WEBVTT

00:00:01.250 --> 00:00:03.101
Sometimes,

00:00:03.125 --> 00:00:05.208
you have a negative feeling about things.

00:00:06.708 --> 00:00:10.059
You're not happy
about the way things are going.

00:00:10.083 --> 00:00:13.083
You feel frustrated and dissatisfied,

00:00:13.750 --> 00:00:16.750
and so often, we choose to live with it.

00:00:17.792 --> 00:00:21.417
It's a negative that
we tell ourselves we have to endure.

00:00:22.458 --> 00:00:25.184
And yet, I passionately believe

00:00:25.208 --> 00:00:27.351
that we all have the ability

00:00:27.375 --> 00:00:29.643
to turn that negative feeling

00:00:29.667 --> 00:00:31.476
into a positive

00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:34.351
by allowing our dissatisfaction

00:00:34.375 --> 00:00:36.042
to give birth to change.

00:00:37.417 --> 00:00:40.601
On January 6, 1999,

00:00:40.625 --> 00:00:42.393
I was working in London

00:00:42.417 --> 00:00:44.851
when the news channels began to report

00:00:44.875 --> 00:00:48.143
the rebel invasion of my hometown,

00:00:48.167 --> 00:00:50.208
Freetown, Sierra Leone.

00:00:51.500 --> 00:00:53.893
Thousands of people lost their lives

00:00:53.917 --> 00:00:57.351
and there were bodies
littering the streets of Freetown.

00:00:57.375 --> 00:01:01.434
My husband's elderly aunt
was burned alive,

00:01:01.458 --> 00:01:04.434
and I thought of my own two-year old

00:01:04.458 --> 00:01:07.875
as I saw images of little children
with amputated limbs.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:10.809
Colleagues said to me,

00:01:10.833 --> 00:01:12.726
"How can we help?"

00:01:12.750 --> 00:01:14.601
I didn't know,

00:01:14.625 --> 00:01:18.893
so I began to call the telephone numbers
that came up on my screen

00:01:18.917 --> 00:01:22.434
as international aid agencies
started to make appeals

00:01:22.458 --> 00:01:25.458
to raise money to address the tragedy.

00:01:26.708 --> 00:01:31.393
The vagueness of those telephone
conversations disappointed me.

00:01:31.417 --> 00:01:34.059
It felt like the people
who were raising the money

00:01:34.083 --> 00:01:36.559
seemed so far removed from the crisis,

00:01:36.583 --> 00:01:38.851
and understandably so,

00:01:38.875 --> 00:01:40.559
but I wasn't satisfied

00:01:40.583 --> 00:01:42.393
and I wasn't convinced

00:01:42.417 --> 00:01:46.018
that the interventions
they would eventually implement

00:01:46.042 --> 00:01:49.250
would actually have the level of impact
that was so clearly needed.

00:01:50.333 --> 00:01:53.018
There were butterflies
in my stomach for days

00:01:53.042 --> 00:01:56.726
as I continued to watch
horrors unfold on television,

00:01:56.750 --> 00:01:59.309
and I continuously asked myself,

00:01:59.333 --> 00:02:01.143
what could I be doing?

00:02:01.167 --> 00:02:02.934
What should I be doing?

00:02:02.958 --> 00:02:06.851
What I wanted to do was to help
children affected by the war.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:06.875 --> 00:02:08.125
So that's what we did.

00:02:09.500 --> 00:02:12.559
Myself, my sister and some friends

00:02:12.583 --> 00:02:16.601
started the Sierra Leone
War Trust For Children, SLWT.

00:02:16.625 --> 00:02:20.059
We decided to focus
on the thousands of displaced people

00:02:20.083 --> 00:02:21.809
that fled the fighting

00:02:21.833 --> 00:02:25.351
and were now living
in really poor, difficult conditions

00:02:25.375 --> 00:02:27.518
in camps in Freetown.

00:02:27.542 --> 00:02:30.351
Our work started with the [??] Camp

00:02:30.375 --> 00:02:32.434
at the east end of the city.

00:02:32.458 --> 00:02:35.268
Working with a local health organization,

00:02:35.292 --> 00:02:40.434
we identified about 130
of the most vulnerable single mothers

00:02:40.458 --> 00:02:43.059
with children under the age of five,

00:02:43.083 --> 00:02:48.476
supporting them
by providing business skills,

00:02:48.500 --> 00:02:50.434
microcredit,

00:02:50.458 --> 00:02:52.684
whatever they asked us.

