By Alusine Sesay
To many, within and without the Ngowahun Chiefdom in the Bombali District of Northern Sierra Leone, Umaru Borbor Kamara is a household name. Hailed from the township of Kalangba,Umaru Borbor Kamara is easily recognized by his nickname, Bounzy.Very unassuming, Kamara is one of the shining stars from that chiefdom and his philanthropic gesture has touched many lives-from farmers, secondary and university students to small holder businesses. His individual contribution to community development is unmatched to the works of several non-governmental organizations and community based organizations in the country. He joined the United Nations in April 2004 and has worked as Finance and Budget Officer and now an Internal Auditor for the United Nations Secretariat based in Lebanon. From a humble background,Umaru Borbor Kamara has the ultimate desire to uplift the lives of his people in the Ngowahun Chiefdom and beyond. He has done so through needs assessment-engaging community stakeholders and responding to their needs handy. In this episode, Concord Times catalogues his contribution from agriculture, education, trade and commerce/women empowerment, health and religion.
Agriculture
Cross section of the farmers in Kalangba
Agriculture is one of the main occupations of the people of Ngowahun Chiefdom. Despite the fact that he is not oblivious of the fact on the ground, Kamara believes in sourcing opinion from the actual farmers in the chiefdom-taking decision from the bottom to the top,depicting his expertise in development communication .
“In the evening hours of 7 January 2023, I met with about 25 rice farmers in Kalangba, both upland and wetland rice farmers, to understand the challenges they were facing with their farming activities and to come up with suggestions on how I can work with them to improve their livelihood. All of them were small scale peasant farmers, some of whom I have known to be applying very rustic farming techniques, like they use simple tools, hoes, cutlasses, and bare hands for bush clearing, ploughing, weeding, etc., due to lack of support. Repeatedly over many years, these farmers would lose their fitness to hard labour from one harvest to another and experience low yields that were not enough to feed themselves and their dependents over the farming cycle. This phenomenon had been there for generations.
He narrated that, his engagement with the farmers was not only to discuss the issues that they were faced with, but to identify ways in which he could work with them to embark on profitable farming ventures that can sustain their livelihood, knowing agriculture is the most important economic activity for production and employment in rural communities and also knowing that agriculture can support social inclusion and contributes to rural development.
“The farmers highlighted that they lacked modernized farming implements and finances to hire the machinery required to undertake farming on a large scale as reasons for their small-scale farming. They needed a boost in the form of providing them the machinery or financial support to secure seed rice and hire a tractor. I informed them that I can afford a tractor and have it stationed at Kalangba to support the farmers of Ngowahun Chiefdom,” he narrated.
In that engagement with farmers, he said, they cited that cultivating rice being the only source of income for them means that every year they would have to trade off much of their harvests to get other basic needs.
“In this process, they would have to sell some or all of their seed rice at very cheaper prices during harvest and later buy the same at higher prices during the planting season. They also stated that they would have commitments with tractor owners to plough their farmlands in March-April and farm-harrow in July, but after expending money on ploughing the farmland in March-April, the tractor owners sometimes renege on their commitments to come in July for harrowing, causing financial lose to them. Other fundamental issues I noted were the absence of a structure within the community of farmers and strategic guidance on how to engage in a sustainable and profitable rice farming venture.”
Arriving at a formidable solution, he said they settled down on forming an association of farmers with the objective of embarking on a communal rice farming project.
“With the conviction that communal farming can drive growth through co-funding and can create a sense of reliability among community stakeholders to collaborate, I procured a brand-new four-wheel drive tractor from a dealer of Sonalika Tractors Sierra Leone and provided 100% funding for seed rice, fuel and ploughing and harrowing for 43 farmers in the first year of 2023 to kick-start the project. In the second year of 2024, I gave financial support to 39 farmers to cover the cost of fuel and hiring of the tractor for ploughing and harrowing,” he narrated.
The tractor stationed in Kalangba to support farmers
As a man with foresight,Umaru Borbor Kamara believes in the future and noted that “Supporting the farmers is a long-term venture that I intend to carry into retirement depending on viability of the programme. Long-term plans are to set up a Community-Based Organisation to formalize the farmers’ association; procure more tractors; give loan to farmers; write project proposals on behalf of the farmers to attract donor funds; and construct an agriculture centre, a warehouse, and dry floors.
EDUCATION
Borbor’s philanthropy is not only limited to supporting agriculture, but also supporting education in the chiefdom and beyond. His drive towards supporting education constitutes a conscious effort to complementing the Government of Sierra Leone in the area of human capital development.
“It is my strong belief that selfless support for education can complement efforts made by public authorities to alleviate poverty, illiteracy and under-nourishment among disadvantaged communities. This belief has been the source of strength for my commitment to promoting education in Ngowahun Chiefdom,” he said.
Recounting his contribution in that area, he narrated that, “Over the last decade, I have supported students and learning institutions with finances, learning materials and empowering interest groups, including: (a) equipping the Kalangba Secondary School (KASS) library with reading books[1] purchased from Macmillan in 2010, funding the registration and bank account opening for the Kalangba Old Students Association (KALOSA) established in 2011,providing financial support for payment of community teachers of the Tenyehun Primary School in 2011, providing financial support to 15 students from Ngowahun between 2012 and 2024 to settle college fees,offering scholarships and paying the school fees for 15 kids at the KASS for the school years 2015, 2016 and 2017,paying the salaries of seven community teachers of the KASS for three months during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2016, providing financial support to the Macaulay Primary School at Maforay Njallah in 2019, providing financial support for construction of a school building at Maketay in 2023, and most recently providing financial support for the rehabilitation of a school building at the Sierra Leone Muslim Brotherhood Primary School Kalangba in 2024.
