Letter From the Founders

Dear Readers, Memunatu began with one story. A story of a young girl from Sierra Leone who found resources and tools to follow her dreams. Now, Memunatu illustrates more than one woman’s story. Memunatu represents the opportunity for millions of teenage girls across West Africa to achieve their goals. Our story with Memunatu began in college. There, we developed the concept and learned all that we could about media, development, and social change. We then traveled to Sierra Leone, where we hosted focus groups in Lunsar and interviewed teachers and officials to get to know our audience. We traveled back and forth from the U.S to Sierra Leone and met people everywhere in between. These people brought different perspectives to the magazine process. Eventually, this led our story back to Sierra Leone where we launched a pilot issue to students to test our model. The experience has been nothing short of an adventure—from being lost in translation as Sierra Leonean-Americans to joining networks of social entrepreneurs worldwide. All experiences, big and small, have transformed this concept into something real. We are extremely proud of our inaugural issue of Memunatu and would like to share our excitement with you, our amazing supporters. Follow us on: Twitter: @MemunatuMag Instagram: @MemunatuMag Facebook: /MemunatuMag Stick with us! We have many issues and exciting programs to come. This is just the start! Follow us along for the ride this week, because you can be a part of Memunatu. Love, Mariama and Fatmata Kabia