Despite her tight schedule during the week long course at Harvard Kennedy School, Mayor of Freetown Yvonne Aki-Sawyer was able to attend a meet-and-greet event with the Sierra Leone Community in Boston last Thursday 21st March, 2024.

During her brief statement at the Fielder Hall, Double Tree Hotel in Boston, the Mayor expressed gratitude to the Sierra Leonean community for turning up at short notice particularly during the Lent and Ramadan season, and said “I’m really really deeply touched and grateful”.

Aki-Sawyer told her audience that she was in Boston to attend the “Leadership For System Change: Delivering Social Impact At Scale” Executive Course at the Harvard Kennedy School along with other Schwab Foundation awardees from South Africa, Canada, India and other countries. She noted that the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship recognized her as an Outstanding Public Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2023.

The event which attracted Sierra Leoneans living in Boston, was hosted by Claudia Temple who doubles as APC Women’s Leader, Boston Chapter and PRO for the APC-USA Women’s Wing, and Geneva Anthony, founding member of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) who did the background work to make the event possible.