I remain Mohamed Issa Kamara a 3rd year Computer Science Student and a Seasoned Community Project Manager and talented leader with 10 years of experience applying exceptional planning and problem solving abilities toward enhancing business plans and day-to-day activities. Results-driven and resilient in developing teams while improving processes and increasing productivity. Bringing solid understanding of industry trends, excellent communication skills, talent for spotting areas in need of improvement and implementing changes with strategic approach.

It all started in the year 2007 when I started volunteering into agricultural activities in my community while I just gained admission to secondary school. During my holiday at the village my mother is a strong woman who believe in community development. Early in the morning whenever I wake up I will see my mum under the mango tree with her partner in community development they are busy writing projects. Sometimes I can see my mom called meetings of community stakeholders and youths both women and men who are able bodied to discuss issues in things they could all come together to develop the community and I could see people give their views and they will note every contributions of opinions people give during the meeting and at the end they will all come to conclusions on what to do. I can see her bring all the youths in the community to do self-help in rehabilitating roads and some community self work. And I have seen lots of success stories where they have succeed in writing project proposals to construct a school and hospitals in my community. And whenever my mom is working I will always come closely to learn her skills and always asked questions. I grow interest in joining the community project they have which is called Buya Romende Women’s Agricultural Development Association-BWADA as an ordinary member at the age of 15.

After my holiday in the village I learnt a lot from her and elderly people during their meetings and also partake in the community activities and I went back to school at Lunsar where I was attending at Murialdo Secondary School. I always go back to the village to join my community people in their project work not until 2010 when I promoted to senior school I was made an assistance secretary to be taking minor inventories whenever the secretary is not around or busy holding meetings. In the same year 2010, the BWADA project was selected to construct an Agricultural Business Center at Foredugu Town. I was still in school but will always come to partake in the project during holiday until the construction of the project was done.

It was finally in 2014 when they realize to name the Agricultural Business Centre as Kamuyu ABC so as to accept other Farmer Based Groups to join in the government’s development chain. In that year 2014 I was made the secretary General of Kamuyu ABC at Foredugu. Over the years I have been fortunate by the power of God Almighty to partake in different agricultural activities where we have all succeeded to be selected among the 192 ABCs across the country to be in the 52 pilot face ABCs to be transformed through the help of SCP-GAFSP and the Government of Sierra Leone with support from IFAD also.

Last year 2020 I was fortunate to write a project proposal at UNOPS for BWADA to construct a rice processing center at Kamasondo Town Buya Romende Chiefdom Karene District. I have served as a volunteer in community development for over 14 years with all my academic and personal commitment since I enrolled at the University of Makeni in the 2015 and got promoted to my second year and couldn’t continue due to some financial and family problems. Since being as somebody who have lived in the provinces in remote communities I can see the challenges our community people faced in the area of increasing productivity and practicing commercialized farming instead of subsistence farming.

I can hear their cry and always try to find possible solutions to solve their numerous challengers faced by them which I and my team members in the development path is trying to solve using ICT. As we are about to develop an Web Application wherein farmers can meet there needs in Agriculture through our team help to connect the farmers, buyers and the different stakeholders in agriculture and development in order to maximize production and alleviate poverty.

I believe in life there are lot of challenges one may face to every succeeding step you may take some of which I have conquer and there are more to faced which I believe in the world of technology I can be able to solve. Some of the challenges when in the academic world that one may faced which i have faced and some i know probably i will faced are as follows;

Finance: this has being one of the biggest challenge I encounter during my studies in 2015-2016 academic year which lead to my drop-out from course.

Death or sickness of Sponsor or Family Member: this has also being another challenge i faced the year i got promoted to second year of study when my mom got sick as she is the one taking care of my education bills.

Relocating for study: relocating to a new or unfamiliar environment is another big challenge i faced in my study especially when i have to leave my family, my town, friends and love ones to relocate to a new environment where i have to meet new people and new environment which i tried to adapt. All thanks to a module i did in my year one studies called " University Studies" which helped me a lot to managed this challenge. this challenge has to continue for as long as I am ready and willing to learn and read to explore new things from different cultural backgrounds i am always ready to meet new people and unfamiliar environment.

Problem of Trust: this is also another challenge i know is difficult to overcome but i know strongly one has to be very sensitive and be very careful with the people you associate with in the technology world.

My Expectations now and after graduating

I know at the end of this semester, I will be able to learn more principles of project development, know how I can develop software applications and be able to enjoy the course and will be able to be trained as computer science personnel and be able to graduate having knowledge in Data Science and Web Development.

Written by: Mohamed I. Kamara aka Md Kamy.