What I Learned on My First Visit to Sierra Leone
Folu Village in Sierra Leone
A few weeks ago, I stood in the heart of Kambama village, watching women fill buckets at one of nine water access points around the community. Their water system (solar-powered and gravity-fed) delivers 20,000 liters of clean, safe water to over 1,300 people each day. I had just arrived in Sierra Leone as the new Executive Director of One Village Partners, and in that moment, I witnessed something extraordinary: community-led development in motion.
Kambama’s Chief Kenneth described the transformation with pride. “OVP didn’t do it for us,” he told me. “You walked with us. You sharpened us.” His words reflect how deeply One Village Partners’ model as the sharpening stone resonates—strengthening leadership, ownership, and dignity in each community we serve.
Sierra Leone is a beautiful country, rich in culture and resilience. It is also a country facing enormous challenges. Maternal and child mortality remain among the highest in the world. In many rural communities, access to safe water, healthcare, and livelihoods remains far too limited, shortening life expectancy and reducing quality of life. Across the country, diarrheal diseases remain one of the leading causes of child deaths — deaths that are preventable.
Thanks to your support, this story is changing. In the villages I visited last month, I saw firsthand what your partnership is making possible.
In Folu, I met Chief Mogambo, who walked me around some of the 30 latrines built by the community in partnership with One Village Partners. “Before,” he said, “the community defecated near the swamps and the waste would enter the same water collected for drinking. Children were always sick, and the village had a strong foul smell.”
Now, Folu has ceased open defecation, has access to clean water, and children are no longer facing severe illness due to diarrhea. These changes aren’t temporary fixes; they are life-saving interventions that endure.
I also got to see how women are contributing to sustainable change in their communities. Across Kambama, Folu, and Bandajuma, our Nurturing Opportunities for Women (NOW) program is transforming not just the individual lives of women, but the social and economic fabric of entire communities.
Watta Gbessay shared with me how the program taught her to manage finances and prioritize essentials. "NOW taught me how to be strong enough as a woman," she told me. Through better budgeting and savings, she was able to pay for health care when she recently fell ill. As a result, she was able to recover quickly and return to caring for her children.
Watta Gbessay, NOW participant
Chief Joseph Barobay of Bandajuma
In Folu, 20-year-old mother of two, Mawata Kalon, is applying business principles she learned through NOW to increase her farming output and develop a profitable strategy, such as identifying groundnuts as a high-demand crop through her own grassroots market research. She shared how she learned that "investment in business doesn't have to be financial; it can be your brain and your energy." Her story, like so many others, illustrates how deeply empowering the program is for women who had limited options before.
What stood out most during my visit was the unmistakable clarity with which community members described One Village Partners’ approach. Again and again, I heard how One Village Partners’ work was seen as different. Bandajuma Chief Joseph Barobay told me “Bandajuma does not take OVP for granted. Since the war a lot of organizations have worked in our village, but OVP exceeds them all because OVP starts with asking what do you want, what do you need?”
Together, we can continue walking alongside the people of Sierra Leone and continue to support their communities to live, grow, and thrive.