Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr To Speak At President Biden’s Summit For Democracy
04/12/2021
I am humbled and honored to have received an invitation from the President of the United States of America to participate in the virtual Summit For Democracy as a Session Speaker. I will be a panelist in the session titled “Bolstering Democratic Resilience” on Thursday 9th December from 10.45am to 11.45am EST (3.45pm to 4.45pm GMT).
The Summit for Democracy, held on December 9-10, 2021, will be a virtual event hosted by the President of the United States from The White House along with other Chiefs of State, Heads of Government, Heads of International and Civic Organizations and other non-governmental participants from across the globe. The goals of the Summit are to: (1) galvanize commitment to initiatives across three principal themes: strengthening democracy and defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights; and (2) engage, listen, and speak honestly about the challenges facing democracy globally and within participating countries, including the United States.
The Summit will be broadcast live online, so Freetonians can watch my session and the rest of this very critical and timely Summit focused on strengthening democracies around the world.
This morning I joined the Summit For Democracy team for a technical test. That went smoothly and I am very much looking forward to participating in this very important virtual event on Thursday.
I am currently in Fishers, Indiana at the joint invitation of Rotary Club of Freetown and Rotary Club of Fishers. These two organizations have been working together for over 10 years now, demonstrating the power of community led initiatives to transform lives.
Their “WaterIsLife” project has already provided 155 water wells in Sierra Leone. Their new ambitious but achievable target is to provide 1,000 water wells in Sierra Leone by 2025.
I have been invited to deliver the keynote address at the “WaterIsLife” Charity Ball today, to help raise funds towards achieving this goal which will support our #TransformFreetown Water Sector target.
On Thursday I had the singular honor of having a tree in Fishers City Park dedicated to me in recognition of my work on climate change and our #FreetownTheTreeTown initiative.
I am deeply humbled and would like to use this opportunity to thank all of our tree stewards, tree growers, project team members, our implementing partner and donors (both big and small) for making #FreetownTheTreeTown a success and putting this initiative on the world stage.
#FreetownTheTreeTown is a great demonstration of the power of the collective to make transformational change as is the Freetown and Fishers Rotarians’ WaterIsLife project.
I am thrilled that Mayor Scott Fadness was joined yesterday by a cross section of Fishers Rotarians and the heads of the two project partners; Jo Ann Lyon, Founder of World Hope International and Darryn Sheske, Senior Pastor of the Heartland Church.
I was accompanied by Cllr Zainab Conteh, Chairperson FCC Foreign Affairs and Protocol Committee.
Thank you Mayor Fadness and the City of Fishers. I am deeply loved by your kind gesture and will follow the growth of my tree over the coming years.
#TransformFreetown
©️Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE
