SIERRA LEONE

Featured

Unpacking Stories from Sierra Leone - The Dream Come True I Awoke From Too Soon

Arriving in Freetown, Sierra Leone - The Night All the Sky's Stars Fell Down to the Earth

Fighting Unemployment and Redefining Gender Norms at the Murialdo Institiute in Kissy, Sierra Leone

Faces2Hearts in Sierra Leone

In March 2020, filmmaker Esteban Novillo and I travelled to Sierra Leone with the European Commission’s Faces2Hearts program.

The goal of this project was to send teams of young creatives to visit EU funded projects around the world. Each duo would spend a month exploring their selected country. In this time, they would connect with local members of the community, learn about EU funded projects from on the ground change makers, and document these initiatives’ impacts on local communities. Though our time in Sierra Leone was cut short due to COVID, we still had the chance to see a lot of the country, visited dozens of project sites, communities, and met so many kind, passionate, and hardworking individuals along the way.

These are their stories.

Improving Education and Fighting Unemployment at the Murialdo Institute

Esteban and Kirstie visit the Murialdo Institute - one of many schools funded through the EU’s support to the education sector in Sierra Leone. Here they learn how Murialdo is improving the accessibility and quality of vocational training, and how these training programs are decreasing unemployment and impacting young people throughout the country.

Empowering Women in Politics

In this video, Kirstie and Esteban visit Parliament to learn more about the EU's support to the governance sector in Sierra Leone. Here they had a chance to talk to women who are working to improve female representation in government to empower women in politics and positively impact all women throughout the country.

Boosting Agriculture and Food Security

Boosting Agriculture and Food Security (BAFS) is an EU funded project which aims to strengthen agricultural security and ensure independent production.

Kirstie and Esteban visit a maize farm in Port Loko infested by “Boimoneh,” the local word for the Fall Army Worm pest. Here they learn how BAFS is providing farmers with tools to combat these pests and improve agricultural productivity.

Promoting Renewable Energy Services for Social Development in Sierra Leone

PRESSD-SL is an EU funded project which contributes to poverty alleviation through renewable energy services and promoting low-carbon development.

Kirstie and Esteban visit the Kenema & Kailahun Districts in the East to learn how solar energy has improved economic revenues & living conditions for enterpeneurs, students and health workers in the community.

Crop Diversification in Gaingay

The ProResilience Action is a huge EU funded initiative that is fostering smallholder agriculture in some of Sierra Leone's most remote and vulnerable communities. It is implemented with the support of government partners and three NGOs - COOPI and InterAide in the northern provinces and Welthungerhlife in the East.

Kirstie and Esteban had the chance to visit farms and communities with all three NGO's to learn more about how each of these organisations is improving food security and nutrition through the PROACT project. In this video, Kirstie and Esteban visit the Gaingay community in Bombali. Here they learn more about Inter Aide's work in the community to diversify crop production and improve nutrition in the Northern Provinces.

Cashews: The Cash Crop of the North

After visiting the Gaingay community in Bombali, Kirstie and Esteban headed to a cashew farm in Port Loko. Here they learned more about COOPI's support to cashew farmers through the PROACT project and why this cash crop is so important.

Rebuilding Bandajuma with Ngoyia

In this video, Kirstie and Esteban visit Bandajuma Togboma in the Eastern Provinces, a town once destroyed by the war. Now, with Ngoyia - unity - and the help of Welthungerhilfe, the people of Bandajuma are continuing to rebuild and grow their town. In Bandajuma, Kirstie and Esteban learned more about Welthungerhilfe's support to cocoa and coffee farmers through the PROACT project and the positive impact it has had on communities throughout the east.

Increasing Crop Productivity with Research and Improved Technology

The Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute’s (SLARI) mission is to conducts research and generate technology that enhance sustainable productivity, commercialization, and competitiveness of the agricultural sector.

Kirstie and Esteban meet with scientists and farmers in Kenema District to learn how SLARI’s generation and promotion of innovative technologies is empowering local stakeholders and benefitting the farming, fishing, and forestry sectors in Sierra Leone.

On the Road in Sierra Leone

All good things must come to an end.

In this video, Kirstie and Esteban share some behind the scenes moments on the road and what they learned from their experience with Faces2Hearts in Sierra Leone.