May 26, 2019
Patrick Mcginnis – Guest Speaker at Freetown Pitch Night.

Patrick Mcginnis , the international venture capitalist, writer and speaker was our Guest Speaker at the May 15th edition of the Freetown Pitch Nigth.

The Mayor of Freetown, Her Worship Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, the Managing Director of Heineken (Sierra Leone Brewery), the Country Director of the British Council and a visiting delegation from the World Bank also attended. The theme was Water and Sanitation- meeting the SDG 6.

He graduated magna cum laude from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. While at Harvard, Patrick coined the term “FOMO”– or fear of missing out, which was added to the Oxford Dictionary in 2013, as well as the term “FOBO”– or fear of a better option. He has been featured as the creator of both terms in media outlets including The New York Times, Inc Magazine, Boston Magazine, MSNBC, and Cheddar. He is also the creator and host of the hit podcast FOMO Sapiens, which invites innovators, disruptors and leaders to discuss how they have faced their own FOMO and gone on to build successful startups and organizations.

Patrick is also the author of the international bestseller The 10% Entrepreneur, a guide to becoming an entrepreneur without quitting your day job, (Penguin Portfolio 2016). Translated into more than 10 languages, the book has been featured by The Financial Times, the BBC, MSNBC, CNN en Español, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, and many other media outlets worldwide. Patrick continues to tour the world offering workshops, seminars and presentations focused on cultivating entrepreneurship and fighting FOMO and FOBO.

A 10% Entrepreneur himself, Patrick has invested in, advised, or founded more than 20 part-time entrepreneurial ventures in high-tech, real estate, and entertainment throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, two of which have subsequently become unicorns. Most recently, he is an investor in the upcoming UK theatrical production of “The Last King of Scotland.”

Patrick started his career as an emerging markets investor at JP Morgan and AIG Capital Partners, and continues to advise The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation on topics related to emerging markets, venture capital, and private equity.

He is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and French, and his visited more than 80 countries.

Patrick Mcginnis
Her Worship Mayor Aki-Sawyer with the MD of Heineken Sierra Leone
Her Worship Mayor Aki-Sawyer and Country Director of the British Council with Patrick Mcginnis
The Pitchers, Panelists and Guests

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2019, SDG 6, water andsanitation
May 15, 2019
Meet Benson Kandeh on Wednesday May 15th at the British Council. 6:30pm

My name is BENSON Kandeh, born in Kenema at the Kenema Government Hospital.

I did my primary school at the seven days Adventist (SDA) and continued high school at the Government Secondary School, Kenema (GSSK) until I sat to the WASSCE exams.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and food security, awarded me a scholarship to pursue Agricultural studies at certificate level and my likes for the sciences was broaden as a result of this course. That’s why I entered Njala University for HND in Natural Resources Management.

In 2012, I met a friend from Denmark in Sierra Leone, who admired my ambition and decided to assist to further my education in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). He connected me with a German-American, WASH engineer called Wolfgang Bushner who lived in Bolivia ?? and he sent me an invitation letter and facilitated my admission to the Mobile School for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Bolivia, South America.

Upon completion, I returned home to implement the technology in solving water and Sanitation problems in my county.

I visited a man named LAHAI ENSAH BUNDUKA and explain to him my proposal and he found it interesting and wrote a project about it and send it to then, country director of welthungerhilfe Sierra Leone (WHH) and the project was funded to do a pilot and demonstration site for all the components.

The project was successful as we did 10 mobile toilets systems on all the beaches at the peninsula areas and drilled wells and improved hand dug wells with multiple taps as well.

In 2016 there was also a project implemented by WHH with funds from GIZ to construct 400 drilled wells in Bonthe Island. I was hired as consultant to implement the project using the Emas Technology.

In 2017, I met a friend heading a local NGO called Information For (IFA) Sierra Leone and he became fond of the technology and we decided to work together in promoting the technology as a social enterprise.

So far so good we have done a lot with private individuals’ sponsored projects like Wash hand basins, households improved hand dug wells, mobile ordorless toilets, underground storage tanks, Rainwater harvesting, solar hot water systems three chambers toilets system etc.

Thanks to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) for spotting my WASH activities and awarding me a recognition award with some cash in 2019.

Thank you for reading. Water na life, and help ti safe it today.

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2019, SDG 6, water andsanitation