Andrew was born and raised in Sierra Leone, where he obtained his BA in English, Civil Law and International Relations from Fourah Bay College of The University of Sierra Leone. He was a school prefect of the Bo government Secondary School and later became Assistant Secretary General of the Fourah Bay College students Union Government from 1996-1998.
He is currently the Founder and Director of B-Gifted Foundation an organization formed to encourage people to use their creativity, innovation and talents to target and solve current national and global problems as addressed by the MDG. The acronym B-Gifted is fashioned from ‘Benson-Greene International Foundation Towards Enhancing Development’, which was named in honour of the pioneer’s 10 years dedication in addressing the problems of children and youth affected by war, a campaign he started in 1998 following his graduation from Fourah Bay College of the University of Sierra Leone. He has volunteered with several non-profits before and he taught former child fighters and war-affected youth to use the internet and other new technologies to find reconciliation and peaceful solutions to conflict. Through his pioneering efforts, he was able to set up the first non-profit ICT drop-in and resource centre for youth in the country to access technology free of cost and non-profit basis. He reminded children and youth that "security comes not from the end of a gun, but from shared values and responsibilities to each other." His slogan is " ... just as it takes acts of war to make war, it takes acts of peace to make peace." A referee once said that “... Andrew's efforts have had a profound effect on the lives of young people around the world from Sierra Leone to Canada, to Colombia to Afghanistan... His efforts have attracted the UN toward his project as a model to be used in countries affected by war." Andrew has overseen the successful implementation of the DFAIT Foreign Affairs-funded project 'No War Zone', a humanitarian youth program he has helped to pioneer in Sierra Leone. Andrew has gathered multiple awards, citations and bursaries for his internet-based innovations. Andrew was the script writer, director and mentor of the award winning short video ‘We don’t want war’ which was done for the New York based International Competition launched by Listen Up, Beyond Borders Awards, for personal stories from a small planet. Andrew was also contracted twice by the World Bank to produce video documentaries for the World Development Report 2007. He was also contracted by the Open Society Initiative in Budapest in 2005, on the use of ICT in post-conflict society, contracted by the Global Integrity Alliance in DC as an online 'Reader' in 2007. He has led workshops worldwide from Beijing to Washington, to share his visions of peace-building amongst children and war-scarred youth. This list amply demonstrates Andrew’s commitment in giving voices to children and youth. He was Guest Speaker, International Education and Resource Network conference, Sharing and Understanding Tele-Education in the Twenty First Century which was held in Beijing China in July 2000, Guest speaker ‘Education in the Internet Age’ Capetown South Africa, 2001, Guest Speaker International Education conference Moscow Russia 2002 on the theme ‘Putting Humanware before hardware and software, He was Guest Speaker at the first World Summit on Information Society(WSIS) in Geneva, December 2003, Guest Speaker University of Liege, Belgium on the conference theme Migration Between States and Markets, where Andrew presented a paper for the Research Committee, (RC 31), entitled ‘Refugees and their impact upon Migration in October 2003’, Guest Speaker The Hague International Model United Nations Conference (THIMUN) in The Netherlands January 2004, Speaker at the Peel District School Board Conference in Ottawa in 2004, Speaker at the Africa-Canada Youth Leadership Symposium held at the Saint Francis Xavier University Antigonish Nova Scotia Canada June 2003, Guest Speaker International Corporations Days Hosted by CIDA in Ottawa in November 2004. Andrew was featured at the 2004 UN Exhibit for peace in NY, supported by Gakkai International–USA (SGI-USA), in conjunction with the worldwide SGI organization, named “Building a Culture of Peace for the Children of the World” to support the United Nations’ Culture of Peace initiative in order to raise awareness about how individuals, institutions and entire nations will need to transform their violent and destructive thoughts and behavior so that they may overcome the current global impasse and usher in a future of peace and hope'. The new exhibition was involved in a peace forum at Columbia University in New York City, supported discussions on human security at the Club of Rome annual meeting in Amman, Jordan, and inspired thinking about education’s role for peace at Harvard University. Leter in 2005 ANdrew attended the Building a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World Conference hosted by SGI at the World Bank Complex in Washington DC. Andrew Benson Greene was Guest Speaker African Now Untold Stories Conference hosted by CIDA at the University of Ottawa, Canada in March 