JN Bank UK is In Conversation with The First Lady of the Republic Sierra Leone Her Excellency Dr. Fatima Maada Bio
We had the pleasure and honour of hosting The First Lady of the Republic Sierra Leone, Her Excellency Dr. Fatima Maada Bio as our very special guest and inspirational speaker at our branch community space on Thursday November 10th 2022. The function ‘In Conversation with The First Lady of Sierra Leone’ was oversubscribed. The attendees mainly comprised of leaders in the women rights and children welfare sectors, which is an area The First Lady champions and advocates on, nationally, regionally, and internationally.
Her Excellency is also an award-winning actor, screenwriter, film producer and pan-Africanist fighter for women's rights. This multifaceted woman shared her very moving and inspirational journey with the captivated attendees where she candidly explained how she arrived in the UK as a teenage refugee. She explained how much she benefitted from The Prince’s Trust programme at the time, as she received bursaries and scholarships to peruse her academic qualifications and training here in the UK, to now being The First Lady of Sierra Leone.
Dr. Maada Bio’s address was well received by everyone and provided rich insight into the plight of women and children globally, and in particular, across various regions in Africa. She also shared information on one of her most recent achievements at the General Assembly of the United Nations, in the acceptance of her draft resolution being accepted and declared ‘World Day for the Prevention and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Violence’ which was unanimously adopted on November 7th.
She also shared details of some of the projects and programmes she was currently working on and took questions from the attendees.
The evening’s proceedings were ably moderated by our very own Deputy CEO Paulette Simpson CBE who commended the outstanding work that The First Lady is doing and encouraged her to continue using her platform and voice in a powerful and impactful way to serve others around the globe.