By Saio Marrah
The Principal Project Director, World Monument Fund (WMF), Stephen
Battle, has in a consultative meeting with stakeholders in Freetown said
the institution will be rehabilitating the Fourah Bay College Old
Building situated in Cline town, Freetown.
He said the construction process was set to Commence within the next nine months.
The consultative meeting with the stakeholders that include community members from Cline Town is geared towards making suggestions on how the rehabilitation should look like.
He informed journalists during the consultative meeting at the Saphyre
Court in Freetown on Tuesday 23 August, 2022, about the importance
of the building that was the first western style university and the reason Freetown was regarded as the Athens of Africa.
He said at this stage it is just a presentation of the plan to the stakeholders on how it would look like and the stakeholders will suggest how they want it. He said so far they have received 500 thousand dollars from the American Ambassador’s fund for cultural preservation for the project.
According to Battle, they will first start with the emergency construction of the fence to prevent people from entering the site to avert any danger.
The Architect of the project, Aziza Chaouni, an Associate Professor of University of Toronto, described the structure as a very beautiful historic landmark.
She said the project has two phases and that the first will commence within the next two months and will focus on the prevention of it from further damage and also to avert the threat posed to the community.
She said phase two is to implement the vision of the project, keeping its historic landmark by using its original materials.
She said they will have a library, creative hub,and cultural performance space and other facilities.
The Director Media, Alumni and International Relations for University of Sierra Leone, Dr.Tonya Musa, called for involvement of the administration of Fourah Bay College noting that the building and its land belong to the belong to the college. He said they should be in the best position to decide on what to with the building.
Another participants, the Deputy Director of Planning at the Ministry of Planning, Abubakarr Jalloh, also called for the involvement of the ministry of planning as they are charged with the responsibility of granting building permit be it construction or rehabilitation.
WMF is an international non-governmental organisation based in New York.
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