I'm Mohamed Bonnie Sannoh; 

EcoGen Regional Ambassador to Sierra Leone. 

Serving as an EcoGen Ambassador has been an eye-opener for me especially in the area of our environment and the many environmental injustices facing our society. When I applied to become an EcoGen Ambassador, I had many pertinent objectives that I wished to accomplished while serving the six months term. These range from encouraging community people including school children to change their perception on conservation, climate change and effective management of our natural resources, thereby promoting the growing of trees as a business and a way of life. Above all, it was my hope that in so doing, community members and school children can become champions of environmental sustainability in Sierra Leone. 

Going forward, my focus is to keep employing an indigenous community led approach in raising awareness on environmental bullying by engaging, educating, empowering, and encouraging community members and school pupils through promoting a consistent message on climate change in selected schools and coastal communities across Freetown and Sierra Leone as a whole.

The experience I have gained from the six months environmental tasks or thematic reports have put me in a better position to understand that losses experienced in recurring disasters have led to a paradigm shift from “a traditional relief approach (where communities are considered as “victim” and “beneficiaries” of assistance) to disaster preparedness (a more holistic and long term approach which incorporates vulnerability reduction as part of the development planning process). My knowledge gained go beyond to also recognize that disaster mitigation has the highest effectiveness at the community level where specific needs are met. Thus; an efficient disaster management system becomes mandatory in order to mitigate recurring losses and manage the disaster in a successful manner. Hence, the need for me to keep encouraging community people including school children to change their perception on conservation, farming and agriculture, and to promote the growing of trees as a business and a way of life. 

Thus, I intend to join forces with community leaders, women groups, nurses, doctors, and people in position of trust to help the community in taking action to build safety and resilience, and reduce future hazard impacts. From an informed point of view, I can vividly say that, my continuous service closely with many disaster prone communities in hazard prevention, evacuation, and rehabilitation drives will help many communities in preserving their environment and maintaining an hygienic society.

So far, I have taken steps to help many communities in attaining zero wastes and maximising sanitation. Below are some pictorial evidence of my activies in helping to sanitise Cannaught Hospital; the biggest governemnt hospital in Sierra Leone.