Chairman's Report, April 2021

FREETOWN SOCIETY CHAIRMAN REPORT

The beginning of my visit included meetings with the Mayor of Freetown and also the British High Commissioner and British Council, this included partner organisations here, also the Hull Society represented by the Chairman Francis Mason.

The focus had been to look into collaborations between local organisations to work together on specific projects to develop partnerships, to help each other with connections and resources. This is still ongoing to produce a Memorandum of Understanding of how the partnerships can work and also when it comes to joint funding bids for the dissemination, distribution and control. Due to circumstances within organisations being busy and also COVID 19 this has not come to completion. The MOU for the organisations that have committed to be in the Consortium will be completed by the end of April.

The work I had continued to do with developing relationships with the partner organisations has still been successful and will culminate by next month with some Leadership training and development of a British Council concept called Active Citizens, which the Vice Chairman Cecil Jones and I attended in HULL, that was delivered by Hull City Council

One of the main Highlights so far was to be invited by the Mayor of Freetown in my role as the Chairman of the Freetown Society, also the Chairman of the Hull Society to the Grand opening of the New City Hall in November, the City Hall project had been ongoing for 10 years with South Korea, it is a very impressive building, we were Lucky to be selected to have a tour, the most impressive feature was the roof Garden where you can see all around the City Centre of Freetown and to the Sea at Lumley and Aberdeen areas.

CONSORTIUM

The proposal to have a Consortium of organisations to develop partnerships started in October, the proposed members of the Consortium will be made up of the following organisations.

SIERRA LEONE AUTISTIC SOCIETY

https://freetownsociety.orgsierraleoneautisticsociety

GOOD DEEDS SL

https://m.facebook.comGDDSL1

ZAINDRISS FOUNDATION

https://www.zaindrissfoundation.org

PRONG SL

https://www.facebook.comgroups/969376713451519/?ref=share

BAREFOOT WOMEN

http://www.energw.gov.slBarefootwomen

UK PARTNER ORGANISATIONS

With the current situation with COVID 19, Jacob’s Well current situation to support Sierra Leone is difficult, the funding required to support operations is limited and under review, although they are still able to send containers, they could be limited to projects they can support.

PATT FOUNDATION have been thriving, they launched the GREEN TASK FORCE in November to employ Veterans to do tree planting, horticulture and environmental work. They have been developing across the UK, mainly around Hull and East Riding, extending Operations to York, North Yorkshire, Cumbria, Newcastle, South Wales, Bristol, Devon, Cornwall. They have been working closely with the Military who have Volunteered and also with schools in the HULL and EAST RIDING area for tree planting sites. We are working towards having a Green Task Force set up here in Sierra Leone.

I would suggest we start to develop these partnerships, collaborations in the HULL area so we can bring greater support, to develop the connections between Hull and Freetown, also to engage Hull City Council more to work in partnership with projects with Freetown City Council.

VETERANS DEPLOYMENT TO SL

I have been engaged with 5 Veterans organisations in the UK that all have some connections to SL, I have been building partnerships with them to collaborate all have a connection to me from serving in the Army with me or to HULL. It is the intention to work with Home Leone to deploy Veterans here in October to work with Home Leone and other partner organisations, this could be up to 6 weeks and longer, they will work hard and also raise funds for the organisations, spend some down time to see parts of the Country and also go through a Therapy and Healing Centre that will be set up by Home Leone.

SUMMARY

The plans for the rest of the year, I will produce a draft idea of what will be achievable by us and our partners here and HULL. This will be with short, medium and long term plans. I will work with all organisations equally for the remainder of the year, apart from Home Leone which there will be some intense engagement to put them in a Good place to help the other organisations. We need to really engage with the British Council, the Foreign and Commonwealth development office and especially the British High Commissioner, Simon Mustard for the remainder of his tenure which is 18 months.

ORGANISATIONS DIARY OF EVENTS AND MY SCHEDULE

Home Leone

April to December, Sustainability of their Operations and Procurement, deployment of Veterans

Sierra Leone Autistic Society

April to October – set up of Inclusion cafes Kabala, Makeni, BO, opening of shops selling furniture, electrical goods and clothes.

Zaindriss FOUNDATION

April to December – Planning and implementation of Climate Smart Food production in Mile 91, Mayolla and Waterloo. Planting trees of reconciliation for Military, Ebola, Mudslide and the War Victims. Community Engagement through Gender Development, Women and Youth Empowerment, Entrepreneurship and Leadership training.

Barefoot women Solar Engineering

April to June, planning for proposals, readiness for receiving students back in October.

GOOD DEEDS SL

April to December- Community Engagement in Freetown with a focus on Susan’s Bay and other slum areas, Waterloo, Somalia town in Central Freetown, Makeni, Bo and Kenema. This will be with a focus on Women, Youths and Children. With continued donations to vulnerable people of food and clothing. Registration of GOOD DEEDS SL, also to set up a recruitment and training organisation.

Thinking Pink Breast Cancer