President Bio joins Bo schools celebrating Education Week

Schools in Bo celebrated Education Week with a march past, cultural events and performances.

The programme for the International Day of Education on 24th January 2024 was “Learning for Lasting Peace”.

President Maada Bio, speaking at the event, said “I must, on behalf of a grateful nation, praise the tireless work of educators, parents, guardians, community elders, and all the stakeholders who work to advance education in our beloved country.”

Teachers held a meeting at the OWL Centre in Bo to discuss plans for their collaborative work on Climate Change. Schools are focusing on UN Global Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. We hope to inspire pupils to consider re-using and recycling materials to reduce waste.

When the business meeting was finished the teachers enjoyed socialising and celebrated a colleague’s recent wedding and sang “The more we are together the merrier we shall be”. The words continue “For your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends..” which is so appropriate for One World Link which is the friendship link between our communities.

Five teachers from schools in Bo are preparing for their visit to the UK in June. John Sandi, Elizabeth Allie, Nemahun Vandy, Jennifer Abdulai and Patrick Columba.

They now have their travel documents and tickets and are looking forward to their two-week stay in Warwick District. They will be staying with families and have a busy schedule visiting their partner schools and having discussions with teachers. Bo schools are preparing parcels for their linked schools which the visitors will deliver. They will also join in the celebrations of the Day of the African Child when four hundred children will assemble for a programme of drumming, dancing, siinging and storytelling.

The Waste Management Project has now blossomed in to one that is Sierra Leone wide. Derek Greedy reports on the Bo project that was initiated with OWL involvement more than ten years ago.

Although Glenn Fleet and myself have not been actively involved for sometime now we are kept up to date via a WhatsApp group.  The principles that were adopted for Bo of Recycling, Composting and Landfill have generally been rolled out firstly to Makeni and Kenema and latterly to Koidu.  The work continues to be project management led by (Welthungerhilfe) WHH with Dr John Williams as the Project Head.  Much of the efforts recently have centred around Koidu and Kenema with an extensive campaign to collect plastics for recycling by offering rice for plastics. This initiative follows on from the successful campaigns in both Makeni and Bo.  Although there is not much news regarding Bo itself it seems the waste management department is still active and remains with Samuel Hinga Navo at the helm.

The Sierra Leonean Government has now recognised the success of the initiative to date and has invited WHH to work with them to form a Public Private Partnership on Waste Management at the National Level. So encouraging to see those little beginnings blossoming in this way.  Bockarie Bawoh Director of the National Monitoring and Evaluation Department (NaMED) says his dream is ” the establishment of a successful private partnership with WHH which would see Government’s Waste Management assets and infrastructure taken over by the partnership for effective management using a workable business model”.  He assured WHH that there is now the political will and commitment to see the venture through whilst recognising that this had not been the case in the past.

 Despite us not being actively involved now I think that OWL can pat itself on the back as those early efforts are now bearing fruit.

Late update: We have now heard through our WhatsApp group that WHH have met with the Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone at the Fourah Bay College (FBC) campus in Freetown to finalise the curriculum for a Certificate Course in Municipal Solid Waste Management. The course is expected to commence in October 2023 at FBC following approval at the University Level. OWL support has been promised.

Bo City Council has written to the Mayor of Leamington expressing appreciation for forty years of the link and thanks for the financial support given to the Tree Planting Programme in Bo.

Fatmata Sao Bangali, a teacher at United Brethren in Christ Primary School (UBC) Prince Williams Street, Moriba Town Section in Bo has won the Best Presidential Teachers Award under the Pre school and Primary level in Bo District for 2022. The award was hosted at the Bintumani Conference Hall in Freetown on Tuesday, 18th October 2022.

Fatmata said she is extremely grateful to God for the achievement. She added that it all started in Bo when her name was given for the award and she went through interviews and finally she made it.

Fatmata said that she was contacted by the JSS Principal of the school, Mr. George Mambu who even summited her name and she will remain grateful to him for giving her the opportunity for her to get the enviable award. She said ” I want to dedicate this award to my late father.”

The UBC shcool is linked with Brookhurst School in Leamington Spa. Richard Hall, Chairman of UK One World Link, is visiting Bo and passed congratulations to Fatma on behalf of everyone in OWL UK.

Bo Schools Tree Planting Campaign

Children in Bo have been planting trees as part of a joint campaign with their linked schools in the UK.

Bo Schools Tree Planting 2022

Day of the African Child celebrations in Bo

In Bo the Day of the African Child, 16th June 2022, took place at the OWL center on the Theme: “Eliminating harmful practices affecting children’s progress on policy and practice since 2013”.

Many dignitaries and stakeholders were invited to make statements on the theme and the tree planting project we have this year 2022 with our UK partners. we had representatives from the ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency, Education, and Sierra Leone Teaching Service Commission. Our Guest speaker was  Haja Alamatu Lukay, Development Planning Official, Bo City Council. They all made impressive statements. The pupils from our linked schools had skits, songs, poems and Art work in the form of poems and Drama.

At 1:00pm we joined  our UK partners in Zoom. We started with a song: Telam tenky.  This was followed by poems on both sides, skits talk, statements, and refreshment. We saw a film show  on the history of DAC and Sarafina. It was very fantastic  and colourful we all enjoyed the talents of the pupils and everyone who took part in the celebration.