00:02:52.708 --> 00:02:55.476
Working in those difficult conditions,

00:02:55.500 --> 00:02:59.184
just getting the basics right,
was no small task,

00:02:59.208 --> 00:03:02.351
but our collective sense
of dissatisfaction

00:03:02.375 --> 00:03:05.018
at an unacceptable status quo

00:03:05.042 --> 00:03:07.875
kept us focused on getting things done.

00:03:08.958 --> 00:03:12.434
Some of those women went on
to open small businesses,

00:03:12.458 --> 00:03:14.101
repaid their loans,

00:03:14.125 --> 00:03:16.809
and allowed other mothers
and their children

00:03:16.833 --> 00:03:19.726
to have the same opportunity they did.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:19.750 --> 00:03:22.559
And we, we kept on going.

00:03:22.583 --> 00:03:26.726
In 2004, we opened
an agricultural training center

00:03:26.750 --> 00:03:28.601
for ex-child soldiers,

00:03:28.625 --> 00:03:30.643
and when the war was behind us,

00:03:30.667 --> 00:03:34.559
we started a scholarship program
for disadvantaged girls

00:03:34.583 --> 00:03:38.083
who would otherwise not be able
to continue in school.

00:03:38.750 --> 00:03:42.059
Today, Stella, one of those girls,

00:03:42.083 --> 00:03:44.851
is about to qualify as a medical doctor.

00:03:44.875 --> 00:03:49.018
It's amazing what a dose
of dissatisfaction can birth.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:49.042 --> 00:03:51.601
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:51.625 --> 00:03:54.559
Ten years later, in 2014,

00:03:54.583 --> 00:03:56.893
Sierra Leone was struck by Ebola.

00:03:56.917 --> 00:04:03.143
I was working in Freetown at the time
on a hotel construction project on May 25

00:04:03.167 --> 00:04:05.351
when the first cases were announced,

00:04:05.375 --> 00:04:08.809
but I was back in London on July 30

00:04:08.833 --> 00:04:12.143
when the state of emergency was announced,

00:04:12.167 --> 00:04:17.208
the same day that many airlines
stopped their flights to Sierra Leone.

00:04:18.292 --> 00:04:20.684
I remember crying for hours,

00:04:20.708 --> 00:04:24.208
asking God, why this? Why us?

00:04:25.792 --> 00:04:27.643
But beyond the tears,

00:04:27.667 --> 00:04:30.018
I began to feel again

00:04:30.042 --> 00:04:33.101
that profound sense of dissatisfaction.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:33.125 --> 00:04:37.351
So when, six months after
those first cases had been confirmed,

00:04:37.375 --> 00:04:40.851
the disease was still spreading
rapidly in Sierra Leone

00:04:40.875 --> 00:04:45.518
and the number of people
infected and dying continued to rise,

00:04:45.542 --> 00:04:47.351
my level of frustration and anger

00:04:47.375 --> 00:04:51.309
got so much that I knew I could not stay

00:04:51.333 --> 00:04:54.167
and watch the crisis
from outside Sierra Leone.

00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:57.934
So, in mid-November,

00:04:57.958 --> 00:05:00.768
I said goodbye to my much loved

00:05:00.792 --> 00:05:03.809
and very understanding
husband and children,

00:05:03.833 --> 00:05:05.976
and boarded a rather empty plane

00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:07.768
to Freetown.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:07.792 --> 00:05:11.143
Freetown was now
the epicenter of the outbreak.

00:05:11.167 --> 00:05:14.476
There were hundreds
of new cases every week.

00:05:14.500 --> 00:05:17.268
I spoke to many medical experts,

00:05:17.292 --> 00:05:18.809
epidemiologists

00:05:18.833 --> 00:05:21.018
and ordinary people every day.

00:05:21.042 --> 00:05:22.667
Everyone was really scared.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:23.750 --> 00:05:29.143
"We won't succeed until we're talking
to people under the mango tree."

00:05:29.167 --> 00:05:31.018
So said Dr. Yoti,

00:05:31.042 --> 00:05:34.684
a Ugandan doctor who worked for WHO

00:05:34.708 --> 00:05:37.643
and who had been involved
in pretty much every Ebola outbreak

00:05:37.667 --> 00:05:39.559
in Africa previously.

00:05:39.583 --> 00:05:40.893
He was right,

00:05:40.917 --> 00:05:44.125
and yet there was no plan
to make that happen.