2005, Guest Speaker at the UNICEF sponsored DDRR conference and the Human Security Conference hosted at the Pearson peace Keeping centre and coordinated by the Canadian Peace Building Coordinating Committee in Ottawa 2005, Guest Speaker at the Annual McGill University Model United Nations Conference in organized by McMun in 2005. Andrew had the honour to make several peace presentations as a visiting Sauvé scholar at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington DC in 2005. Andrew Benson Greene was also sponsored by World Bank DC and AusAID to lead young dynamic delegates and Speak at the First World Ethics Forum Conference on Leadership and Integrity at Keble College, Oxford, England in April 2006. He was Guest Speaker at the Irmas International Youth Media Summit in Los Angeles USA, July 2006. He was a panelist at the Technopreneurship conference at the World Bank in DC in August 2006, Guest Speaker Education Without Borders EWB 07 Conference held at the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi in February 2007, attended the Wireless Connection meetings in Vancouver Canada to source Wireless Service provider for Sierra Leone from the Canadian Company Peer1 through support from Insight Creative Communications. Andrew was one of 50 carefully chosen international participants to address the issues of child soldiers at the Kofi Annan international peace Training Centre in Accra, Ghana in July 2007. The program Exercise Prodigal child or child Soldiers simulation Exercise was sponsored by UNICEF Canada, Pearson Peace keeping Centre, Search for Common Grounds and USAID.
Andrew has also been invited to speak at various campuses and conduct lecture series at the following Universities: In 2005, he conducted a lecture at University of York in Toronto Canada, made several presentations on children’s rights for the Amnesty International Group McGill University Canada, and he honoured the invitation from various faculties to teach peace and conflict studies at Anthropology classes, University of Concordia, Montreal Canada. Andrew Greene was also invited by Kenyon College Ohio where he held campus-wide lectures on the theme ‘children of the crossfire’ and continued a lecture series throughout the week of March 2007 in neighboring Nazarene University Saint Vermont, Ohio USA. He has also taught peace classes at the International School of Amsterdam, the WH Day School in Bradford Ontario.
In addition, Andrew has led numerous national workshops and conferences and discussions involving Ministers and other senior Government officials in Sierra Leone. His writings and poems include ‘The healing promise of peace’, ‘Gendarme Damns Me as a refuge’ ‘I sit beside the splendid white door of peace’, ‘August 18th Shower’ and the award winning ‘My teenage’. He has also written several online journals on the impact of ICT on youth and children in postwar societies. He has also been consulted widely by universities, scholars and researchers on child soldiers as well as the use of ICT to impact children and youth emerging from wars.
Andrew was selected in 2004/5 for the prestigious Sauvé Scholars Awards at McGill University in Montreal Canada. The Sauvé scholars were named in honour of Jeanne Sauvé, the first woman-named Governor General of Canada.
EXTRA INFORMATION
"I met Andrew at the International Education And Resource Network Conference in Moscow, Russia, in the summer of 2002. There were 600 people from 60 countries attending this conference, but you couldn't miss Andrew. His warm smile, his enthusiasm for the mission of childsoldier.org his love for teaching, and his passion for peace were written all over everything he said and did.
Now, if there was ever anyone who had reason to be resentful, despairing, and bitter, it is Andrew. Raised in a country that was divided by the violence of civil war, where brother fought against brother and sister against sister, and children were recruited to do horrific acts of violence for the self-interests of greedy leaders, he watched as an entire international community ignored the pains and struggles of his fellow countrymen as if they were not even a blip on the international radar screen.
He could easily have chosen the path of blaming others for the tragic circumstances of his country and the impossibilities of educating himself and the young people around him. He could have wallowed in self-pity, never moving a muscle to rebuild a destitute country. He could have clung to the status quo of survival for survival's sake. Instead, Andrew chose the road less traveled.
When you meet Andrew you get to know someone who is at peace with himself and the world. There is a serenity in his presence. And the serenity comes from Andrew having the courage and the faith to nurture the gifts and talents he has as an educator and to share those talents and gifts with all who come within the universe of his indomitable spirit. That serene smile comes from not believing but knowing that one step, one day at a time, his children's children will experience the impossible possibility of peace, justice and freedom from the scars of war."
Charles F. Harper
Director of Outreach
The MY HERO Project
www.myhero.com
