About Us
Kono Union USA, Inc is the oldest Sierra Leonean diaspora community organization in the DMV, established in 1969 to fulfill the following objectives:
- To achieve peace and harmony among membership and the general public at home and abroad.
- To practice and promote the great heritage of the Kono people and instill her heritage in succeeding generations of her children.
- To contribute to the Development and the General Welfare of the Membership, Kono District, Sierra Leone and the United States through:
⃰ Relief Aid
⃰ Education
⃰ Other social program undertaken within the means of the Union. - To obtain equity and fair play for our members locally and globally through our representatives and pressure groups.
Kon Union is a United States Of America, federally recognized 501(c)3 Tax Exempt/Nonprofit organization registered in the state of Maryland. Our Internal Revenue Services ID # is 30-0834375.
Kono Union was formerly started in Washington DC 1969 by a group of students from Kono District, republic of Sierra Leone. Prior to 1969, the students had an informal setup where they rotated leadership until their numbers grew, prompting the need to set up a formal executive.
Main purpose then was to assist each other assimilate in USA and enroll in college. Later they began to offer educational grants and scholarships to deserving Kono students in colleges and high schools in Sierra Leone. As the population of Konos grew in the United states, the group evolved into a social network, with a formal executive, engaging in advocacy, fundraising and helping with weddings, welcoming newcomers from Sierra Leone to USA, visiting families of newborns and coordinating funerals amongst the community in USA.
In the mid 1980's Kono Union served as a model and inspiration to the establishment of other Sierra Leonean organization in the Washington DC metropolitan area including TEGLOMA.
In 1990 when major war broke out in Sierra Leone and devastated our district (ref. Movie-Blood Diamonds), KUUSA concentrated our effort in assisting to locate, document and reunite our displaced citizens scattered across Sierra Leone and the republic of Guinea.
In that respect, we rented a building for two years which served as central point of contact for our displaced Kono District authorities and families. In addition, we gave each Each Kono Student in higher learning of institutions in Sierra Leone trapped in Freetown two weeks meal cash allowance and asked them help with locating and uniting our people.
We also shipped two 40' containers of needed personal hygiene items for Konos trapped in Freetown.
Recently in 2015 when Ebola hit our district, we rallied our members to buy and ship personal protective health gear and medications for our affected communities and we engaged in aggressive advocacy with the government of SierraLeone and international donor organizations on behalf of our affected people.
In August 2017, KUUSA successfully hosted the 2017 Kono Conference at the George Washington University Eliot School of Foreign Studies in Washington DC. Then in December 2018, we teamed up with other Kono Diaspora organizations to organize and the hosting of the Kono Conference in Kono District, Republic of Sierra Leone, West Africa.
June 2019, the union funded the starting of an Agricultural department at the Kono Model Academy Secondary School In Koidu City, Kono District Sierra Leone.
In May 2019, we successfully advocated for a Forty foot container of high nutritional food from Feed My Sterling Children (FMSC) for feeding all Sierra Leone government sponsored elementary school students in Kono district.