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July 21, 2007

The National Youth Workshop: Youth Involvement as a Strategy for Social, Economic, And Sustainable Development in Sierra Leone

The reason why we left Sahn in the first place was to help Henry Kpaka organize the above national workshop. Students were invited from all high schools in the regional headquarter towns and from 10 senior secondary schools in Freetown to the 3 days workshop at Bo Government Secondary School, Bo. Henry Kpaka attended the United World College (UWC) - which most members of our group also attended - and his initiative was funded by the UWC-Davis foundation. The idea was to engage these students into actively thinking about problems in their societies and to foster the idea of volunteerism.

After the first day of inspirational speeches from leading figures including a Professor and a reputed medical doctor, our job was to present Global Minimum (GMin) to participants and to challenge them to design projects that could be implemented in their schools and communities once they return.  After an engaging presentation about our various projects, we showed some parts of the "RX For Survival" series, which sparked discussions later on. One could sense a whole new feeling- the feeling of self-belief cultivated by these students.

The following day, July 21st, the students deliberated on group projects and we were moderators of the session. Jacob had fallen ill with fever and with Morten still nursing his common cold at home, Mathias and I had to listen to all the projects presented by the students. Most of them were great projects and by the end of the day, I experienced what I had expected and I have no doubt that this wave of enthusiastic youths will impact their societies in ways that have not been seen before in Sierra Leone.