We had a full house at St Pauls Church Centre on 24th January for our AGM which followed a delicious lunch of samosas, salads and other treats.
The Chair, Paul Atkins, welcomed our special guests: The Mayor of Leamington Spa – Councillor Ruggy Singh, The Mayor of Warwick – Councillor Jackie D’Arcy, The Mayor of Whitnash – Councillor Adrian Barton and Councillor Ms Cathy Herbert
There was plenty to report as Paul led a review of the year’s activities in chat show format.
Education Link
Liz Garrett looked back over an eventful year which started with some initial plans to work with EducAid and now finds the Ignite Bo project in full swing with five of our partner schools which had been selected from applicants as those most suitable to benefit this year. EducAid runs role model schools in Sierra Leone and OWL is now one of their partners. Liz described EducAid’s Top 10 Strategies for improving teaching and learning. We aim to hit a target of £15000 this year for this project. The teachers’ trip to Bo this February will include activities to inspire young women in Bo. Another celebration of the Day of the African Child was held at St Patrick’s RC Primary School, enabled by a generous grant from Leamington Town Council, whose mayor kindly attended the AGM.
Planning Link
Phil Clarke updated us on the developments with planning in Bo. During last November’s visit we met the new mayor of Bo City Council and visited the central market. The council have invested in a project to improve the central market. We also heard from Haja Lukay about plans to develop a new market outside of the city. Haja, a friend of OWL who has been mentored by Phil, has qualified in planning in China and is now Deputy Chief Administrator on the council. In recognition of his work with The King’s Foundation, Phil was invited to Buckingham Palace last year.
Health Link
Saran Shantikumar was welcomed to OWL as a medical doctor who moved into public health, specialising in infectious disease and epidemiology. He teaches at the University of Warwick and has been working with Dr Nnedi Dede-Konkwo who has been developing the link over the past year. OWL provides a good opportunity for international networking partnerships between academics. The first priority, though, is community health especially maternal health, and carrying out a needs assessment. We were visited recently by Doris Bah, Minister and National Director of Environment in Sierra Leone, providing an opportunity to extend connections in Njala University and Saran is looking forward to a visit to Bo. Samuel Dauda, a mainstay of OWL with a medical background, was attending the meeting via Zoom and there are hopes that he may be able to visit the UK soon.
