After living in the United States for over a decade, Usifu Bangura returned to Sierra Leone to reunite with his family and to do his bit in rebuilding a country still recovering from civil war.
Usifu’s mother, Fatou Sankoh gave him up for adoption in 2004 after Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war that ended in 2002. His father had been killed and his mother could not afford to raise him and his siblings.
Usifu launched a project to improve access to clean water in Sierra Leone and specifically for the people in Kambia, the village where he found his mother after tracing the process of his adoption.
He has been holding discussions with residents to find out more about pressing needs of the community.
“I decided to come back to my home country to see my family after fourteen years as well as to bring any kind of humanitarian relief that I can, specifically to the use of hippo rollers,” he said.
Using Hippo Water Rollers or drums that are designed to roll over different types of terrain, residents can now transport up to 90 litres of water per trip.
Usifu gets the hippo rollers from South Africa and has rallied donors to help fund his initiative. His Bangura Project has also introduced water filters to produce clean water with the hippo rollers.
“ It reduces child labor and that is very very great… our children… enjoy this roller,” said Kambia resident, Chernor A. Mansaray.
Usifo is working on partnering with the government and local organizations on a larger scale to develop community run projects to improve clean water supply in rural parts of the country.
- Donate here to help the Bangura Project improve access to clean water in Sierra Leone.