2019 end of year review
2019 has been an incredible and eventful year for me. I have experienced incredible highs and lows.
My highlights for 2019 are
- Launch of my website
- Attending the Buckingham Palace Queens garden party
- Keynote speaker at the FORWARD FGM conference
- Fantastic networking opportunities thanks to the Black Professional Network
- Partnership with the Bristol FGM delivery and Safeguarding Group Meeting on behalf of Sierra Women Independent Group.
- Partnership with the Avon and Summerset Police Community Adversary Group, representing the Sierra Leone community in Bristol.
- Interviewed by Rema Mukena Facebook Community Reporter. The article should be published soon.
- Attending Bristol’s Mayor Question Time.
- Teaching the children at Filton Hill Primary School about Sierra Leone food
- Writing my blogs about issues affecting the BAME community. I wrote about various topics including mental health, domestic violence and FGM. I appreciated the feedback
FGM in Sierra Leone has taken a positive step forwards ‘Sierra Leone initiates bondo without FGM’ and I hope to work even harder within my community to ensure FGM is no longer a taboo topic. It is one that should be openly discussed.
Our Sierra Leone community organisations SLEBA and SWIG remain vibrant organisations and very much a part of our community. SWIG launched their website this year to ensure that our activities are published and easily accessible. We applied for the Quartet Tampon Tax Community Fund this year but we were unsuccessful. We will definitely apply again next year. The SWIG project team gained valuable skills in their approach to reviewing the grant application fund. We are hoping to gain additional skills in web, poster and flyer designs. Our SWIG executive are going all out to ensure they obtain the relevant skillset to ensure that SWIG equipped. I am really proud to chair this group.
We are coming to the end of our executive term at SLEBA. Our two years in charge of the organisation has been incredible. I have thoroughly enjoyed the transformation of the organisation and the inclusion of our youths in our activities. I have been proud to support our youth development coordinator Eneyi. She has been an inspiration for our youth. I hope to remain very much involved with the activities of SLEBA especially in the area of youth mentoring.
2020 will be challenging and hopefully full of opportunities. I will be speaking at a conference in London in March 2020 as part of the International Women’s Day 2020 activities #EachforEqual. I also hope to attend a FamFest summit in Dublin Ireland. Our partnership with Avon and Somerset Community Police in 2020 will include a conference which I will be actively involved in planning and delivering on behalf of our community. I look forward to working with the Nigerian Association Bristol, Ghanaian Community Bristol and Kombo Sillah.
I want to thank you for your support in 2019 and hope to continue with such a fantastic journey I have embarked on.
A year of bitter-sweet memories has passed. May this new year bring immense joy and fun to your life. May you reach new heights of success. Happy New Year.
