Dr. Alhaji N’jai, Founder & Chief Strategist

We are a largely globally volunteer run organization with only in-country staff receiving a stipend for program services.

This journey started for me in 2008 when I began providing tuition support five university students at Fourah Bay College with a requirement that they will give back to their own communities. Thanks to my post-doctoral mentor Dr. Colin Jefcoate, we began developing the framework for Project 1808 Inc.

The structure was further refined by Dr. Linda Vakunta (Executive Director 2009-2019), thanks to her learnings of pipeline pre-college programming from UW Madison’s PEOPLE program. The organization was officially registered with my colleagues, Dr. Linda Vakunta and Dr. Ly Pham.   Dr. Linda Vakunta traveled to Sierra Leone in 2011 to recruit our first set of 54 primary and secondary school beneficiaries as well as after school tutors.

Over the years we have implemented several programs, developed dozens of partnerships, created a platform for professional exchange and development between individuals from Sierra Leone, Japan and the USA.

We have been quite fortunate over the years to have a steady stream of donors and volunteers that keep our programs going and growing. We now have close to 300 pupils who participate in our education programming.

Join us….the work is only getting started.

Student Partners

Project1808 also sponsors a formally organized student organization at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a similar organization of twelve undergraduate students in Sierra Leone.

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Our Partners

University Partners

• University of Wisconsin – Madison
  • Global Health Institute
  • Department African Studies
  • Molecular and Environmental Toxicology
  • College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
  • PEOPLE Program
  • First Wave
• University of Sierra Leone
• Njala University (Sierra Leone)
• University of Makeni
• University of Tokyo
• Kalamazoo College
• Harvard University Research Program on Children and Global Adversity

Organizational Partners

• United Nations Department of Public Information Program (UN DPI NGO)
• UW Madison Village Health Project
• Marquette Neighborhood Association (Madison, WI)
• O’Keefe Middle School
• Wisconsin School for the Blind and Visually IMpared (Janesville, WI)
• Wisconsin Medical Project (WMP)
• Slow Food UW
• CARITAS (Harvard University)
• Memory Project
• E-Luminate, Inc (Madison, WI)
• NarSarah Clinic (Kabala, Koinadugu, Sierra Leone)
• Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary (Sierra Leone)
• Koinadugu District Okada Association
• Koinadugu Petty Traders Association
• Koinadugu District Education Directorate
• District Education committee Central Primary School
• District Education Committee Primary School, Bankolia
• District Education Committee Primary School, Yogomaia
• Missionary church of Africa Primary School, Yogomaia

Student Chapters

• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Kabala Secondary School (Sierra Leone)
• Ahmadiyya Secondary School (Sierra Leone)
• Loma Secondary School (Sierra Leone)

Government Partners

• Ministry of Youth Affairs (Sierra Leone)
• Koinadugu District Council

* This list includes both current and past partners