FSSGians Alumni Association Washington Metropolitan Area

The Freetown Secondary School for Girls (FSSG) was founded on January 20, 1926. From its location in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, it has successfully educated thousands of girls across Africa.

Unlike other schools of its time, the school has a unique beginning as one of the first non-parochial, non-governmental schools started by Africans. This was the dream of the late Mrs. Hannah Benka-Coker, its founder and first vice principal.

The first principal was Mrs. Maise Osora, whose ideas were similar to those of Mrs. Hannah Benka-Coker for the new school. Mrs. Benka-Coker, together with nine others, six of them, women, contributed £25 (twenty-five pounds sterling), a total of £250 (two hundred and fifty) pounds sterling to start the brand “new society” school, as it was coined.