By Tony Bee Conteh, PV Correspondent, Sydney, Australia.
The Sierra Leone community in Australia is doing very well in community development, especially in Sydney New South Wales, particularly in terms of education, cultural dance, soccer and above all the recent shipment of 40 containers of assorted second hand goods, including clothes, shoes, medical items, textbooks computers etc to their country, Sierra Leone.
Even though it’s a very young and emerging community in Australia, the Sierra Leone community is rapidly growing and making a name for itself in the country.
Some of the Sierra Leone community organizations that are doing great work are: Sierra Unite, Friends of Sierra Leone and the Women’s Wan Word in Sydney. Amongst them, Sierra Unite Inc. is one of the most outstanding organizations in terms of putting the Sierra Leonean community in NSW and the country, Sierra Leone on the Australia map because of it public relations activities, including information sessions and drama performances.
Sierra Unite works not only for the Sierra Leone community in Australia, but also for the entire African community in Australia, particularly in Sydney organizing and promoting activities like homework support classes, cultural dances, soccer (football) and above all it normally ships assorted second hand items to Sierra Leone to assist in the improvement of the lives of the suffering people in that country.
The Sierra Unite soccer boys competed recently in the U-15 national soccer league tournament 2008, in Sydney, Australia. They played 16 matches in NSW and won 15 and lost one match. Last year they also took part in the tournament in Sydney they went up to semi-finals. But they were beaten 3-0 by the Warata soccer U-15 team.
But this year, the tables were turned in favour of the unique Sierra Unite U-15 young dynamic boys by placing themselves in position for the Grand finals on the 15th of August 2008. They qualified for the Grand finals in NSW this year by beating their opponents 1-0 during extra time after the second half. They beat the guys who beat them last year (Warata)on the same venue in the semi-finals.
Now our boys are currently preparing for the champion of champions competition for which they have qualified after a hard struggle. The match will take place on the 30th of August 2008, at the Parramatta Stadium in Sydney, a match which they hope to win in order to bring more glory to the Sierra Leone community and also to the entire African community in Australia, especially in NSW.
Photo: Sierra Unite soccer squad. PV Sydney correspondent Tony Bee is on extreme left, with cap.
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