Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE, joined by FCC councillors and staff, community stakeholders and beneficiaries, launched the construction of the new Susan’s Bay Care Block on Thursday, 4 December. The initiative aims to ease the heavy burden of unpaid care work on women and girls in Freetown. The facility will centralise a range of essential services, including adult education, nutrition support, childcare, professional development, and access to health and gender-based violence resources

It will also provide training for men in caregiving and lead public campaigns on the values of care work. Implemented by the Freetown City Council in partnership with CHANGE, the project adapts Bogotá’s pioneering Care Blocks model to empower caregivers in the local community. It forms part of the Scaling Care Innovations in Africa partnership and funded by Global Affairs Canada, IDRC, with support from Metropolis, aligning closely with the Human Capital Development goals of the Transform Freetown agenda.