00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:48.393
So during a weekend in early December,

00:05:48.417 --> 00:05:53.434
I developed a plan that became known
as the Western Area Surge plan.

00:05:53.458 --> 00:05:56.351
We needed to talk with people,

00:05:56.375 --> 00:05:58.059
not at people.

00:05:58.083 --> 00:06:02.143
We needed to work
with the community influencers

00:06:02.167 --> 00:06:04.518
so people believed our message.

00:06:04.542 --> 00:06:07.018
We needed to be talking
under the mango tree,

00:06:07.042 --> 00:06:08.893
not through loudspeakers.

00:06:08.917 --> 00:06:10.208
And we needed more beds.

00:06:10.917 --> 00:06:13.851
The National Ebola Response Center, NERC,

00:06:13.875 --> 00:06:16.643
built on and implemented that plan,

00:06:16.667 --> 00:06:18.601
and by the third week of January,

00:06:18.625 --> 00:06:21.934
the number of cases
had fallen dramatically.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:21.958 --> 00:06:23.351
I was asked to serve

00:06:23.375 --> 00:06:26.059
as a new Director of Planning for NERC,

00:06:26.083 --> 00:06:28.893
which took me right across the country,

00:06:28.917 --> 00:06:30.976
trying to stay ahead of the outbreak

00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:32.643
but also following it

00:06:32.667 --> 00:06:34.893
to remote villages in the provinces

00:06:34.917 --> 00:06:38.601
as well as to urban slum communities.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:38.625 --> 00:06:41.684
On one occasion, I got out of my car

00:06:41.708 --> 00:06:44.417
to call for help for a man
who had collapsed on the road.

00:06:45.125 --> 00:06:48.143
I accidentally stepped in liquid

00:06:48.167 --> 00:06:50.976
that was coming down the road
from where he lay.

00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:52.726
I rushed to my parents' house,

00:06:52.750 --> 00:06:55.101
washed my feet in chlorine.

00:06:55.125 --> 00:06:59.559
I'll never forget waiting
for that man's test results

00:06:59.583 --> 00:07:04.250
as I constantly checked my temperature
then and throughout the outbreak.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:05.292 --> 00:07:10.101
The Ebola fight was probably
the most challenging

00:07:10.125 --> 00:07:13.018
but rewarding experience of my life,

00:07:13.042 --> 00:07:14.976
and I'm really grateful

00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:16.601
for the dissatisfaction

00:07:16.625 --> 00:07:18.643
that opened up the space

00:07:18.667 --> 00:07:20.083
for me to serve.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:20.833 --> 00:07:25.351
Dissatisfaction can be
a constant presence in the background,

00:07:25.375 --> 00:07:26.809
or it can be sudden,

00:07:26.833 --> 00:07:28.500
triggered by events.

00:07:29.667 --> 00:07:30.917
Sometimes it's both.

00:07:32.125 --> 00:07:34.958
With my hometown, that's the way it was.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:36.375 --> 00:07:39.708
For years, our city had changed,

00:07:40.417 --> 00:07:42.625
and it had caused me great pain.

00:07:43.875 --> 00:07:45.351
I remember a childhood

00:07:45.375 --> 00:07:47.792
growing up climbing trees,

00:07:48.708 --> 00:07:51.684
picking mangoes and plums

00:07:51.708 --> 00:07:54.667
on the university campus
where my father was a lecturer.

00:07:55.958 --> 00:08:00.309
Went fishing in the streams
deep in the botanical gardens.

00:08:00.333 --> 00:08:06.559
The hillsides around Freetown
were covered with lush green vegetation,

00:08:06.583 --> 00:08:08.893
and the beaches were clean and pristine.

00:08:08.917 --> 00:08:13.476
The doubling of the population of Freetown
in the years that followed the civil war,

00:08:13.500 --> 00:08:16.851
and the lack of planning
and building control

00:08:16.875 --> 00:08:19.458
resulted in massive deforestation.

00:08:20.125 --> 00:08:24.851
The trees, the natural beauty,
were destroyed as space was made

00:08:24.875 --> 00:08:27.559
for new communities, formal or informal,

00:08:27.583 --> 00:08:30.351
and for the cutting down of firewood.

00:08:30.375 --> 00:08:33.042
I was deeply troubled and dissatisfied.

00:08:34.750 --> 00:08:37.684
It wasn't just the destruction
of the trees and the hillsides

00:08:37.708 --> 00:08:39.018
that bothered me.

