According to the Executive Director of Initiative for Creative Women, Binta Bah, the summit is to identify, develop and showcase their talents to help transform their lives for community and national development. The theme for the summit was: “What we can achieve with what we have, think equal for gender equality” and is a communication and development initiative that trains young women with the necessary skills and knowledge to become the next female generational leaders.
She added that the initial stage of the project was to identify promising emerging women leaders, capacitate them through trainings, mentorship, and media exposure, peer exchange and networking. She went on to inform her audience that the summit was also to facilitate professional and academic and personal advancement for young girls.
Addressing the girls, the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs Mohamed Haji-Kella spoke on the qualities of being a good leader in line with government’s agenda. The Deputy Minister encouraged the participants to embrace discipline, efficiency and effectiveness as a driver to being change agents in their communities and the nation at large. He reiterated that it is difficult to become good leaders without these three qualities. He re-emphasized his government’s commitment toward supporting girls’ empowerment.
Giving her keynote address and declaring the summit open, the First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Fatima Bio underscored the importance of the summit by noting that such platforms provide opportunities for women to capacitate themselves to contribute towards national development. She called on young women to embrace and support women issues in the country. The First Lady also appealed to young women to redouble their efforts in everything they do as they are change agents in the communities.
The summit brought together women from different spheres of society to share their knowledge and experiences in areas ranging from job creation, civic and political participation, fashion and creativity, effective communication and many more.
