🌍  Crossroads in Freetown

✈️ In 2007, I found myself at a crossroads. After a year serving a refugee community in Atlanta, I wanted to understand and support the grounded resilience of children who rebuild their lives after war by staying rooted in the same soil that once knew their struggle. So I flew to Freetown, Sierra Leone, with only a loose plan: to help young people create and execute a community project that reflected both their service and their growing skills as members - and leaders - of their community.

🎶 At a local youth center, I met Ibrahim “DMark” Kamara, an aspiring musician with a dream to tutor neighborhood kids who couldn’t afford school. Even public education was costly then with the cost of uniforms, books, and unofficial teacher payments putting it out of reach for many families. He wanted to change that.

🚕 When I returned in 2011, DMark surprised me. With the support of his community, he had turned a few tutoring sessions into a brick-and-mortar school, alive with the energy of students learning together.

DMark has become the kind of leader everyone wants to follow - visionary, grounded, and fiercely dedicated to his community. That spirit became SHARP, the organization DMark later invited me to help expand. 

Today, SHARP supports:

🏫 Schools where students excel on national exams

💧 Flood relief for families near the bay

🌱 Seed and tool loans for farmers

And now, we’re inviting you to be part of the story.

💌 Sign up for our newsletter to stay connected.

💵 Donate to help complete our newest school and community center.

📖 As a thank-you, you’ll receive the first chapter of African Mosquito Wars, DMark’s own book.

✨SHARP is proof that community can change everything.✨