Up Close & Personal with Miss Sierra Leone UK - Fatie Sesay

25 year-old Fatie Sesay, is the second young women to win the coveted Miss Sierra Leone UK pageant. She was crowned crowned on 27th February 2016 at the Royal Regency Hall in London.

A couple months into her reign, Miss Sesay, a former student of The Annie Walsh Memorial Secondary School and Fourah Bay College, sat down with SwitSalone to talk about her journey to MSLUK and her passion for young people.

In her words

“My goals and aspirations as the Miss Sierra Leone UK are to be the voice for my young generation and women by raising awareness on everyday issues such as teenage pregnancy, bullying, sexual violence, and academics.

I’ve worked with various charity organisations within the Sierra Leonean community to raise awareness on issues like disability, FGM, and Rape. I’ve also founded my own organisation TAMARENEH ORG which means ‘Helping one another’.

The sole purpose of my organisation is to give back to our community and my mission statement is be the change you aspire to see.

On her experience since being crowned queen:

It has been really interesting . People recognise me on the road, train station, it’s still surreal. Most of all I get invites to so many positively events.

Even though I’m not so much of a social person, I like the fact that I get to dress up and look sophisticated every now and then.

Realistically, it has not been easy. But I’m happy with the fact that it inspires me to work hard and knowing that my aims and purpose of contesting in the first place is to make a difference, that makes me just want to thrive even more. And I’m so grateful for the love and support I’ve had from my family, friends, and my team. Most of all I give God the glory. He’s with me through it all.

On her Motivation & achievements:

Since the age of six I’ve always wanted to a beauty queen and my parents actually supported me especially my late Dad (Mr Sufiyan Sesay). I used to compete when I was in primary school and that was my only sport activity . My childhood best friend and her sisters (Alimata , Fatmata (d) & Ashiatu Kamara) saw my potential and decided to sponsor me and coach me into pageantry.

I think my biggest achievement thus far is how I have handled coping since the passing of my wonderful Dad.

I was depressed. It was by far the most traumatic experience of my life, one I will never forget. But at the moment I’m coping, trying to function, staying in a daily routine and doing my best to make him proud. I still have down days, but i’m positive.

So I think my biggest achievement is probably that by far.

On her future plans :

I’ll be doing Meet ups and Networking events in the coming months to help small businesses to grow and coach entrepreneurs on how to network to market their products or services .

I’m also going to be doing a fundraiser because I want to renovate both my primary and secondary schools; Saint Augustine, and the Annie Walsh in Sierra Leone .

Furthermore, I’m going to be doing play days at the park for the kids and we’ll have people who will come and do inspirational talks with them as well. I also offer tutoring got to kids to assist with their school work.

I commence my Sierra Leone tour in December, God willing . I’ve got loads of projects that I’m working on from here (UK) with the support of my team representatives there.