OPENING OF REGIONAL OFFICE IN KOINDU
Chairmain's statement
Chairman’s Statement
Mr. Chairman,
Our hard Working Paramount Chiefs in the three Kissi Chiefdoms,
Distinguished Guests,
Distinguished Stakeholders,
Youth and old,
Religious leader,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Members of KISDO INTERNATIONAL from Conakry, Freetown and Liberia,
On behalf of my wife Precious Bintu Fayiah and family, I greet you all this morning. I am Moses Sahr Fayiah, the founder and Chairman of Kissi Sustainable Development Organization (KISDO).
Mr. Chairman,
We are gathered here today to celebrate the grand official opening of our Regional Office in Koindu Town. We are so grateful to you all, who have been with us in every step we take, so that this day will finally come to reality.
Today marks the culmination of an idea that began about 7 years ago. The idea of KISDO started during the CULTURE RADIO PROGRAM in Freetown where many ethnic groups used to broadcast in their native languages on Culture Radio FM 1s4.5 with Moses Sahr Fayiah as the Kissi Moderator.
It was against this background that I, Moses Sahr Fayiah (A.K.A King Ngolie) and other committed and dedicated Kissi individuals started Kissi Bendu Radio Program in 2011 to create awareness about the problems surrounding the Kissi community.
On the 15th June 2016, I further created a WhatsApp group to source out finances which could help in to pay for the air time on Culture Radio, and this brought together the Kissi people in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia including the diaspora as a whole.
As this social group expanded and attracted more members from all works of life, it was then converted into a Non-Governmental Organization and the name thus changed to Kissi Sustainable Development Organization (KISDO). On the 13th March 2017, through the help of our abled Executive Director, Mr. Michael Mansaray the organization gained attestation from the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs Sierra Leone as a credible community based organization that seeks to promote the well-being of the people in the Kissi basin.
In accordance with our aims and objectives, this young organization has done marvelous things for the kissi communities in Sierra Leone and the diaspora within a year. To start with, we have established communication among thousands of people all over the world who have been out of touch for ages. In addition, we were the brain behind the detonation of the bombs in Buedu and the reinstatement of the Koindu market on Sunday of which we are all proud of today. Moreover, we rendered emergency aid to the kissi flood victims in Freetown during the mudslide in august 2017.
Currently we have members in Guinea, Liberia, Kenya, United Kingdom, USA, Holland, Australia and Canada.
Mr. Chairman,
Our community has a lot to offer. As you all know, this community is endowed with natural resources needed by the international world for their factories. Our land is fertile for the production of cash crops like rice, fruits, Cocoa and Coffee. Moreover, history tells us that the popular kissi penny was manufactured from one the kissi kingdoms. It is possible that we have huge deposit of minerals like iron ore, gold and diamonds like in any part of the country.
In terms of business, all of you here today will agree with me that this community made a lot of positive impacts in the commercial sector of Sierra Leone between the early 60s and the late 80s. This place where we are seated today used to be our International Market Center which I consider to be the “Dubai of West Africa”. The government of Sierra Leone generated so much income which was used by the then government headed by Late President Siaka P. Stevens.
In spite of the positive contributions made by Kissi people towards the development of the Sierra Leone economy, the kissi Communities and people have remained underdeveloped, with no proper infrastructure, clinics or hospitals, no potable water, no electricity and no paved roads. A number of kissi school-age children sit on hard cold floors in tents, roofed with palm branches/leaves, that they call schools. There are few trained and qualified teachers in the schools. In addition, there are no modern libraries with IT facilities and no recreational or leisure centers. Teenage pregnancy as well as maternal and child mortality rate are on the increase in the Kissi region.
Furthermore, Kissi communities have experienced and still are facing a number of constraints and challenges. First, they have agricultural potential but remains impoverished and underdeveloped due to the lack of simple modest farming equipment, appropriate tools and motorable roads to transport harvested agricultural products like bananas, oranges, coffee, cocoa, palm oil, cassava, plantains etc. to the nearest markets. Hence Kissi communities, which sit on fertile land area, are yet to fully exploit and utilize their rich natural resources with a view to develop the Kissi communities.
Moreover, Kissi Communities are surrounded by large tribes that are gradually eating into the Kissi culture, tradition, values, language and history….assimilation! Noting the kissi cultural heritage is very rich, unique and it’s dying out.
Another challenge and most worrying, is that all major developmental, social and economic facilities within the kissi community, particularly within Koindu and Buedu towns,, were seriously affected due to the 11 years’ civil conflict and subsequent EBOLA epidemic. The Kissi communities amongst others were hard hit and are still struggling to regain their lost opportunities.
