Ellen Keister Launches Liam Reems Foundation

By Abdul Rahman Bah

On Friday 24 March 2023, at the Freetown City Council Building, 3rd Floor, the CEO and founder of Reems International (SL) Limited, Ellen Keister, launched the ‘Liam Reems Foundation’ to honor his son, whom she lost on December 2021, and to also help persons in Sierra Leone or Developing countries who are suffering from mental health. Liam Reems Foundation strives to significantly improve the mental and behavioral health of children, youths, men, women, and persons with disability, through advocacy, capacity building, counselling, awareness raising, protection, and psychosocial support for victims, and is a humanitarian, non-political, non-religious and non-profit organization

Ms Ellen Keister was born in the United States and relocated to Freetown at an early age, where she attended the St Joseph’s Primary and Secondary schools in Freetown, Sierra Leone. She then Moved to America in 1996 and graduated with Honors, and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in psychology from the university of Maryland, Baltimore county. She is the CEO and founder of Reems international limited, a branding, advertising, entertainment and talent management company. Ellen’s magnetic and addictive personality catapulted her into the growing entertainment industry of Sierra Leone, and she became a TV and Radio presenter and MC. She currently hosts her own Lifestyle TV show; ‘Ellen Keister The Real Talk Show’. In 2021 Ellen established Reems International.  

Speaking on the occasion, Ellen Keister discussed mental health issues, which she said affects people; ”I have written eulogies and paragraphs and essay on how I have felt, and for those who experienced the loss of and death of loved ones. You will understand that there is truly no way to define that pain”. She realized that grief and loss are the initiators of a mental health crisis in people, and could be even worse than bipolar schizophrenia and other unknown mental health ailments.

She furthered that “the worst part of it is the lack of support system and an understanding of how to deal with it, and how to live with the pain and the memory of pain that would never go away, especially when we live and have create a society that is busy, and people only have limited time to grieve with you and help you grieve. At some point you are made to feel like you are holding on for too Long.”

Ms Ellen said that the vision of the foundation is to see a situation where mental and behavioral health of children, youths, men, women and persons with disability is significantly improved, and is ready to partner with other organizations that share the same goals of youth capacity building and mentorship programs to improve personal growth and long term success and development of these groups.

Dr Carol Labor, President of the Mental Health Sierra Leone, who graced the launching, said that mental health is not only physical, but emotional, which could affect the mind of people afraid of telling the truth about relationship to others and the lack of trust with each other, and admonished the audience that instead of talking behind others back, they should be able to face them.

Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare, Mohammed Haji Kella, said that he will always support Ellen with the help of the government of Sierra Leone to promote her work, and thanked Dr. Carol Labor for her job.