5 New Events & Opportunities YOU should know about

OPPORTUNITY:   Young African Leaders Fellowship : A new flagship program of the President’s Young African Leaders Initiative. APPLY NOW.

EVENT: AFFORD UK - Sierra Leonean Health Matters : The Event will bring together the IOM and the authors of the UK mapping report to present the key findings of the UK mapping exercise, and a panel of experts to discuss issues raised by the study and the broader policy context. The presentations will be followed by an open question-and-answer session.

OPPORTUNITY:  Vacancy - GIZ Regional Resource Governance project for a "Senior Advisor for Private Sector Cooperation". The position is open for Sierra Leone nationals. Feel free to share.For further enquiries please contact me (janne.kaiser@giz.de) or Mrs. Robbin-Coker (ruby.robbin-coker@giz.de).

EVENT: Le Pop Up Marche - A month Fashion & Lifestyle Shopping Experience

OPPORTUNITY: Academic Scholarships for Study, Undergraduate, Post graduate and Doctoral - application deadlines are soon approaching.


Fambul dem, this is how we do...

People, Coffee, Drinks, Laughs ---Freetown Living

The Generous Girl who allowed me to take her Photo

Concept Multimedia Founder - Idriss Kpange

Finally Made it to PHASEBOOK

The One & Only Assie Wurie-Akani

Charly- My Favorite Jew

Krystal Lai - She Keeps it Real, Always x

One of My Two Favorite Women

 

Wordsmith & Lyricist - Alim Kamara

CowFoot- the storyteller = EPIC

Toufik of the Atlantic

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

2 Things Kelvin Doe Teaches Us

I’ve been quiet about my reaction to Kelvin Doe’s successes over the last year. I just wanted to watch his progression without overt praise although always in elation. I knew that watching him was going to be about learning or re-learning a few life lessons. You know the story we all hear about and rarely ever experience? The one about moving from rags to riches or fame,  Oprah’s story, Tyler Perry’s story, in some ways our own Sierra Leonean Sam King’s story and now Kelvin Doe. When I mean moving, I literally mean the JUMP that occurs from absolute obscurity to one of immense international recognition, fame, access to the world’s brilliant minds and financial fulfillment. The story we hear and the one many of us will not experience. How does a young boy dancing on the seams of society come to meet another Sierra Leonean pioneer David Sengeh who has access to the world’s best programs and connections create a catalytic partnership that spins the both of them to super stardom, meaning last time I checked David made Forbes List of 30under 30 brilliant minds to look out for, and Kelvin, well Kelvin Doe attends TEDx Austine with the likes of Chelsey Clinton, gets an interview at CNN and is now MIT’s favorite baby. Ah, the power of intention and its alignment to God’s plan is a power filled concept. As a multi-passionate person, recently just learned this from a friend,  whose passion aligns with being good at many and at times apposing things, I do not focus on being excellent at one thing, I’m everywhere and give  90% at everything with a substantial  focus on being successful, or rather to be precise, imagining what TOMORROW will look like if i continue to work HARD HARD. In turn i do not pay enough attention to today, to the now and here.  See, when you take care of the present, God, a high power,  takes care of the future. This concept/dogma becomes clear with the likes of Kelvin Doe. I highly doubt that when he was being resourceful by gathering scraps to build a generator that he was thinking about how MIT, HARVARD, THE CLINTON's AND the rest of the world would be singing his praises. He was in the moment, doing what was natural and authentic to him, he was taking care of the present and his future was being taken care off by God, the ( UNI) Verse.

Beyond re-learning that lesson with Kelvin Doe’s success, another point become very apparent to me -  the NEED to gestate the multiple talents and even naive concepts, ideas and dreams of our youth. As a young woman navigating the waters of Sierra Leone, professional and personally, the fact that I’m 20 something sitting on some decision-making tables is often a hindrance than a positive. I am lucky to have a boss/mentors who choose to nurture and help channel my overt passion, enthuse and energy productively, who believes in my sometimes premature idealism as a young person without feeling threatened, and do not say ‘ good job’ now go seat in the corner like a little girl that you are, they often ask "how are you going to strategically influence policy, or make change or convince a people that this issue matters". The simple act of listening further fuels confidence in my own ability as a young Sierra Leone to positively influence change. This is what I find lacking generally in our country. Young people are  underutilized and ineffectively at that. Kelvin Doe would never have become the Kelvin Doe that everyone in Sierra Leone is so very proud off at age 16 if the recognition had not come externally and so I wonder, how many Kelvin Doe’s across the country are we diminishing or  not  recognizing?

I get it, we are African. Respecting and honoring our elders is IMPERATIVE and imbedded in the fabric of our cultural heritage and I would not have it any other way. Yet, in a country where over 50% of the population are below the age of 18, it is a waste and shame to a. not gestate the talents of young people b. relegate their talents to menial tasks and in turn to not properly mentor, shape, or provide space for us to grow and become the ‘change agents’ that this country so desperately needs. We must learn from our elders and guess what, our elders must learn from us to. What we know best is adaptability, technology, inter-connectivity these are imperative skills in our growing global economy. 

In summary, Kelvin Doe’s success remind me that:

1.     1. Take care of the present, do your best by being clear on your intention. Be present, open and authentic in anything you do in the NOW and God will take care of your future. Remember, God’s dream for you is bigger than any dream you can dream.

2.       2. Young people have a lot to offer to our community, to our institutions to the growth of our country. If the Agenda for Prosperity’s focus is focused on building the capacity and infrastructure of human beings, then these very human beings will naturally build a nation they want to see. Learning is a two Way Street, Sierra Leone must begin to learn from its youth in a viable way, and I’m not talking governmental youth policies/strategies that do not always reflect or are not encompassing of ideas, dreams, and innovation.