Another compounding problem is the absence of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) facilities especially for Kissi youth and Smallholder-farmers to increase their skills for poverty reduction and development including the production of abundant food for the their communities to reduce the high dependency on the importation of major food stuff like rice.
Mr. Chairman,
Development as a concept was later extended to its wider meaning to embrace ‘changes’ of political, social, cultural, technological, economic and also the psychological frame of society. In its current meaning ‘development’ is used to express animated change for reaping utmost human potential. Technically, development is the name of a ‘Policy’ and its ‘Consequent programs’ designed to bring about a desired change’ in social, economic, political, or technological spheres of life. It is concerned with the promotion of human capacities: Physical or mental, to attain the cherished social goals. Development is potential-related, and it can be attained to the extent of the existing development potential, which is measured by the UN-exploited resources, talents, margin of sophistication and the ‘will power’ which implements development policy. Development is the conditioning of progress, and when efforts are laid towards the use of Growth potentials in rural economy and Society, it is rural development.
KISDO as an organization yearns to succeed in all of the levels of development that these communities would have attained long time ago as a civilized society. We do believe that building the minds of people towards development will minimize the challenges on the path of success as a community. Based on this fact, we as an organization will be supporting school going pupils with study materials in the office library.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
In order to ensure that the projections of KISDO could be maintained and contribute to the economic and social development of our people and nation, the issue of community participation must be taken in to consideration. KISDO cannot work alone without the support of the community people. We are expecting our Paramount chiefs, chiefdom speakers, town chiefs and section chiefs to work with KISDO hand-in-hand in all areas of our project. For KISDO to be sustained and achieve all its visions, the community leaders should support the activities undertaken by the organization.
Mr. Chairman and all of you seated here today,
KISDO is here as a pressure group to lobby on behalf of the Kissi community and implement developmental projects within the Kissi basin (SIERRA LEONE, GUINEA AND LIBERIA). So, it is our cooperate social responsibility to protect all KISDO property.
I would like to extend my sincere appreciations to all Board members, Executive members, members of KISDO, and all our well-wishers for their relentless effort towards this great achievement.
To end it all, I once more welcome you all, and declare this ceremony open.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman,
Our hard Working Paramount Chiefs in the three Kissi Chiefdoms,
Distinguished Guests,
Distinguished Stakeholders,
Youth and old,
Religious leader,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Members of KISDO INTERNATIONAL from Conakry, Freetown and Liberia,
On behalf of my wife Precious Bintu Fayiah and family, I greet you all this morning. I am Moses Sahr Fayiah, the founder and Chairman of Kissi Sustainable Development Organization (KISDO).
Mr. Chairman,
We are gathered here today to celebrate the grand official opening of our Regional Office in Koindu Town. We are so grateful to you all, who have been with us in every step we take, so that this day will finally come to reality.
Today marks the culmination of an idea that began about 7 years ago. The idea of KISDO started during the CULTURE RADIO PROGRAM in Freetown where many ethnic groups used to broadcast in their native languages on Culture Radio FM 1s4.5 with Moses Sahr Fayiah as the Kissi Moderator.
It was against this background that I, Moses Sahr Fayiah (A.K.A King Ngolie) and other committed and dedicated Kissi individuals started Kissi Bendu Radio Program in 2011 to create awareness about the problems surrounding the Kissi community.
On the 15th June 2016, I further created a WhatsApp group to source out finances which could help in to pay for the air time on Culture Radio, and this brought together the Kissi people in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia including the diaspora as a whole.
As this social group expanded and attracted more members from all works of life, it was then converted into a Non-Governmental Organization and the name thus changed to Kissi Sustainable Development Organization (KISDO). On the 13th March 2017, through the help of our abled Executive Director, Mr. Michael Mansaray the organization gained attestation from the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs Sierra Leone as a credible community based organization that seeks to promote the well-being of the people in the Kissi basin.
In accordance with our aims and objectives, this young organization has done marvelous things for the kissi communities in Sierra Leone and the diaspora within a year. To start with, we have established communication among thousands of people all over the world who have been out of touch for ages. In addition, we were the brain behind the detonation of the bombs in Buedu and the reinstatement of the Koindu market on Sunday of which we are all proud of today. Moreover, we rendered emergency aid to the kissi flood victims in Freetown during the mudslide in august 2017.
