We couldn’t all go to Sierra Leone, so the official UK opening of the Kori Development Project Sandy Raffan Memorial Library was organised by SI Thames Valley and was held at the John Lewis Heritage Centre in Cookham on 18 Apr.As you can imagine a huge amount of effort went into fundraising, planning, building and equipping a major project like this – so it needed a fitting celebration!
The photos here show Johanna Raffan presenting Rose Simbo with flowers. Johanna gave a moving speech because the library is a wonderful tribute and memorial to her late husband Sandy. Rose is the driving force behind the Kori Development Project in the Chiefdom where she comes from originally – and what a driving force she is!!
The second picture is of SI London Chilterns President Jen Simpson celebrating with Rose, Rita Beaumont (Member of SI Bedford and past Regional President) and Jenny Vince (Member of SI Oxford and past SIGBI President).
For more about the project and the library please read this report to the United Nations Kori Project Report to UN updated Apr2017 and follow the links below: