An Incubator for Hope

Reflections from visiting Hope Academy for Girls in Sierra Leone

Students at Hope Academy for Girls, the only junior and senior secondary school for girls in Sierra Leone’s Western Area.

“Safe and calm.”


Those were the words we heard again and again when we asked students at Hope Academy for Girls what they loved most about their school.


They are simple words. But in Sierra Leone, where girls continue to face significant barriers to completing secondary education, they carry enormous meaning.


Hope Academy exists specifically for girls at risk of having their education interrupted. During Mona Foundation's recent visit, a member of Hope Academy's Board of Trustees, described the school in a way that stayed with us:


“An incubator for hope.”

A Place to Feel Safe and Learn

Founded in 2017, Hope Academy is the only junior and senior secondary school exclusively for girls in the Western Area of Sierra Leone.


Its six-year program provides high-quality, holistic education to girls ages 11–19 who are at risk of leaving school because of financial hardship, academic challenges, abuse, or exploitation. Students learn in a clean, supportive environment, follow Sierra Leone's national curriculum, and receive a nutritious meal each school day.


The need is significant. Sierra Leone has made education a national priority and has made important progress toward gender equality, yet only an estimated 12.5 % of girls complete senior secondary school.


Madam Aliea Kamara founded Hope Academy determined to change that reality for the girls she could reach. Her own education at an all-girls boarding school gave her a strong academic foundation that also nurtured self-sufficiency and service to community. Years later, she set out to create an environment where another generation of girls could receive that same opportunity.


Today, Hope Academy is showing what bcomes possible when girls have the safety, support, and educational opportunities they need to learn and thrive.


In both 2025 and 2026, 100% of Hope Academy seniors completed their secondary education, bringing the school's cumulative number of graduates to 42 young women. 


Graduation rates tell only part of Hope Academy’s story. Its impact can also be seen in the daily experiences and growing aspirations of its students.


Watch "Beyond the Numbers" to experience the joy, hope and opportunity we encountered across the rural communities served by our partners at Hope Academy and Programme for Children.

This same sense of joy and possibility was evident in the way students spoke about themselves—and one another.

“She Will Be a Doctor”

Beneath a tree with a group of students, our Global Program Officer Sophia Moser spent hours listening as the girls talked about school, their lives, and their aspirations.

Hope Academy students share their aspirations during Mona’s 2026 site visit.

When asked what they valued about Hope Academy, they kept returning to those same words:


Safe and calm.


That sense of safety showed in another way too. The girls talked not only about their own dreams, but about one another's.


She will be a doctor.

She will be a famous football player.


Others spoke of becoming pilots, nurses, engineers, and lawyers. One student hoped to study law so she could help advance justice in her country. Their ambitions extended beyond what they hoped to become to how they hoped to contribute. 


What stood out wasn't simply their aspirations. It was the language the girls used.


They weren't saying "she wants to be" or "she hopes to be".

They were making “will” statements.


They spoke with confidence that those futures were within reach—and with equal confidence in the potential of the girls sitting beside them. For students who may encounter instability or significant challenges outside the school gates, Hope Academy has become something more than a place to take classes. It is a community where they feel loved, respected, and cared for.


Sustaining this kind of environment requires committed teachers, appropriate learning spaces, daily nutrition, and support that responds to the barriers students face outside school.

Looking to the Future

Mona Foundation began partnering with Hope Academy in 2022, joining Madam Aliea and her team in their commitment to ensuring that more girls can complete secondary school and shape their own futures. Mona's support helps fund scholarships, staff salaries, learning materials, and teacher training, strengthening Hope Academy's ability to continue providing high-quality education.


In 2025, Hope Academy educated 93 girls from five communities, trained eight teachers, engaged 28 parents in educational activities, completed construction of a science laboratory and computer lab, and provided a free daily nutrition program.


Mona's 2026 commitment of $29,817 supports Hope Academy's plans to educate 80 students, prepare 21 girls for national examinations, equip its new science and computer facilities, train and retain teachers, and provide transportation and food scholarships for seven particularly vulnerable students.

Hope Academy combines academic learning with the practical support girls need to continue their education.

Mona's partnership extends beyond funding programs. Site visits are an important part of that partnership, allowing us to listen and learn alongside local leaders, see programs in practice, deepen our understanding of the opportunities and challenges they are navigating, and reflect together on the priorities ahead.


At Hope Academy, that reflection centered on the school's next chapter. Madam Aliea has been the driving force since its beginning, and the school is now grappling with an important question:


How can an organization built through one person’s extraordinary commitment develop the shared leadership it needs to flourish for generations?


During the visit, Mona and Hope Academy’s founders explored together questions of succession, leadership development, and organizational sustainability—identifying talent within the existing team, considering how responsibilities could be distributed, and reflecting on how a founder's role evolves over time.


The conversation also surfaced other priorities for Hope Academy’s next chapter, including teacher recruitment and retention, deeper parent engagement, transportation support, pathways for graduates, and the school’s long-term security on its land.


This work is less visible than building a classroom or providing a scholarship, but it is essential to lasting impact. Strong teams, shared leadership, and clear plans for the future help locally led organizations sustain and deepen their work over time.

What Hope Makes Possible


It would be easy to describe Hope Academy by the number of students it educates or the graduates it has sent into the world.


Those numbers matter. But sitting beneath that tree with its students revealed something harder to quantify.


A girl feels safe enough to learn.

She develops confidence in her own abilities.

Her classmates begin imagining one another as doctors, athletes, professionals, and leaders.

Little by little, the boundaries around what they believe is possible begin to expand.


That's what "an incubator of hope" captures so beautifully.


An incubator doesn't create potential. It creates the conditions in which potential can grow.


That is what Madam Aliea and the Hope Academy team have built: a place where girls can feel safe and calm today while developing the knowledge, confidence, and agency to shape their own futures—and contribute to the future of their communities.


An incubator for hope, indeed.