March 2025

1/3/2024 I was excited to launch the second round of the Bloomberg Freetown Youth Climate Action Fund yesterday! Freetown is among the 100 cities from 38 countries in the world that qualified for the Bloomberg Freetown Youth Climate Action Fund. Freetown youths aged 15-24 years are invited to submit proposals for grants between $1000 and […]

28/2/2025 Disability is NOT inability! These words were vividly demonstrated at this afternoon’s The Dorothy Springer Trust Graduation ceremony. I delivered the keynote address to the graduands who have demonstrated extraordinary resilience and are moving into the job market, equipped to prove to the world that indeed disability is not ability! After the ceremony, I

24/2/2025 On Monday 24th February, I met with the Irish Ambassador to Sierra Leone H. E. Aidan Fitzpatrick and Mark Finegan, Director of the Civil Society Unit in the Development Cooperation and Africa Division of Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs. We had a very engaging discussion about collaboration, including the Kingtom Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant,

23/2/2025 I don’t have the words to express the joy I felt returning to Kagbankona Village yesterday. I first met the people of Kagbankona and the 27 surrounding villages (collectively known as Thuan Mathinki) in 2001 when they were at Ross Road camp for internally displaced people. At that time I was living and working

17/2/2025 I was honored to yesterday deliver the keynote address at the Opening Ceremony of the Green and Resilient Urban Shift Africa Forum 2025 held at the United Nations Office in Nairobi. Urban Shift has convened leaders from cities and national governments from across the continent to collectively discuss the role of urban planning amidst

11/2/2025 It was my pleasure to yesterday deliver a lecture to masters students and faculty at the Norman Foster Foundation Institute in Madrid for the 2025 Programme on Sustainable Cities. Titled “City Management without City Management Tools”, my lecture described the challenges of managing a city with a rapidly growing population in the absence of

7/2/2025 Yesterday’s African Urban Heat Summit was a landmark event for Freetown! Co-hosted by Climate Resilience for All (CRA) the one day Summit brought together mayors, vice-governors and technical representatives from Monrovia and Paynesville (Liberia), Conakry (Guinea), Accra (Ghana), Kanifing (The Gambia), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), and Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), along with Local Council leaders from

5/2/2025 Alongside the Deputy Mayor, Councilors, Chief Administrator and staff of Council it was a pleasure to receive Mayors and Vice Governors from across the region this morning. Delegates from Kanifing, Monrovia, Conakry, Accra, Ouagadougou, and Abidjan are in Freetown for the first ever African Urban Heat Summit. We also received the CEO, Board Chair

30/1/2025 I was extremely happy to today commission a new facility block at the Tower Hill Municipal Primary School! Funded by Dr. Staneala Beckley and constructed in partnership with the Freetown City Council, the facility block contains two classrooms, a staff room and a resource center, all of which are fully furnished. The new facility