Freetown -   These last years, low capacity of drainage systems mostly caused by accumulation of waste in Freetown, Sierra Leone has been a significant factor of devastating floods that have affected thousands and caused economic damages to the country.

To help communities better manage waste, while creating jobs for youth, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Sierra Leone, handed over (on 1/11) garbage collection equipment and tools to the Freetown City Council (FCC). This equipment which includes twenty motorized tricycles, two motorbikes, wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes and protective gears was provided to FCC to support 20 sustainable waste collection micro-enterprises that will conduct door-to-door waste collection in Freetown.

 “These items will help communities keep the city clean which is also in line with the Transform Freetown initiative”, said Alhaji Sanusi Tejan Savage, IOM Head of Office in Sierra Leone. “I am also confident that this handing over is a positive step towards creating sustainable entrepreneurship and employment opportunities for youth in Freetown,” he added.

““Today, the Sierra Leonean youth is now part of a change in narrative about Freetown when it comes to sanitation,” said Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, the Mayor of Freetown. “And you are not only collecting trash, but you are running businesses, and those businesses have the potential to grow. You can grow from your tricycle to a truck. You can grow from having ten of you to employing fifty,” she added.

In early October, IOM in collaboration with FCC also organized entrepreneurship and sustainable waste management training for two hundred youths who joined together to make up these twenty waste collection brigades.

The items were provided in the framework of IOM’s youth empowerment project ‘Reducing the Risk of Irregular Migration through Promotion of Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship in Sierra Leone’ implemented with funding from the Government of Japan.

For more information, please contact Alhaji Sanusi Tejan Savage, Head of Office, IOM Sierra Leone, email: ssavage@iom.int