By Ishmael Bayoh
Information Attachè- Sierra Leone Embassy Dakar, Senegal
+221775996486
The Sierra Leone Embassy in Dakar, Senegal on Saturday 21 September 2024 bade farewell to the Sierra Leone team that will be participating at the 2024 FIRST GLOBAL Challenge in Athens, Greece from September 26-29.
Team Sierra Leone will be joining other youth from 190+ nations uniting in pursuit of global understanding and STEM education with this year’s theme “Feeding the Future”. This theme focuses on addressing global food security and sustainable agriculture through robotics and innovation. The theme also aligns with His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio’s flagship program on agriculture which is ‘feed Salone’.
The 7 man Robotic team comprising five students and two mentors were in Dakar for their visa process which was facilitated by the Sierra Leone Embassy.
The National Commission for Children in Sierra Leone have been supporting the involvement of these children in innovation over the years and during their previous participations in the FIRST GLOBAL challenge.
In 2019, the Children Commission got the children to showcase their innovative skills at a children’s summit in Freetown, and established 25 STEM clubs in various schools in Freetown, Bo, and Makeni in collaboration with Projects 1835 amongst others done in a bid to enhance child participation and to empower the next generation with the tools of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to unlock a world of possibilities.
The theme lead, Susan Kargbo from the National Commission for Children thanked the Embassy for facilitating the team’s visa processes and the hospitality accorded them. She also thanked President Bio for his continued support to the robotic team’s participation for the sixth consecutive time now. She said the team received their kits in August last month to get them prepared with the support from the National Commission for Children.
Bidding them farewell at the Embassy’s Conference Hall, the Minister, Counsellor /Head of Chancery, Mrs. Augusta Akibo- Jones said with the demonstration done by the team, they were bound to make Sierra Leone proud at the challenge. She also said this year’s theme resonated with President Bio’s agenda of feed salone for which the team should capitalize on finding innovative ways of feeding the future. The Second Secretary, Mrs. Aminata Kargbo also wished the team success in Athens.
Teams from every nation are required to build and program a robot to compete. Teams work together to complete tasks in a game themed around one of the greatest challenges facing the planet in an effort to foster understanding and cooperation among the youth of the world as they use their abilities to solve the world’s problems.
