Why Sierra Leone? The link is Rosa Johnson, a remarkable woman with a clear-eyed view of her country's problems. During the civil war, Rosa, like many others, fled to the Gambia, where she became the head teacher of a secondary school.

That is where she met Bruce and Janet McLellan from Buckfastleigh eight or nine years ago, while they were holidaying there. Through their efforts and others, links were set up with several schools, including the former Knowles Hill, Newton Abbot, South Dartmoor Community College, Ashburton, and Blackpool primary. A year ago, Rosa returned home and now has oversight of 32 schools in the south and east of the country.

We will be visiting three schools in Bo, the second city, to make contact on behalf of their potential twins: Buckfastleigh and Widecombe primaries, and South Dartmoor Community College. Rosa's hope is that linking with British schoolchildren will raise aspirations among pupils here.

'I hope to create an awareness that the world is bigger than where their school is. When you read, you open your mind, you dream; when you dream you are happy to work hard.

'There is a lot of "I don't care". Say a child in secondary school cannot read. If there is a link, they can see my counterparts can read and write. I hope it will encourage them to say "I can do it, too".'

Rosa was one of five. Her father struggled to put them through private education, saying that his children were his bank. It is an attitude she is trying to encourage in her parents but it can be an uphill struggle.

'The government propoganda is that we will give you free education. Parents literally interpret that they won't have to pay anything,' she said.

Those that can afford to pay have their children privately educated.

'The majority won't. In a class of 50 to 60 you will only have three text books and these books get stolen. In some classes you only have one, the teacher's copy. I don't think that is good enough.'

The government has promised to pay 18,000 leones per pupil, per year. That's around £3. But she says that the civil servants in charge of distributing the money take a kick-back of about 40 per cent.

Sierra Leone is busy trying to escape its past and boasts it is now one of the safest countries in Africa. It's a far cry from ten years ago when the words Sierra Leone conjured up images of child soldiers, frequently with weapons bigger than they were. Amputees, offered the horrifying choice by the rebels of 'long sleeves' or 'short sleeves', are still to be seen on the streets.

People here have a life expectancy of 41 years. Literacy rates run at 35 per cent.

Rosa sees the 'I don't care' attitude as a hangover from the war. Huge resources have been pumped into the country but precious little seems to have changed. Smart new houses surrounded by razor wire are sprouting up in the hills, built, according to Rosa, by government officials, NGO workers and business people. But little of the wealth is trickling down.

'Life has not improved for the average Sierra Leonean. They've accepted that we can manage, whatever happens. The country's shaky. Those who are on the brink are in the majority so you never know what might happen. We may not go back to war but people are frustrated.

'You notice a lot of people are out on the streets. In the city people are hawking, selling just two, three packets of safety pins. You wonder how much of it do they sell to get a living? Most of them live on the streets.

'In the night you see people living in alleys. These boys who run the motor bikes, they sleep on their motor bikes. They cut the pipes so they have water to bathe in in the street. There are sets of boys who just sit and hang around with nothing to do. They get involved in drugs, they steal, they brew a palm drink and they sit there all day gambling. There are lots of them.

'The job issue is still getting worse. More people are looking for jobs, even graduates now. If you are a breadwinner there are more mouths to feed, where there is a job you don't get well paid.

'The government should do something about it. There are lots of people, young, strong. What are they looking for? Handouts.

'The war is over, yes. People are happy, they can be on the streets all night. Nobody bothers them. I do sound pessimistic because I am not happy with what I am seeing.'

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