Jeff Hall, center, with Osman Kanu on left and Emilia Olabisi Smith on the right
Excerpts from Jeff Hall’s keynote speech at “Expanding Our Roots”
Event on October 27, 2019
Aren’t we fortunate to have multiple Minnesota-based nonprofits focused on Sierra Leone? One thing we all have in common is we all love Mama Salone—the beautiful country and the incredible people who live there. And we all yearn for a better quality of life in Salone.
My love for Salone started in 1989 when the US Peace Corps sent me to Jokibu in Kailahun District. For two years, the people in the village were so warm and friendly, and treated me as one of their family. Then after the war I returned to see my village completely destroyed and the lives of my friends completely upended. There was suffering and sickness everywhere.
I worked with my friends to help them rebuild our village and then by 2010 we became the nonprofit OneVillage Partners (www.onevillagepartners.org), because the world is one village–one family, we need to help one another. OneVillage Parters is a community-led organization, where each of our villages decides their own priorities. We are now working in 21 villages with 25,000 people and have 45 Sierra Leonean staff in-country.
I remember years ago Alice Karpeh telling me about her dream to improve maternal health car for women in Sierra Leone. Her courage, drive and determination helped create RHCI which is now helping hundreds of women and families have safer deliveries of their new babies and more celebration for the joy of life.
Do you see the amazing impact that one person can have to improve lives in our beloved Mama Salone? Know that YOU can make a HUGE difference. You don’t need to start a nonprofit, but each of us has a vital role to play. Let us all in Minnesota work together in solidarity for the improvement of life in Sierra Lone, so the country and its beautiful people become the healthy, prosperous nation that its people so much deserve.
We tehl Gohd tehnki. (Krio: We thank God)
Jeff Hall is the founder and board chair of the Minnesota based nonprofit OneVillage Partners (onevillagepartners.org)