THE ROTHUMBA PROJECT Rothumba, Sierra Leone

A PILOT PROJECT PLANNED, IMPLEMENTED AND OWNED BY THE COMMUNITIES THEMSELVES.

BACKGROUND

Rothumba is a remote fisher village and historical site on the Sierra Leone river estuary. Historically it has been one of the transit points for slaves during the time of the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century. Remains of the ruins of the slave factory can still be found. Today, Rothumba is a forgotten community in which no economic and infrastructural developments have taken place in the last century. None of the inhabitants have access to medical infrastructure, clean water, electricity, proper housing, job prospects, secondary or high school education. For their livelihood, the villages around Rothumba are particularly dependent on fishing and subsistence farming.

OBJECTIVES

The Rothumba Project represents a contemporary African approach to Community-Led Development, containing social, educational, economic, cultural and medical components. The project serves as a pilot project in Subsahara Africa to promote Community-Driven Development led by a local NGO AMAZONIAN INITIATIVE MOVEMENT (AIM) with the financial support of PFEFFERMINZGREEN. Its main goal is to provide people a self-determined life in dignity and make sure the Communities have access to basic needs.

We believe the Rothumba project can serve as a pilot project to demonstrate the sustainability and efficiency of Community-Driven approaches in Sub-Saharan Africa. All project components are defined through a holistic approach and worked on step by step according to the bottom-up approach. The project components are built up in different phases over a minimum of ten years and are based on existing local necessities and Indigenous Knowledge (IK).