My Summer in Freetown

Goodbyes

Our time in Freetown, Sierra Leone, has now come to an end. This past week, we presented our work over the summer to Mayor Yvonne...

Tricycles

The third initiative of Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr that we are tasked with evaluating this summer are the Sustainable Waste Management...

Treetown

“We love the work because these trees help us a lot. So, I love to be in this job. I like to be planting trees because we, the people,...

Opportunities

Last Friday, we spent the day at the FCC Early Education Center, located in the eastern part of Freetown. The daycare is run by the...

Water

Why would water scarcity be linked to teenage pregnancies? Many societal issues that we may think of as “gender-neutral” – i.e.,...

Hardship

Last night, I had a dream that I rinsed my toothbrush with clean water from the sink. Why was I dreaming of toothpaste flowing from my...

Colours

Wherever you go in Freetown, you see women dressed in colorful dresses and skirts. It doesn’t matter whether you are walking through an...

Salone

This summer will be spent in Freetown, Sierra Leone. I will be working for the Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, as part of her...

Esther Hallsdóttir

Thanks to the generous support of the Women and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, I will be working for Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, the Mayor of Freetown, in the summer of 2022 to evaluate and enhance the city's gender policies and programming. I am a Master in Public Policy student at the Harvard Kennedy School, focusing on gender and child protection. At HKS, I work as a Research Assistant to Professor Dara Kay Cohen and the Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict Data Project. Previously, I was a Campaign Manager for UNICEF Iceland and served as Iceland's Youth Delegate for Human Rights to the United Nations.