Sierra Leone is a country on the west coast of West Africa, a country with great young minds who are leading grassroot change in STEM through a program called Innovation Challenge organized by gmin.org. The team participated last year and took 37th position out of more than 150 participating teams and countries. Excited again to be representing our country this year, and this time with one of the team members of last year as technical Mentor.

Akiatu Amida Thomas. The team leader of one of the 2016 Innovate Salone finalists teams with a prototype of a solar rechargeable book. She saw the problem of lack of access to electricity and thought of ways she would help her colleagues to continue their study at night. Since then, she has been a local champion leading community efforts in her communities. Recently, she led community efforts to teach her colleagues life skills and continues to serve as one of the community stakeholders.

Santigie Sankoh. A front end and back end programmer. In his early years in high school, he built a self-controlled Jet which made him a national hero and celebrity. In 2014, he won one of the biggest science fair competitions which led to his bagging of a full time tuition scholarship in the latter part of his high school years. As a developer, he created his first software company called Leading Edge Technology, tech company that teaches kids coding. His aim is to train more talented kids across the continent. 

Patrick Ngebeh is an outstanding programmer and a social Innovator. In his early years in high school, he made his own FM transmitter and converted a phone that was used as a switch to power bulbs as his personal contribution to the disabled community. In 2015, he won the Sierra Kids got talent Expo and in 2017 won a programming competition organized by a leading IT University in Sierra Leone. This year, he led a team during the Sensi Hub Health Hackathon on Risk Communication in West Africa with an app they self created called Health Awareness app. He is an outstanding Youth programmer in Sierra Leone.

Hannah Adama Gbla recently graduated from high school. She is an Alum of the Innovate Salone program. She was an active member of the solar rechargeable book team of the Annie Walsh Secondary School. In 2018, her team won the Sensi Hub Hackathon on Health Risk Communication. She is a passionate problem solver and an excellent social mobiliser of her community. She wants to become a medical doctor to contribute to nation building in Sierra Leone.

Hassan Deadewai Swaray is a social Innovator, also a recent graduate of the Prince of Wales Secondary School. He was also a finalist of Innovate Salone where his team made a rechargeable solar backpack for travelers as a way of accessing energy for their electronic devices. In addition to his quest to bring development through affordable energy to colleagues, he went on to create a low cost portable solar light. The solar light was a finalist project at Harvard Social Innovation Collaboration – Village to Raise a Child(VTRAC). He received a certificate from Harvard for excellence in social Innovation.

Osman Yaah, an exceptional tech innovator and a self-taught engineer. As the team lead, he participated in Innovate Salone, the national innovation competition in 2017. His team won the competition last year and went on to power 10 houses with his renewable energy source (hydroelectricity that with 220 Voltage). He continues to impact more lives through his energy project.

Mariama Djelo Bah is a recent high school graduate and a passionate change agent in her community. To be able to do so, she has participated in numerous innovation competitions in Sierra Leone. Unlike others, she has not been lucky to be in the first spot of any of these competitions, but that has not dissuade her to continue to work hard. She is one of few girls that are resilient enough to advocate for girl’s empowerment. She has honed the skills of girl’s empowerment through her many talk shows on TV and Radio. Mariama is an example of a strong 18-year-old who is ready to break stereotypes connected to women and girls in Sierra Leone as demonstrated by her recent participation in the Health Hackathon organized by Sensi Hub.

Team Media