2003 Press Releases

US Ambassador Funds Cultural Preservation in Sierra Leone: Project Completed and Launched

March 27, 2003

Freetown, Sierra Leone

Fourah Bay College and Sierra Leone Museum today launched the completed results of a project begun in 2001, to retrieve and preserve the cultural documents and monuments of Sierra Leone.  Funding for this project was provided by the US Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation.  The final products are a series of video, brochures, and postcards capturing the historical legacy of Sierra Leone and preserving their memory for the future.  The project was important because the impact of war and many years of neglect were robbing Sierra Leone of historical sites and memories that date back to the Province of Freedom and even before.  US Ambassador, HE Peter Chaveas, remarked that, “we hope that this project will be a contribution not just to preserving the past but also to building the future.”  He continued that, “cultural identity should be a source of pride for any people” and that “the heritage recorded here should serve as an attraction to tourists and we hope that materials produced by this project will make a contribution to rebuilding that sector of the Sierra Leonean economy.”