A Hull-based business has partnered with a charity in Sierra Leone that supports widows and orphans through education and economic development projects.

The Jamil and Nyanga Jaward Foundation supports people throughout Sierra Leone, where 86 per cent of the rural population live in extreme poverty.

Hull has a strong relationship with the West African nation. The country’s capital, Freetown, is twinned with the city.

The Jamil and Nyanga Jaward Foundation runs a number of community-based projects assisting women in agricultural development and empowering them to become financially stable through entrepreneurship.

The foundation also runs projects for young children attending various local schools in Freetown, giving them access to much-needed educational resources.

The foundation has partnered with Hull-based marketing agency Assured Marketing to raise awareness and support the foundation’s various projects.

Connor Hewson, Assured Marketing director, said “Our aim is to use our organisation’s experience and resources to create a marketing strategy that, not only generates awareness of the outstanding efforts of The Jamil & Nyanga Jaward Foundation, but also ensures that they are able to welcome more donations to help fund their causes.”

Hull’s link to the West African nation can be traced back to the early days of the abolition of the slave trade, a campaign that was led by Hull’s William Wilberforce MP and a group of friends who became known as the ‘Clapham Sect’.

In the early days of abolition, the British Navy would patrol the seas off West Africa and seek to intercept slave ships. The people were then returned to the African continent and Freetown was one of the first settlements, so named because the people received their freedom there.