A few weeks back we reported on Isatu’s Hope from Lungi City, Pewulay Village in the northern province of Sierra Leone, and her agricultural projects and her work with Global Children Humanitarian Organization (Orphanage).
We are still in Sierra Leone, and now we are with Issa Conteh, the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Save Life Initiative, a community development program.
Save Life Initiative was founded on 12th July 1989, in Fadugu, Koinadugu District, Northeastern Region in Sierra Leone. The Program and its founder have won the West Africa Leadership Award in 2018, and Street Child Headcount winner, and IFSP Presidential Winner in 2022.
The mission of the Save Life Initiative is “to support women through economic, social, and political programs; creating opportunities while addressing inequality, strengthening families and communities, and building the capacity of the most vulnerable communities to ensure sustainable use of natural resources, provide eco-friendly means of living, reduce the adverse impact of climate change, and improve the socio-economic condition while maintaining the ecological balance”.
And its vision is “to promote environment ecological balance and create harmony between humans and nature”.
Since 2010 deforestation in Sierra Leone has been severe. The main reason has been rapid population growth and urbanization. Ever-growing constructions in the hills around Freetown have left the area vulnerable to mudslides and floods, and have borne the consequences, with over 400 mudslides and floods between 2021 and 2022, with hundreds of lives lost and thousands more left homeless.
This has not only affected rapidly growing urban centers but has had a negative influence on the whole country, especially agriculture. Floods and landslides destroy fields and diminishing canopy cover has left the terrain dry, therefore further augmenting the negative effect of the frequent extreme weather events.
In our next posts, we will be exploring four projects with Issa Conteh from the Save Life Initiative. First, we will be looking at two projects that have had a great impact on the environment:
- Mudslide Tree Recovery (Regent, Sierra Leone Mudslides Recovery Planting). This project came about after heavy rain caused severe flooding and mudslides in and around the city of Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone. This extreme weather event caused over 1,100 deaths and more than 3,000 people lost their homes.
- Our Seedlings Nursery and Distributions Center Sierra Leone. After studying the deforestation in the country Save Live Initiative came up with this project to counter three challenges at the same time. A. Plant 120,000 seedlings of different varieties of fruit trees to counter deforestation. B. The trees will start bearing fruit in 6 – 8 years, improving food supply and income in the communities around the project. C. The trees will counter erosion and lessen the danger of floods and mudslides.
Then we will be looking at projects with a more direct impact on farmers:
- Fruit and shade trees for schools in Bombali. This project, which already has established 10 orchards in different schools, combines environmental education and nutritional education for children, beautification of the environment, and improved living conditions within the school communities.
- Farmer to Eradicate Hunger and Poverty project. The project located in Bombali District, in Noth Sierra Leone, aims to increase the agricultural capacity of smallholder farmers by linking them to urban markets.
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