Photo: Old building of the Senior Secondary School of KASS in 201
As a man who is approachable and reachable by his people, he is always willing and ready to contribute in his little way, creating initiatives for the general good of the chiefdom.
“Upon receiving calls from community members in 2015, I developed resource mobilization strategies and sent out letters requesting financial contributions to construct a four-classroom building. Joseph Kulambu Koroma, a brother from Mafay-Mayoko Village and myself made the first significant contributions to kick-start the project in January 2016. The project suffered starvation of funds after the physical structure of the building was completed, but the school’s administration decided to use the incomplete building as they sought ways to complete it. The building was later completed with funds from well-wishers received through the efforts of the then principal of the school and current Paramount Chief of the Nogawahun Chiefdom, Kandeh Kpanga III,” he said.
PA MBAIMBA KAMARA BUILDING AT KASS
Pa Mbaimba Kamara building
Umaru Borbor Kamara belongs to the ruling class of the Ngowahun Chiefdom.His late father, Pa MBaimba Kamara, was a respected elder, not only in the township of Kalangba, but across the entire chiefdom. He is a member of the Kamara ruling house of the Ngowahun Chiefdom.Like his son,Pa MBaimba was a simple going-personality with an approachable character.
Though a late man now, but his image of simplicity and kindness still lingers in the minds of those who knew him better. As a mark of respectability and remembrance, his son decided to name the three-classroom building of the Kalangba Agricultural Secondary School (KASS) after him.
“The building is named after my dad, Pa Mbaimba Kamara, who died on 21 August 2009. The opening of the building and handing over ceremony will place on 21 August 2024, a program that will coincide with the 15th anniversary of the death of Pa Mbaimba Kamara who is a founding member of the KASS.”
Borbor made a commitment to construct the Pa Mbaimba Building during the Annual General Meeting of the Kalangba Old Students’ Association ( KALOSA) on 27 December 2023.The said building will serve the Senior Secondary School . With the fullest support of Borbor Kamara,the construction of the three-classroom building lasted for five months-from March 2024, to July 2024.The said project amounted to Le288,540.00 (equivalent to $12,226[2]).
TRADE AND COMMERCE/WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
Committee members and beneficiaries
In his philanthropy, women empowerment and the reduction of poverty in the chiefdom has been one of the desires of Umaru Borbor Kamara.
“A cross-section of the youths of Ngowahun Chiefdom met with me in Kalangba on 10 July 2022 to discuss ways that I can help to promote our chiefdom. In that meeting, so many thoughts were shared but we settled down with microfinancing of the youths as a key driver for the development of our Chiefdom. The idea of microfinancing the youths of Ngowahun Chiefdom, particularly the women, was suggested by me and it was overwhelming accepted.”
He narrated that with an initial fund of Le100,000,000.00 (equivalent to $7,407 then) to kick-start the microfinancing project, a committee was setup for the management of the project.
He said the Committee met on 20 July 2022 in the city of Makeni to discuss and laid down the methodology of disbursement of the fund and had a community engagement meeting in Kalangba on 22 July 2022 to educate the beneficiaries and guarantors on the loan terms and conditions.
In the first three months of the fund, he disclosed, 54 men and women benefited, and the beneficiaries were drawn from people with experienced in micro businesses and that the concept of the microfinancing project was to revolve the money as much as possible to benefit many homes in the Chiefdom.
HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Old Kalangba Primary Health Centre building and staff quarters
Health is also among the range of his development priorities.” I found out on a visit to Kalangba in December 2010 that the state of the Primary Health Centre (PHC) was appalling and badly needed an upgrade of the health services and refurbishments of building structures. Also, I found there was no funding mechanism for the community health workers of the PHC.”
Using his connections to uplift the health centre, Borbor narrated that “Upon my return to Freetown, I spoke to then Deputy Minister of Health, Mr. Tamba Borboh-Sawyer, who was a close friend of mine about the situation and other challenges narrated to me by the staff of the PHC and he committed to help resolve the challenges. He also advised that I should setup a local health committee that will provide leadership in the local community and work with the staff of the PHC to ensure health services meet the local health needs and support the Government of Sierra Leone’s efforts to promote and enhance the health of the community. On my next trip Sierra Leone in April 2011, I summoned community members to set up a health committee.
Photo: Local Health Committee of the Kalangba Primary Health Centre
He said Borboh-Sawyer called in June 2011 to inform him that he had included the Kalangba PHC in a list of health centres in the country to be refurbished with African Development Bank (AfDB) funds and upgraded to a referral hospital.
“The refurbishment of the PHC included renovating the existing hospital structure and two existing staff quarters, building an additional two staff quarters, constructing a water-well with a mounted water tank, and providing a stand-by generator for power supply, and increasing the staff size eight professional staff. The project was completed in October 2012.
Refurbished Kalangba Primary Health Centre building and staff quarters
In his gesture, “I paid the salaries of five community health workers of the PHC for a period of one year and six months from January 2011 to June 2012 to help alleviate some of the challenges expressed by the staff of the PHC.
RELIGION
The two major religions in the township of Kalangba have also benefitted from his philanthropy.
“I have also made minor but significant contributions to promoting religion in the following ways: (a) supplied generator-set electricity to the two mosques downtown Kalangba in 2008; (b) provided financial support for the renovation of the Kalangba mosque in 2011, and (c) contributed $2,000 to the solar lightening of the Kalangba Wesleyan Church.”
