Sierra Leone Telegraph: 3 May 2021:
The EU is taking Europe Week 2021 celebrations to a much wider audience – bringing messages on its values, principles and development cooperation with Sierra Leone, through its #TheEUandMe Roadshow and Pop-Up Photo Exhibition, starting today 3rd May to 10 May 2021.
The EU Roadshow and Pop-Up Photo Exhibition will be featured in a distinctive looking coach, travelling across Sierra Leone’s highways and byways. Its unmistakable blue and yellow branding and European flag will instantly identify it with the EU.
Inside the coach will be a film crew, and a pop-up photo exhibition that represents a selection of the EU’s work in Sierra Leone and indicates how it supports Sierra Leone’s progress towards an economically vibrant and inclusive society.
TheEUandMe Roadshow and Pop-Up Photo Exhibition will make scheduled stops in Port Loko, Makeni, Kenema and Bo, as well as in Freetown, the brightly branded EU bus and its two specially created cartoon characters – Ami and Ahmed, a pair of curious and enquiring teenagers – will make an entertaining and memorable sight.
However, #TheEUandMe Roadshow and Pop-Up Photo Exhibition also has a more profound purpose. It is intended to increase understanding of the EU’s work with Sierra Leone and how it contributes to boost agriculture, improves learning environments and livelihoods, facilitates travel and commerce, supports the inclusion of women and young people and protects survivors of sex and gender-based violence.
In visits to a selection of EU supported projects, stories of individuals and communities who have first-hand experience of their impact, will be captured on film so they can be shared with a wider audience.
Ami and Ahmed, with their questioning outlook, will also contribute to relay a positive message about the future of Sierra Leone and portray how crucially important it is that young people are involved and proactively engaged in their country’s development.
Among the planned stops are an EU-Trócaire project to strengthen the voice and influence of vulnerable and marginalised women in local governance and agricultural development processes, which has given women in Bombali, Port Loko and Kambia Districts the confidence to challenge underlying causes of gender inequality.
One of these women is Aminata Kamara who stood for election in Konta Bana community in Marampa Chiefdom, Port Loko and succeeded, against the odds, to become the community’s first Deputy Headwoman. The position, second to the Village Head, is a prestigious role.
An EU-Solidaridad project to revive Sierra Leone’s cocoa, coffee and cashew economy has supported 7,818 farmers and brought women and people with disabilities, who previously relied on subsistence agriculture, into the sector by enabling their ownership of cashew, coffee and cocoa farms.
The Rainbo Centres work across the country to tackle the causes and consequences of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Sierra Leone’s deeply gendered society and are delivering two European Union projects in Sierra Leone. The first – funded by Irish Aid through the Embassy of Ireland in Sierra Leone – is aimed at making sure that women and girls are aware of, have access to and make use of the free services available to them; the second strengthens community understanding and engagement to prevent SGBV against women and girls in Sierra Leone.
Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is a vital pathway towards learning and developing work related skills. In Sierra Leone, work to strengthen TVET, co-financed by the European Union and German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), has boosted prospects for TVET students through skills certification programmes in three core occupational areas: in-service teacher training, an online communication platform to support a multi-sector coordination structure as well as vital equipment and tools for TVET centres.
Infrastructure connects communities to greater opportunities for employment, healthcare and education. The EU-funded Bandajuma-Liberia Border Roads and Bridges project will contribute to economic diversification and development and represents the commitment of the EU to delivering renewed infrastructure to Salone.
This immense project has rehabilitated almost 100 km of the Trans-West African Coastal Highway and includes the construction of three major bridges, across the Sewa River, the Waanje River Bridge and the Moa River.
#TheEUandMe Roadshow and Pop-Up Photo Exhibition will finish on the 10th May with a visit to some of Freetown’s schools, where EU’s ambassadors will discuss “The role of young people in the EU-Sierra Leone partnership” with the pupils, and how they can become more actively involved in shaping their future.
To see all this and find out more about the EU’s partnership in Sierra Leone’s transformational journey, and how its development assistance aligns with the Sierra Leone Government’s National Development Plan, look out for Ami and Ahmed and #TheEUandMe Road Show and Pop Up Photo Exhibition: Monday 3rd May – in Port Loko, Tuesday 4th May – in Makeni, Wednesday 5th May – in Kenema and Thursday 6th May – in Bo or follow us on Facebook @EUinSierraLeone !
#TheEUandMe Road Show and Pop Up Photo Exhibition is organised by the EU in partnership with the Embassy of Ireland and Germany to mark Europe Week 2021.
#EuropeDay2021 #TheEUandMe #TeamEurope
Indeed the EU has always been a trusted friend to the welcoming people of my beloved Sierra Leone.In good times and bad, sunshine and rainfall,come hell or high-water the EU as always stood steadfastly by our side like bold vigilant sentries at the gates of the weak protecting them against enemies of war.No question,they have been our truest most reliable friends that have already left their gentle, loving, thoughtful footprints on our hearts.Good friends are hard to find, but somehow the EU found us like a bee finding a rare flower that keeps it dancing and intoxicated with its most sweetest fragrances.The people of Sierra Leone are delighted to celebrate Europe week 2021 with you and we thank your leaders for their prudent, kind gestures of humility,compassion,and love towards us;That’s what friends are for helping others reach for the stars.
Again,as an ardent advocate for the fair treatment of people with disabilities I have become totally bereft of words that will adequately describe how deeply overwhelmed with gratitude I am for your pensive,contemplative decision to include persons with disabilities in your extensive efforts of support for an economically vibrant and developed Sierra Leone. Ladies and gentlemen, friends, stakeholders,pacesetters and well-wishers I thank you all once again for the unwavering consideration you have always showed to the people of my beloved Sierra Leone.
First of it kind. Hope other development NGOs will follow suit. I wouldn’t want to miss this one. Kudo to EU