The Sierra Leonean Writers Series (SLWS) aims to establish a multifaceted Resource and Learning Centre in Freetown. SLWS now faces an urgent challenge: the lack of a spacious, centralised and suitable venue that could be used as a bookshop, an outlet for all its publications and a suitable venue for research, manuscript development, poetry recitals, drama performances, public lectures and presentations on governance, civic culture leadership skills and human rights.
There is a serious dearth of resource and learning centres in the country, particularly in Freetown, which is ironically the seat of national politics and public, civic and educational administration. Budding and established writers need a designated space for conducting writing workshops, for perfecting their manuscripts, for reciting and performing poems and plays and for delivering lectures on governance, leadership skills, civic culture and human rights.
The primary goal of the project is to develop a Resource and Learning Centre that will accommodate a bookshop, a venue for promoting public education, democratic values and good governance, as well as for enhancing creativity.
Specifically, we wish to provide:
1. an equipped, resourced and spacious venue where writers could assemble, develop and refine manuscripts for publication, as well as convene for workshops, public lectures and dialogue meetings with the citizen groups and policy makers on a regular basis; and
2. an outlet for public education on political participation, civic values, democracy and governance.