By Kemo Cham
The northern Sierra Leonean town of Kabala is once again set to host science and cultural enthusiasts for the 7th edition of the National Science and Leadership Festival (ScieLeadFest2024).
The annual event brings together scientists, innovators, policy makers and students to interact and discuss the intersection between science and leadership, among others.
Taking place within a period of four days, the event also entails cultural performances and aspects about psychosocial wellbeing.
Project 1808, a non-profit dedicated to building collective success through empowering the next generation of transformational leaders, organizes the festival. Through it the organization seeks to provide a platform for sharing of ideas with the goal of building social capital.
This year’s event, dubbed ScieLeadFest2024, is being convened on the theme: “STEAM and Leadership: Ideas to Action – Promoting Food Security, Climate Resilience, Opportunities for Youth, and Combating Substance Abuse.”
The event is scheduled to commence on Thursday January 11 to Sunday January 14 in the Red Cross Compound campus of the Koinadugu College.
In 2023, over 1000 people attended the event. Organizers say they are expecting more participants this year, with guests coming from overseas, including the US, the Middle East and elsewhere across Africa.
In a statement shared on social media ahead of the event, Dr Alhaji Umar Njai, Founder and Chief Strategist of Project 1808, promised a fun-filled experience in Kabala in the course of the four-day event.
“From Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts to Leadership, Entrepreneurship, music, storytelling, theatre, and cultural performances, we have it all,” he noted.
Participants have the option of attending presentations in over a dozen disciplines, including biology, chemistry, agriculture, and environment and climate change, as well as arts and culture. There are also presentations on Information, Communication, and Technology; Leadership, Behavioral Sciences, Sociology, and Governance; and the Mass Media and Journalism.
Students of all ages will have the opportunity to participate in hands-on experiments using basic and advanced scientific tools.
Previous editions have included panel discussions on pressing social issues Sierra Leone is dealing with, like drug abuse, environmental protection and food security.
The final day of the event, on January 14, is reserved for hiking up the iconic Wara Wara Yagala Mountains, as well as tours of the Kabala community.
Kabala is the headquarters of the Koinadugu District, one of the most neglected part of Sierra Leone. The Scieleadfest is just one of many initiatives Dr Njai, his team at Project 1808 and partners are using to bring development to the district and the nation at large.
Scieleadfest2024 comes as the project inaugurates the first higher learning institution in the district – the Koinadugu College – which enrolled its first batch of students for the academic year -2023-2024 last September.
