Joseph Kaifala first Sierra Leonean to receive Ford Global Fellow
SIERRA LEONE, Freetown: Joseph Kaifala was named a Ford Global Fellow, making him the first Sierra Leonean to receive such an honour.
The Ford Foundation’s flagship global fellowship programme seeks to connect and support the next generation of leaders from around the world who are advancing innovative solutions to end inequality.
The programme focuses on shared learning across issue areas, building and strengthening cross-border connections, and developing a supportive, interconnected cohort from a wide range of sectors, with the hope that the fellowship will serve as a catalyst for fellows to accelerate the impact of their work, both individually and collectively.
Kaifala will be one of 48 new fellows and 24 other fellows. Each of the 72 fellows will learn from one another in order to design and reimagine solutions to inequality.
“I want to see a world in which women and girls have equal access to education and are not discriminated against,” he said.
Joseph Kaifala is the founder and principal of the Center for Memory and Reparations, which promotes remembrance and shared narratives about Sierra Leone’s civil war. He is in charge of mapping and protecting mass graves throughout Sierra Leone.
He has also facilitated the construction of a civil war memorial, providing Sierra Leoneans with a place of remembrance. Joseph also founded the Jeneba Project to provide educational opportunities to adolescent girls in Sierra Leone.
The Jeneba Project established the Sengbe Pieh Academy to provide girls with access to quality high school education and to pave the way for them to forge a brighter future. The Jeneba Project built a water supply system that provides 20,000 litres of portable water to the school at Robis village.
“Sierra Leonean girls have an equal right to a good education. We must work to create a world in which all children receive an inclusive and equitable education, and we must eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and girls,” he said. OG/22/10/2021