“Rajiv Dreams not just alive but Growing” – Isha Johansen
Sierra Leone’s first female football president, Madam Isha Johansen (in photo) says the 50/50 founder, Rajiv Bendre dreams of giving women the opportunity to take top management position is not only alive but also growing. Rajiv Bendre was the director of the British Council in Sierra Leone and he helped to pioneer the 50/50 group, which has transformed the lives of many Sierra Leonean women by alerting them to their potential in the fields of political participation and public life.
The Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) president was giving a lecture last Saturday at the Radisson Blu, Mammy Yoko Conference Centr, Aberdeen, Freetown. The event was the 9th Annual Rajiv Bendre Women in Public Life Lecture Series organized by the 50/50 group in Sierra Leone with the theme “ When Women Win; We all Succeed”.
Speaking to a female dominated audience in a jam packed hall, Madam Johansen said Rajiv Bendre was not a man in denial or a man who felt intimidated by the intellectual or social capacity of a woman.
“Neither did he spend time plotting how to undermine the growth of the women around him. Instead he was so in awe of what he was exposed to through these women that he was of the sound belief that it was time that women be given the opportunity to lead and set the pace for others to follow. Today, his dream is not just alive, but it is growing,” she said.
The SLFA President told her audience that 50/50 has brought gender leadership role to fruition and reality; and has also made gains in the increasing number of emerging younger women in the Sierra Leone society and abroad, who in their own way have started paving the way for a more positive Sierra Leone. She agrees with the common saying that, “Behind every successful man, there is a strong woman,” and added that she totally agrees that women play a pivotal role in strengthening a home, a marriage, and ultimately the breadwinner who in most cases is the husband.
“However, in my case, and most of us here, and even the men in this audience, I would like to say that for every successful woman, there is a rock and a supporting and understanding husband in the background. My husband is my support machine, my rock, and my best friend. I would like to thank him over and over again for his love and support,” she said.
She continued her lectures by selecting three great and remarkable women from three different continents whose official roles, values and challenges mirror her situation. She further extracted some inspirational quotes from these three women; President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia (First female President in Africa), Baroness Magret Thatcher-The Iron Lady (First Female Prime Minister of Great Britain) and the remarkable almost unbelievably brave, courageous and shamelessly humble, Diana Nyad (the 60-year old American woman who swam from Florida to Cuba); to give an insight as to what inspires her to aspire for the first female football president in Sierra Leone.
Among the quotes she quoted, there was one which stood tall in her lectures and that was one done by President Johnson Sirleaf from a speech she made at Harvard University in 2011 entitled; ‘’If Your Dreams Don’t Hurt You. The quote is ‘’THE SIZE OF YOUR DREAMS MUST ALWAYS EXCEED YOUR CURRENT CAPACITY TO ACHIEVE THEM. IF YOUR DREAMS DO NOT SCARE YOU, THEY ARE NOT BIG ENOUGH”.
Madam Johansen lectured that she likes the quote because it revels in the fact that, she not only ‘THINKS BIG, SHE THINKS SCARINGLY BIG’ adding that the quote exactly sums her up. She explained that because she has no limit to what her ambitions for herself and Sierra Leone, she would be brave enough to say that; yes she was the first to publish a partly coloured social magazine called Rapture Magazine in Sierra Leone; Yes she was the first to produce an in-flight magazine called KABO for Sierra Leone Airlines; Yes she was the first to donate mammograms to Sierra Leone; Yes she was the first to do a pink ball in support of breast cancer awareness; yes she was the first to do a Woman of Excellence Awards Ceremony in honour of women from all walks of life; yes she was the first to take a youth football team from Sierra Leone to Europe and RETURN with silver and gold medals; yes she was the first to organize an international youth tournament in Sierra Leone bringing in clubs from three continents..
“And yes I AM THE FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT OF THE SIERRA LEONE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION. And you know what, I have only just begun. There are going to be many more firsts for me, for I will continue to break boundaries and barriers. This is because like Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, I HAVE THE AUDACITY TO DREAM SCARINGLY BIG and the courage to achieve that dream,” she said.
Yeniva Sisay-Sogbeh – Principal of the New Frontier Associates was the Chairperson of the occasion while Dr Aisha Fofanah Ibrahim – President 50/50 Group; Nassu Fofanah – Gender Adviser to His Excellency the President of Sierra Leone; Manja Kargbo – Technical Director, AFFORD SL; Randa Swaid – Entrepreneur, Owner of City Plaza and Swiss Sport Boutique Hotel and Louisa Waddingham – Director, The British Council served as panelists in the discussion session.
SLFA
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