By Sallieu S. Kanu
The President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Ahmed Sahid Nasralla, on Saturday departed for the United States of America to participate in the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP).
The IVLP is the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange program designed to introduce emerging foreign leaders to their American counterparts, U.S society, culture and values.
The program will run from 2nd to 22nd April 2023 with participants from 22 countries including from Africa (Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, and Burundi), Europe, South and North America, Asia, Middle East, among others. The program involves visits to multiple cities and some American families across the United States with the aim of building strong people-to-people ties and fostering long-lasting collaboration with current and future global leaders.
Each year nearly 5,000 International Visitors come to the U.S. on the International IVLP. More than 200,000 International Visitors have engaged with Americans through the IVLP, including more than 500 current or former Chiefs of State or Heads of Government.
“This is my first time of visiting the US and it is good that it is happening through the IVLP which gives me a huge opportunity to experience the world’s greatest nation first-hand with the guidance of the American people themselves. I am as excited as I believe this will build on my leadership abilities in the last five years as the President of journalists in Sierra Leone. I look forward to meeting and sharing experiences with my counterparts from around the world and come back home to share those experiences and make meaningful impact,” said President Nasralla.
The SLAJ President will stay on for about a week after the program to pay courtesy calls on key international democratic and media freedom institutions including the National Democratic Institute (NDI), National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), and International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). He is also expected to visit the Sierra Leone Embassy in the US and meet with Sierra Leone Journalists and AWOL US Chapter members.
The SLAJ President is expected back home on the 29th of April 2023.