As Kelvin Doe continues to soar, my deep hope is that we find more Kelvin Doe’s in Sierra Leone, on the continent and in every corner, township, village, slum, cervix, school, street and nourish their gifts, ah the surprises that could be bestowed on us.

Happy 2014. Be Inspired.

Fambul dem, this is how we do...

O'Casey's - Friday Night Live Music Freetown

THE 5! THINGS WORTH CHECKING OUT IN FREETOWN

1.  The Peace Museum - A site of consciousness and the first of its kind not only for Sierra Leone but in West Africa.
Location: SPECIAL COURTS, FREETOWN

2. Gina's - Honestly, they have the best frozen yogurt, fappaccions & crepes. Delightful
Location:125 WILKINSON ROAD

3. Na-Li Spa - finally a really spa! the place is just beautifully done & the massages great
Location: 129C WILKINSON ROAD

4. Homes Suites Hotel - the latest boutique hotel tucked in Abeerdeen. It's refreshing
Location: BINTUMANI ROAD, ABEERDEEN

5. Kotin Tri Limited - this shop located in the heart of freetown is the child of two beautiful Sierra Leonean women who believe in Sierra Leone's creative arts & culture. A must visit!
Location: 23 PULTNEY STREET, FREETOWN

Disclaimer: I am totally aware that these spots are completely western area focused and do not necessarily showcase the little moms and pops cafes, hide out spots and locality that is freetown. I am going to try out a couple and share with you....after all we must do the city's multiplicity justice.

fambul dem, this is how we do....

HuffImpact Post: Not Just Another Gender Violence Based Stastic

This is a blog  i wrote of the Huffington in commemoration of 16 Days of Activism against gender based violence

In Pictures: An Afternoon in my home town, BO

FREETOWN CHRONICLES: the SOURCE

My girlfriends and i re-grouped this week around food and open hearts for one another. Each of us urging the other to 'update' about where we are in life. Each urging because no one really wanted to go first, because you know, spilling oneself to your girlfriends could easily turn into a tsunami of revelations, emotions, insecurities, dirty dirty secrets and other unexpected offerings. It felt good to sit with women, women who are intellectually sparked and more importantly welcomed vulnerability. I hold such spaces to high esteem. As an incredibly over open person being vulnerable is all i know how to be, in turn, i see the ugly of those i often truly believe i have connected with. Each time it hurts more than they will ever know. We need to know that there needs to be more spaces for vulnerability and the dirty to walk from our beings, we need spaces  free from assumptions. I have learnt that we all judge.

Around the table, each of us women of color, in socially complicated relationships come to terms with one crucial, over sold , undervalued, intra-talked, interlinked topic: SELF LOVE.  What the hell does that even really mean? i mean, love of self, love, self, self to love - love to self.  What happens when things get done to you/are imposed/are forced on to you like - racism, sexism, violence, violation, rape, religious intolerance, packaged beauty expectations.... How does one reclaim their self love - love self? Please lets not get into rhetoric shrink talk 101. I mean really, how do we grab, fight for, define, call for, demand, scream for, work for, discover, pray for, heal for a love that requires we connect to our source, the divine place, that core that is you/self? No one of us had answers. Or rather we had too many answers because we are smart and we know ourselves and life has taught us a couple of lessons, but i mean, we still wondered what on earth the synthesis of those two words really means. Yes, getting to know or become (re) acquainted to one's source and the work it requires to get there is  an approach. Yet, how does one start?

I am thinking about a plethora of things as i write this. I am thinking about 'my source' and how disconnected my heart and mind are, i am thinking about the injustice against women that i see everyday, i am thinking about my own relationships with many of my female relatives, friends colleagues and how distraught, strained, insincere, fractured and disconnected they are. I am thinking about my African woman self, i am thinking about the young girls i see everyday, that i interact with, that in my own funny little way support the best what i know how - to out stretch an arm of support. I am thinking about the relationships i've had this year, each one singularily so brutally soft and fragile. I am thinking about my own fragility and the desire to connect to the 'source'. 

Thanks to my girlfriends cooking me dinner this week, I've made a small list of potential ways to reconnect to {my} source so that i  may continue to work on truly nourishing the woman i am becoming and the woman i want to become. So perhaps i'll try:

1. writing down my thoughts more often

2. picking up my camera and hiring an okada man to take me around the city

3. lay in bed for long periods of time in silence

4. slow, slow, slow down

5. forgive myself. This means, for me, taking long deep intensional breaths

6. actually doing it with the intension of intensionally being committed to becoming my  best self

what would your list look like? do share....

fambul dem, this is how we do...

ah, tis all good. SERVICE. the lack of IT.

We complain, all the time about the lack of customer service in Sierra Leone. Ha! The lack of customer service can at times seem like an understatement. We can relegate this ‘attitudinal problem ‘ side note: attitudinal, a word commonly and often used in our daily vocabulary. Hell, even the President is pushing for an “attitudinal” change in our people. 

Look, we can speak about the need to strengthen the hospitality sector all we want, but until some very realistic steps are set out, I am not quite sure how else convincing people that been nice, punctual, meticulous, self motivated, patient and most importantly that pleasing their customers is off dire importance WILL uh HELP.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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"It is okay to be at a place of struggle. Struggle is just another word for growth. Even the most evolved beings find themselves in a place of struggle now and then. In fact, struggle is a sure sign to them that they are expanding; it is their indication of real and important progress. The only one who doesn’t struggle is the one who doesn’t grow. So if you are struggling right now, see it as a terrific sign, celebrate your struggle."

- Happy Monday Folks.

xxx