funding] in order to start their own school in 2 dilapidated classrooms. They soon had 50 pupils and desperately needed to expand.
At this point (February 2006) Star Events Group guaranteed the rent on a new school with 12 classrooms. With borrowed furniture the school (T5 Star Events School) steadily expanded, providing courses for over a thousand pupils. In October 2007 Star Events Group provided furniture to entirely equip the the whole school.
This school now (May 2009) has over 1,700 students who attend on a daily basis. Four more T5 Star Events Group schools have also been established thoughout Guinea-Bissau.
As well as providing financial support, we are also helping with management training. Rather than read what we say about it, please have a look at the school reports, which you can download below. They are an amazing testimony to the resilience and enthusiasm of people living and working in the most difficult circumstances.
Going forward
Our partnership with T5 has enabled T5 to become self-sustainable financially. We are currently fund raising to ship donated educational materials to T5. Shipping itself is a major challenge as none of the international couriers or parcel carriers operate in Guinea-Bissau.
If you would like to help in any way, please contact us.
Recent School Reports
A T5 website is under construction - which is not as easy as it sounds in Guinea-Bissau! We'll announce it here when its available.
Below you can read the full archive of recent T5 Star Events School Reports (click to download the pdf). For the convenience of regular users of this site, the latest report can also always be found in our main Downloads area.