U.S. Dept. of State selects grant written by College soph.

The United States Department of State has just selected a grant put together by a Penn student for use in the revitalization of foodstuff production in Sierra Leone. 

College sophomore Shay Moon wrote the grant after spending a month in Sierra Leone this summer, where he noticed a major problem in the region: the lack of a stable food supply.

Moon's program seeks to inject capital into the farming system in rural Sierra Leone, an area devastated by a civil war and the Ebola crisis. The program will provide a monthly allowance for six foodstuff producers in the region, which can then use the money to hire laborers, rent tractors and buy fertilizer, among other things.

The idea is that “if the farmers are able to hire more labor and diversify the crops they’re growing, there will be a larger, more diverse food supply in the region — a problem that underpins a lot of the instability in the region," Moon said.

Moon went to Sierra Leone on an internship with the Sierra Leone Children’s Fund, a non-profit organization founded by 2014 College of Liberal and Professional Studies graduate Alhaji Saccoh and College senior Steve Acchione. Though the fund's main focus is on the education of young children, both Saccoh and Moon believe that revitalizing food production is necessary for any other developmental efforts to take place. 

"Kids are starving. You can’t educate a kid if they’re malnourished — they can’t even come to school. So the number one thing we should be doing is making sure the kids are well fed," Saccoh said.

This is what Moon's program aims to do. Through an injection of $9,000 into the development of food production in the area around Kalangba, a village in northern Sierra Leone, Moon said the six farmers receiving grant money should “be able to create a really positive development cycle” and ultimately be able to sustain such a cycle. Immediately, the program will impact between 10,000 to 20,000 people in rural Sierra Leone.

Moon wrote the grant after he met with and spoke to members of the community and local leaders, who decided the program was right for the community, adding “That’s where a lot of organizations can go wrong."

There is a very positive relationship between the fund and members of the Kalangba community and surrounding areas.

Saccoh hopes that Moon will not be the last Penn student to go to Sierra Leone and put together such a grant. “We’re trying to establish a partnership with Penn, an internship where students can come directly to the village,” he said. 

Moon said his experience “is a real testament to the non-curricular resources at Penn.”

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