Students and officials of the Confucius Institute in Sierra Leone
Confucius Institute in Sierra Leone (CI-SL) has officially welcomed 30 Taichi Students who returned home recently from the People’s Republic of China. The all-important ceremony took place on Oct. 2, 2018, at the Institute Martial Arts Garden, on Fourah Bay College (FBC) campus in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital.
In the past two years, 38 CI-SL students were awarded Taichi scholarship; and they went to Henan province which is the hometown of martial arts and Taichi in China. They used the occasion to give Performance Tour to exhibit the skills in front of invented guests.
Director of CI-SL, He Mingqing, in his welcome address expressed his happiness to celebrate Confucius Institute Day and activities that involve martial arts and Taichi performance tour. He continued that they are appreciative of the support of the University of Sierra Leone, Economic and Commercial Consul of the Chinese Embassy and also from all social workers, adding that two years ago, with the support of the headquarters and FBC, they provided them with a Taichi Garden.
Local Director of Confucius Institute USL, Kenneth Osho, said the institute started in 2012 and he had been in the institute right from the beginning, noting that he can say with all certainty that there has been a lot of progress over the years.
“I will be missing my duty if I do not thank the USL and the Chinese Embassy which has been a very strong partner in the development of this institute. We have been growing from strength to strength and we have been progressing very smoothly,” he acknowledged.
“Thirty students have just returned from China, which is a plus to not only China, but Sierra Leone also. Before they left, I made a promise to everyone that we will be going to embark on a performance tour. Today is the launching of this tour that you are all witnessing,” he said.
Zhang Xueqian, Counselor of Economic & Commercial at the Counselor’s Office of Chinese Embassy, said that he is very happy to witness such a wonderful performance from the students. He furthered by congratulating them and calling on the students to keep it up and continue to learn and practice martial arts and taichi culture in the future, noting that this will strengthen the China-Sierra Leone friendship.
The event climaxed with lots of terrific performances from the students.
Confucius Institute at the University of Sierra Leone (USL) was jointly established by University of Sierra Leone and Ganan Norman University, and it was formally launched on Sept. 27, 2012. At present, the Confucius Institute has set up 10 teaching sites, namely; Fourah Bay College (FBC), Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), Primary School of FBC, FBC Secondary School, British International School, Chinese Language Class of Shan Steel (SL) Mine Limited, Sierra Leone Armed Forces Education Center, Balanta Music Academy, Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital, Chinese Teaching Site and the Milton Margai College of Education & Technology.
They have over 4,000 registered learners. Through the teaching sites, the Chinese language lectures are offered for local students and communities. (cited from Confucius Institute Headquarters, source: People's Daily Online, by Abu Bakarr Kargbo)
