Matthias Seisay

Matthias Seisay, Arts ’06, spoke out against the use of child soldiers in his native Sierra Leone and was forced to flee the country and work for those children from afar. Now he gives those children hope in the form of two wheels. As head of the nonprofit organization Friends Across, he and others collect used bicycles so that Sierra Leone kids can get to school.

“My motivation has a bit to do with my childhood. I know what it means to walk in the rain and get to school at 8 am. Bicycles would serve as a great source of encouragement for these kids to take their schooling seriously,” says Seisay, who studied social justice and welfare at Marquette before starting a graduate program in dispute resolution.

Now he and his friends hunt for unclaimed or unwanted bicycles at Milwaukee’s police stations, scrap heaps and schools. “I tell people here that there are kids almost half a world away who would turn their trash into treasure,” he says.

As his country continues to recover from war, Seisay and Friends Across are helping in other ways, too. Last year, Seisay opened a tailor shop there to train former child soldiers marketable skills and a beauty shop where women learn hair-dressing techniques. Seisay hopes to open an auto shop and develop a health clinic there and someday return home. “The hardest thing,” he says, “is not being able to physically touch the children I’m trying to help and not being able to see the smiles on their faces.”

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