Author: kdev

Our six visitors from Bo had a busy ten days of visits, meetings and social activities.

The three teachers visited their linked schools in Leamington Spa, building on their relationships with children and teachers. Joseph Bindi, Chairman of Bo District Council, making his first visit to the UK, saw how the local authority link works and met with officials in the Warwick council. Maada Fobay has been a friend for many years; as Treasurer of Bo One World Link he plays a vital role in the continuing success of the 35-year-long link.

In addition to detailed discussion on the future of One World Link in both the UK and Sierra Leone, we were addressed by Peter Penfold CMG OBE who was British High Commissioner in Sierra Leone during the Civil War and has a long and close relationship with Sierra Leone and its people.

In a grand finale to the visit, we were treated to a civic reception by Jane Knight, Chair of Warwick District Council and founder of One World Link. We were honoured by the attendance of Julius Maada Bio, former President of Sierra Leone.

We are now looking for ways to expand and fund our friendship links.

Re-establishing our links with Peter Penfold

Peter Penfold CMG OBE was the British High Commissioner in Sierra Leone between 1997 and 2000 during the Civil War.

During the Civil War Peter became famous and widely respected throughout Sierra Leone for his work and support for the people of the country and was made an Honorary Paramount Chief. In his retirement, he has maintained close and active links with Sierra Leone, regularly visiting the country and supporting a number of causes close to his heart.
Peter has a long established link with OWL and our work, and we share many friends including those at St Paul’s School for the Blind in Bo.

He is currently engaged in a project around Bo with Lion Mountains Agrico Ltd to improve agricultural production, particularly by encouraging more efficient growing and processing of rice. You can find out more at www.lionmountains.com

Hearing about Peter’s latest work, and particularly its connections with Bo, we took the opportunity to meet with him in July. He will meet with us again when a delegation from Bo OWL visits the UK in October and will be speaking at an open evening we will be hosting during this time.

Planning in Bo –  new initiatives

In July 2016, Philip Clarke and John Archer attended a meeting in London of planners, architects and lawyers who had working relationships on land use and planning issues in Sierra Leone. It was an inaugural meeting of a potential group of professionals who could exchange experiences and develop opportunities for working together on planning related work in Sierra Leone.

We learnt of an initiative by the Prince’s Trust Foundation in association with the New Urban Agenda support of the new Sustainable Development Goals in the Commonwealth. This was in its early stages and was developing ideas to trial in appropriate cities. We discussed the potential to trial such an approach in Bo.

We have been having further discussions and more meetings are planned. As we have good relationships with Bo City and District Councils, there may be real potential here to develop such approaches through OWL and to start to address the problems arising from uncontrolled land use.

Leamington Peace Festival – new links

Over the weekend of 18-19th June 2016 OWL set up stall at Leamington’s Peace Festival. The festival promotes awareness of world and local issues and OWL has been involved for 35 years. Our stall served to both attract new members and connect with existing OWL friends. We also learnt about other links with Sierra Leone. For example, Coventry-based optician Alan Taylor is travelling to Sierra Leone this autumn with Vision Aid to help improve access to eye care services.

We were also supported at the stall by local midwife Helena White who runs the African Maternity Link (theafricanmaternitylink.co.uk) which provides training and support for midwives in Sierra Leone. She works in partnership with OWL and will be visiting Bo this November. One of the benefits of being at the Peace Festival is hearing from people who want to get involved with OWL’s work – if you’d like to get more involved we’d love to hear from you. If you’re at the Peace Festival next year please make sure you drop by and say hello!

Mair Evans and Paul Atkins visit Bo schools and develop cultural links

After a lengthy period without formal contact between the linking primary schools in Bo and Warwick District due to the Ebola epidemic, our primary aim during our 16-day visit in January was to reconnect the classrooms and re-establish the dialogue between teachers.

The welcome we received was overwhelming and the energy and warmth shown on each occasion very emotional. All the schools entertained us with singing, dancing and sharing of their work. We visited seven of the 14 schools, experienced nearly 100 classrooms and were humbled and grateful for the care and hospitality shown to us. We were able to take out learning resources and not only maintain the existing links but also develop new ones, for example, that between BDEC Messima and St. Margaret’s in Whitnash, that has gone from strength to strength.

As both of us have a background in the arts, we were also interested in exploring how intercultural understanding between our communities could be strengthened through artistic connections and projects. Sierra Leone has a rich heritage of dance, storytelling, music, poetry, visual art and crafts, and the visit gave us important insights into their culture and artists. We were able to meet a few practicing artists, who often have to develop commercial ventures to support their own creative practices. Now back in the UK we hope to develop artistic collaborations, knowledge sharing and projects between Warwick District and Bo’s communities.