Light up the streets
Story by Rasmus Bering, Dreamtown’s CEO
Freetown, October 2021: The activist group Valiant Sisters invited us to take a walk through their community at night. Their community - Kissy Brooks - is renown for theft, violence and harassment, especially towards young women. The community is most insecure at night when the place is cast in darkness due to the absence of street lights. However, the Valiant Sisters had come up with a solution to this problem. An innovation we had to witness first hand - at night. Arriving in Kissy Brooks, everything was pitch black. Suddenly, everything turned bright.
Founder of Valiant Sisters.
Valiant Sisters: A grassroots organisation of young women and a few young men who volunteer to make their comunity in Kissy Brooks, Freetown safe.
FROM television TO safety LIGHT
Valiant Sisters had come up with a powerful low tec innovation. Across the dark spots in the community, lights had been installed. And not the normal light bulbs that you see around in the community on people’s porches. The Valiant sister had teamed up with the local electrician - a true tec. geek - and developed a whole new source of light. Old TV plasma screen had been upcycled into extremely powerful lights capable of lighting up whole streets. After installing the lights, young women have increased their feeling of safety when walking home alone at night; the market vendors are able to sell their goods even after the sun has set; and children gather under the lights to have fun, read books, and do their home work.
Kids gathering under the new light.
Market corner in Kissy Brooks now lit by the new lights.
Gravel Lane, one of the most insecure roads in Kissy Brooks. Now lit.
The Valiant Sisters is a group of young women and one male, who have come together to make their community safe from violence and harassment. All the work they do is on a voluntary basis. Dreamtown supports the drive and initiative of local grassroots organisations, such as the Valiant Sisters, to transform slums into safe communites all across Sierra Leone in the cities of Freetown, Makeni and Kono.