16th June 2003
PEACE POLE PLANTING AND DEDICATION CEREMONY AT THE SIERRA LEONE BROADCASTING SERVICES COMPOUND.

REPORT ON THE PEACE POLE CEREMONY

The World Conference on Children for Peace – WCCP organizes a Peace Pole planting and dedication ceremony at the SLBSTV Compound on June 16th 2003, to dedicate a peace pole. The ceremony started at about 11:30 am, for which Mr. Phillip Bangura was the master of ceremony. Sheik Hafiz Barrie said the Muslim Prayer and the Choirmaster of the School for the blind said the Christian Prayer – Mr. Samuel Sesay. The introduction of the chairman was done by the programme coordinator Mr. Alie Kamara.

The Chairman Mr. Abu Noah gives a brief address on which he talks about the oneness of the children for which they should stand for peace, next in the programme was the “Cry of the African Children” written by Abu Noah and song by the choir of the School for the Blind. The Executive Director of WCCP gives his speech with a brief history of the Soweto massacre i.e. June 16 – Day of the African Child, and also encourages the children to fight against violence by being the change they want to see in the world and also becoming “A New Generation of Peacemakers”, with the denomination Prayer “MAYPEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH”.

The Director General of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service SLBS; Mrs. Gina Banda Thomas encourages the parents that should lay the foundations of peace in their homes and also to shape the thoughts of their children and to the children she lay emphasis that they should respect and obey their parents and that this peace pole ceremony will be a great example that we should always remember. Before the unveiling of the Peace Pole, which was the key purpose of the ceremony, The Mayor, Freetown city Council Mr. Henry Ferguson talked about the planting of the peace pole should not only be a physical structure but must be planted in the minds and hearts of all, after which he went and unveiled the Peace Pole.

The vote of thanks was given by Mariama Turay of the Forum for African Women Education School, Fawe, Freetown and followed by the closing Prayer which was done by Mrs. Gina Banda Thomas.