History

History

My name is Eamonn Hanson. I am from Sierra Leone and am passionate about helping my country achieve sustainable development. My father always had the dream of starting a farm, but was never able to achieve it due to the conditions in Sierra Leone. In 2004, I traveled to Sierra Leone and started a tree nursery to revive my father's dream.

Ever since I was a child I dreamed of a developed and prosperous Sierra Leone. I saw the opposite happen: in 1991 the country went into a terrible civil war and in 2014 it was hit by the Ebola epidemic. In 2017, in the capital Freetown, almost a thousand people lost their lives as a result of huge landslides. Events that had a major impact on the country.

When I was thirteen years old, I moved to the Netherlands. I went to school there and completed my studies in Psychology. After graduation, I worked for the National Aerospace Laboratory for several years. After the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the aviation industry collapsed causing me to lose my job. Not much later, I took the decision to go back to Sierra Leone to start the tree nursery.

I wanted to plant trees in the village of Makombeh. A village with only four hundred inhabitants that was almost cut off from the outside world and where the education foundation and tree farm now bear its name. After my arrival, I immediately fell in love again with the lifestyle and nature of the area. The community found my idea strange at first, but nevertheless helped me by providing land. Friends made it possible for me to purchase materials for a school and have a bridge built for Makombeh. The school was built by the residents themselves, and thanks to a friend who wanted to be a guarantor, the first teacher was able to receive his salary. Thus was born the small elementary school that has now grown into a full-fledged school with six classes and 200 students. The arrival of the school prevents children from having to travel a long dangerous way to other villages to attend classes. The school is managed by the Makombeh Foundation. It takes care of the teachers' salaries and the materials for the school.

By now, the first young people had finished their school careers and were looking for new opportunities. Some of them came to me with the idea of setting up a cooperative to save forests in their area. That is how KETSO came into being.

KETSO buys up poorly maintained farmland and plants new trees that restore the landscape. The new forests are offered on international markets. This gives the opportunity to buy a piece of CO2 reduction. The youth of the village have the opportunity to work in the growing, pruning and planting seasons thanks to the enterprise. As a sustainable enterprise, KETSO not only contributes to CO2 reduction, but also provides opportunities for the local population.

Watch the video of Eamonn here.