Currently we have members in Guinea, Liberia, Kenya, United Kingdom, USA, Holland, Australia and Canada.
Mr. Chairman,
Our community has a lot to offer. As you all know, this community is endowed with natural resources needed by the international world for their factories. Our land is fertile for the production of cash crops like rice, fruits, Cocoa and Coffee. Moreover, history tells us that the popular kissi penny was manufactured from one the kissi kingdoms. It is possible that we have huge deposit of minerals like iron ore, gold and diamonds like in any part of the country.
In terms of business, all of you here today will agree with me that this community made a lot of positive impacts in the commercial sector of Sierra Leone between the early 60s and the late 80s. This place where we are seated today used to be our International Market Center which I consider to be the “Dubai of West Africa”. The government of Sierra Leone generated so much income which was used by the then government headed by Late President Siaka P. Stevens.
In spite of the positive contributions made by Kissi people towards the development of the Sierra Leone economy, the kissi Communities and people have remained underdeveloped, with no proper infrastructure, clinics or hospitals, no potable water, no electricity and no paved roads. A number of kissi school-age children sit on hard cold floors in tents, roofed with palm branches/leaves, that they call schools. There are few trained and qualified teachers in the schools. In addition, there are no modern libraries with IT facilities and no recreational or leisure centers. Teenage pregnancy as well as maternal and child mortality rate are on the increase in the Kissi region.
Furthermore, Kissi communities have experienced and still are facing a number of constraints and challenges. First, they have agricultural potential but remains impoverished and underdeveloped due to the lack of simple modest farming equipment, appropriate tools and motorable roads to transport harvested agricultural products like bananas, oranges, coffee, cocoa, palm oil, cassava, plantains etc. to the nearest markets. Hence Kissi communities, which sit on fertile land area, are yet to fully exploit and utilize their rich natural resources with a view to develop the Kissi communities.
Moreover, Kissi Communities are surrounded by large tribes that are gradually eating into the Kissi culture, tradition, values, language and history….assimilation! Noting the kissi cultural heritage is very rich, unique and it’s dying out.
Another challenge and most worrying, is that all major developmental, social and economic facilities within the kissi community, particularly within Koindu and Buedu towns,, were seriously affected due to the 11 years’ civil conflict and subsequent EBOLA epidemic. The Kissi communities amongst others were hard hit and are still struggling to regain their lost opportunities.
Another compounding problem is the absence of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) facilities especially for Kissi youth and Smallholder-farmers to increase their skills for poverty reduction and development including the production of abundant food for the their communities to reduce the high dependency on the importation of major food stuff like rice.
Mr. Chairman,
Development as a concept was later extended to its wider meaning to embrace ‘changes’ of political, social, cultural, technological, economic and also the psychological frame of society. In its current meaning ‘development’ is used to express animated change for reaping utmost human potential. Technically, development is the name of a ‘Policy’ and its ‘Consequent programs’ designed to bring about a desired change’ in social, economic, political, or technological spheres of life. It is concerned with the promotion of human capacities: Physical or mental, to attain the cherished social goals. Development is potential-related, and it can be attained to the extent of the existing development potential, which is measured by the UN-exploited resources, talents, margin of sophistication and the ‘will power’ which implements development policy. Development is the conditioning of progress, and when efforts are laid towards the use of Growth potentials in rural economy and Society, it is rural development.
KISDO as an organization yearns to succeed in all of the levels of development that these communities would have attained long time ago as a civilized society. We do believe that building the minds of people towards development will minimize the challenges on the path of success as a community. Based on this fact, we as an organization will be supporting school going pupils with study materials in the office library.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
In order to ensure that the projections of KISDO could be maintained and contribute to the economic and social development of our people and nation, the issue of community participation must be taken in to consideration. KISDO cannot work alone without the support of the community people. We are expecting our Paramount chiefs, chiefdom speakers, town chiefs and section chiefs to work with KISDO hand-in-hand in all areas of our project. For KISDO to be sustained and achieve all its visions, the community leaders should support the activities undertaken by the organization.
Mr. Chairman and all of you seated here today,
KISDO is here as a pressure group to lobby on behalf of the Kissi community and implement developmental projects within the Kissi basin (SIERRA LEONE, GUINEA AND LIBERIA). So, it is our cooperate social responsibility to protect all KISDO property.
I would like to extend my sincere appreciations to all Board members, Executive members, members of KISDO, and all our well-wishers for their relentless effort towards this great achievement.
To end it all, I once more welcome you all, and declare this ceremony open.
Thank you.