Her Excellency Fatima Maada Bio, the First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone has offered one hundred and fifty million Leones (Le 150,000,000) to the Sierra Leone Police Wives Association as ‘Seed Money’ for the upcoming development projects of the Association. The First Lady made this unprecedented offer today, 2nd October, 2020 in a meeting between the Sierra Leone Police Wives Association and the First Lady at the Sierra Leone Police Wives Vocational and Training Institute, Kingtom in Freetown.
The First Lady made the offer following a request from the president of the Sierra Leone Wives Association, Mrs Hawa Sovula, wife of the Inspector General of the Sierra Leone Police, Ambrose Sovula. Speaking at the meeting, Mrs. Hawa Sovula praised the First Lady, Her Excellency Madam Fatima Maada Bio for series of the development projects the First Lady has embarked on and those she is currently engaged in. Mrs Sovula revealed that the First Lady was very instrumental in constructing the Sierra Leone Police Wives Association Vocational and Training Institute at Kingtom in Freetown.
Speaking on her priorities, Mrs Sovula said her flagship program is to provide bore holes and hand pumps for all police barracks in Sierra Leone to surmount the problem of water in the police barracks. She revealed that the lack of water in police barracks is counterproductive to the campaigns of the First Lady. She said this is because women and girls are the most affected by lack of water in homes. The police wives’ president ended by committing her institution’s support in fight against Sexual and Gender Based Violence which the First Lady coins as the ‘Hands of Our Girls’ campaign.
Other speakers, including the Inspector General of Police and the Minister of Internal Affairs supported the proposed project by the Police Wives’ President whiles stating that water is very key.
Delivering the keynote address, Her Excellency Madam Fatima Maada Bio, First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone commended the Police Wives Association for the initiative and offered one hundred and fifty million Leones as ‘Seed Money’ for the project. She was also impressed that Mrs Souvula was able to organise teachers for the vocational schoo; that the association built from the Ministry of Education. The First Lady also promised to convince H.E. Brig. (Rtd) Dr Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic Sierra Leone, to support the project. She said She would work hand in glove with the Association to make the project a reality. She also promised to make the Association her main partner in distributing sanitary pads to pupils across Sierra Leone. She called on everyone to put Sierra Leone first and avoid politicizing development.
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