Learning that Looks and Feels like Us. Yak Jones Foundation brings Sierra Leone into the Classroom

 A child learning the alphabet is learning much more than letters.

Behind every “A” to “Z” is an opportunity to discover a word, understand an idea, ask a question and begin making sense of the world around them. But what happens when that world looks and feels familiar?

For more than a decade, Dr. Yakama Manty Jones and the Yak Jones Foundation have been working to make reading and learning more accessible and enjoyable for children in Sierra Leone.

The Foundation, launched in 2016, has supported schools and early childhood centres with books and learning materials, worked with teachers and learning coaches, organised reading activities and helped children prepare for examinations. Its work has consistently focused on one central belief that strong literacy skills provide the foundation for children to learn and thrive.

As Sierra Leone joins the world in marking International Literacy Day on September 8, the Yak Jones Foundation is taking that mission in a new direction.

The Foundation has created a set of African-inspired alphabet flashcards and a collection of puzzles featuring notable places in Sierra Leone, learning materials designed to help children learn while also seeing something of their own world reflected back at them.

How Yak Jones Foundation Is bringing Africa into the Alphabet

For Dr. Jones, the idea behind the flashcards is simple.

“We want children to see themselves in learning,” she said.

The idea is to make learning the alphabet more than a memorisation exercise. Instead, each letter becomes an opportunity for recognition and discovery.

“We want a child picking up an alphabet card to encounter Africa, our food, animals, places, people and culture,” Dr. Jones explained. “We want learning the alphabet to feel colourful, joyful and familiar.”

A learning coach uses the new African-inspired alphabet flashcards with young learners.

That approach builds on the Foundation’s years of work promoting reading among children.

In 2022, the Yak Jones Foundation donated storybooks, textbooks, exercise books, crayons and other learning materials to three Early Childhood Development Centres in Freetown, Moyamba and Kambia, benefiting more than 200 early learners from low-income communities.

The Foundation has also supported pupils at SM Broderick Municipal School through learning coaches, after-school reading clubs and additional preparation for the National Primary School Examination.

For Dr. Jones, improving literacy has never been only about helping children pass examinations. It is also about helping them build a lasting relationship with reading and learning.

“If we want citizens to reach their full potential, it starts with ensuring they have functional literacy skills,” she said.

Discovering Sierra Leone, Piece by Piece

Children explore Sierra Leone-inspired alphabet cards during learning sessions.

The new puzzles take the same idea of familiar learning even further.

Featuring notable places in Sierra Leone, the puzzles invite children to discover their country piece by piece.

A child putting together a puzzle might begin with a simple question: Where is this place? Then come the next ones: Have I been there? What is its story? What else is there to discover about my country?

Children piece together a Sierra Leone landmark puzzle featuring the Aberdeen Bridge.

The photographs used for the Sierra Leone puzzle collection were provided by the Centre for Memory and Reparations, helping bring places connected to Sierra Leone’s history and identity into a form that children can physically explore through play.

“These may look like simple cards and puzzles, but indeed they represent something much bigger,” Dr. Jones said. “These cards represent children learning through play. They represent curiosity and pride in where we come from.”

That connection between learning and identity is at the heart of the Foundation’s latest initiative. Rather than treating educational materials as something distant from children’s everyday experiences, the Foundation wants children to encounter learning through things they can recognise, question and enjoy.

A Different Way to Build Lifelong Learners

The Yak Jones Foundation‘s work has always placed reading at the centre of learning. Over the years, that has meant putting books into children’s hands, creating reading opportunities and providing additional support to pupils who need help building their foundational skills.

The new cards and puzzles add another dimension: learning through play.

Learning through puzzle building.                                                               

For young children especially, learning does not always have to look like sitting behind a desk with a textbook. A picture, a question, a game or a puzzle can become the beginning of a learning journey.

Dr. Jones believes that building lifelong learners also means finding new ways to make children want to learn.

The materials have been created with Sierra Leonean children in mind. Still, the Foundation sees them as having a wider reach intended for children across Africa and beyond. These children deserve learning materials that expand their understanding of the world while still allowing them to recognise something of themselves within it.

Yak Jones Foundation celebrates Literacy Beyond Books.

International Literacy Day is observed globally every September 8 to highlight literacy as a foundation for education, opportunity and participation in society. In 2026, UNESCO is marking the 60th anniversary of the international observance under the theme “Literacy for people, the planet and prosperity.”

For the Yak Jones Foundation, the occasion provides an opportunity to reflect on the work that has been done while looking at new ways to encourage children to read, explore and learn.

This year’s celebration is therefore not only about books and words. It is also about imagination, about play, and about giving children learning materials that feel familiar enough to spark recognition and interesting enough to encourage questions.

Perhaps most importantly, it is about helping children understand that learning can be joyful.

Pupils showing excitement after putting the puzzle together.

“We want a child putting together a puzzle to discover Sierra Leone, piece by piece,” Dr Jones said.

That may be the simplest description of the Foundation’s latest idea, but it also captures the bigger vision behind its work.

A child learns a letter, discovers a word, then recognises a place. They ask a question, and, piece by piece, these children begin to discover the world.

This International Literacy Day, the Yak Jones Foundation is celebrating that journey with learning materials designed to put Africa, Sierra Leone and the joy of discovery into little hands, classrooms, homes and communities.

The African-inspired alphabet flashcards are currently available in Sierra Leone, while the Sierra Leone landmark puzzles are available on a pre-order basis.

To get yours, please contact +232 791 21480.