00:08:39.042 --> 00:08:42.268
It was also the impact of people,

00:08:42.292 --> 00:08:47.309
as infrastructure failed to keep up
with the growth of the population:

00:08:47.333 --> 00:08:50.393
no sanitation systems to speak of,

00:08:50.417 --> 00:08:54.625
a dirty city with typhoid,
malaria and dysentery.

00:08:55.375 --> 00:08:57.768
I didn't know the statistics at the time,

00:08:57.792 --> 00:09:00.851
but it turned out that by 2017,

00:09:00.875 --> 00:09:06.059
only six percent of liquid waste
and 21 percent of solid waste

00:09:06.083 --> 00:09:07.393
was being collected.

00:09:07.417 --> 00:09:09.518
The rest was right there with us,

00:09:09.542 --> 00:09:13.226
in backyards, in fields, rivers

00:09:13.250 --> 00:09:15.500
and deposited in the sea.

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:16.708 --> 00:09:21.809
The steps to address that deep sense
of anger and frustration I felt

00:09:21.833 --> 00:09:24.768
didn't unfold magically or clearly.

00:09:24.792 --> 00:09:28.643
That's not how the power
of dissatisfaction works.

00:09:28.667 --> 00:09:32.226
It works when you know
that things can be done better,

00:09:32.250 --> 00:09:37.184
and it works when you decide to take
the risks to bring about that change.

00:09:37.208 --> 00:09:40.518
And so it was that in 2017

00:09:40.542 --> 00:09:42.851
I ended up running for mayor,

00:09:42.875 --> 00:09:44.833
because I knew things could be better.

00:09:45.458 --> 00:09:49.184
It seemed that people agreed with me,
because I won the election.

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:49.208 --> 00:09:52.184
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:52.208 --> 00:09:56.684
Today, we are implementing
an ambitious plan

00:09:56.708 --> 00:09:58.792
to transform our city,

00:09:59.917 --> 00:10:02.518
and when I say we,

00:10:02.542 --> 00:10:04.351
what gets me really excited

00:10:04.375 --> 00:10:07.643
is that I mean
the whole Freetown community,

00:10:07.667 --> 00:10:13.851
whether it's being part of competitions
like rewarding the neighborhood

00:10:13.875 --> 00:10:17.309
that makes the most improvement
in overall cleanliness,

00:10:17.333 --> 00:10:19.059
or whether it's our programs

00:10:19.083 --> 00:10:23.809
that are leading and joining
people and waste collectors

00:10:23.833 --> 00:10:25.417
through our apps.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:29.184
In Freetown today,

00:10:29.208 --> 00:10:31.042
it's a much cleaner city,

00:10:32.208 --> 00:10:35.226
and those trees
that we're so well known for,

00:10:35.250 --> 00:10:39.018
we planted 23,000 of them
last rainy season.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:39.042 --> 00:10:40.309
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:40.333 --> 00:10:41.643
And in 2020,

00:10:41.667 --> 00:10:48.101
we plan to plant a million trees as part
of our "Freetown the Tree Town" campaign.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:48.125 --> 00:10:51.226
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:51.250 --> 00:10:56.042
Sometimes, sometimes we have
a negative feeling about things.

00:10:56.917 --> 00:11:00.101
We're not happy about
the way things are going.

00:11:00.125 --> 00:11:02.018
We feel dissatisfied

00:11:02.042 --> 00:11:03.292
and we feel frustrated.

00:11:04.708 --> 00:11:07.667
We can change that negative
into a positive.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:10.083 --> 00:11:14.101
If you believe that things can be better,

00:11:14.125 --> 00:11:19.809
then you have the option to do something
rather than to do nothing.

00:11:19.833 --> 00:11:24.143
The scale and circumstances
of our situations will differ,

00:11:24.167 --> 00:11:25.542
but for each of us,

00:11:26.958 --> 00:11:29.625
we all have one thing in common.

00:11:30.917 --> 00:11:33.893
We can take risks to make a difference,

00:11:33.917 --> 00:11:36.059
and I will close in saying,

00:11:36.083 --> 00:11:37.601
step out,

00:11:37.625 --> 00:11:38.934
take a risk.

00:11:38.958 --> 00:11:42.184
If we can unite behind
the power of dissatisfaction,

00:11:42.208 --> 00:11:43.976
the world will be a better place.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:45.726
Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:45.750 --> 00:11:48.375
(Applause)