Founding Story

           Ezekiel S. Wallace

Imagine a five year old boy scaling the mountains and narrow roads enveloped by the morning dewdrops that constantly soaked his uniform over a five-mile journey (one way). Any tardy arrival was greeted with beating on his bottom. The hour-plus journey to school between villages in Sierra Leone was rewarded with a dilapidated structure and lack of rudimentary accommodations like seating and that was his best option to get an education….this boy was me.

In Sierra Leone, a large number of children have no access or opportunity to attend primary school or any form of formal education. This problem was exacerbated during the 1991 to 2002 civil war that wiped out approximately 1,270 primary schools, which left 67% of all school-aged children out of school, according to UNICEF.

 Almost two decades since the war ended, the country still struggles to provide every child access to any form of schooling. Even though at some point the government made education compulsory for every child, the law still remains virtually impossible to enforce due to the shortage of facilities left in the wake of the war.

 In 1998 I moved to Freetown the capital city of Sierra Leone. At this time, the civil war had intensified in the country.  People’s lives and properties were at the mercy of the rebels. Lives were taken indiscriminately and houses were set ablaze.  My future was uncertain. In 2000, my story dramatically changed when my mother, Deanna Wallace began to sponsor my education through her Organization All As One.

In 2001, she adopted me. Adoption was a word that I did not even fully understand the meaning, which I quickly came to realize that she is not just sponsoring my education and welfare, but she also wanted to be my mother. The joy that drenched my whole being was palpable, and from that time on my story was changed forever. In October 2002, I finally join the rest of the family in the US. Well, as they say, the rest is history. The love my mother has shown me is beyond measure. This life changing experience motivated me to invest in the next generation in Sierra Leone.

 Hence, in 2015 I decided to change the narrative for the children who still to this day (24 years later) walk the same journey I took years ago. Help One Help All will help address a problem that directly impacted my childhood in the pursuit of education – easy access to a school that is stocked with appropriate supplies so kids can focus on learning. My goal is bigger than the village I grew up in. I hope to collaborate with the government and like-minded organizations to build schools in remote villages that are under-served due to limited resources accorded to those areas.