by Jeroslyn JoVonn
March 18, 2026
Idris and Sabrina Elba hope their efforts serve as a model for development projects across Africa.
Idris Elba and Sabrina Elba are expanding their philanthropic efforts with a new investment focused on ecological sustainability and economic growth on Sherbro Island in Sierra Leone.
The couple hopes the initiative will serve as a blueprint for development projects across the continent, National Geographic reports. With Idris’ father from Sierra Leone and Sabrina’s mother from Somalia, Sabrina Elba has spoken about her passion for challenging the stigmas tied to being African—something she experienced growing up in Canada.
“We wanted to see Africa represented the way that we knew it to be,” she said. “We wanted to change the storytelling.”
Idris Elba, who grew up in London, said he made a mental note to visit Sherbro Island after first hearing about it years ago from a close family friend who believed it had the potential to become a world-class holiday destination.
“At that juncture, I was just like, Oh, OK, that sounds interesting,” the Golden Globe winning-actor said.
It was during a 2019 trip to Sierra Leone, while serving as ambassadors for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), that Idris Elba had a pivotal realization. The Elbas saw an opportunity to create something more lasting and meaningful than a luxury getaway—aiming, as Sabrina Elba put it, to shift the narrative “from one of aid to one of investment.”
Idris Elba had already been expanding his philanthropic work, supporting education and hunger-relief efforts in Africa and advocating for at-risk youth in the U.K.—efforts that recently earned him a knighthood. After visiting Sherbro Island, he and Sabrina launched the Elba Hope Foundation to unify their initiatives, including programs empowering small-scale farmers across Sierra Leone.
The effort focuses on sustainable farming, cooperative development, and access to credit for cocoa and cashew farmers, work that, as executive director Marsha Reid noted, requires not just funding but “time and training and education and investment.”
Their work on the island centers on supporting sustainable farming that protects the environment while giving rural communities the tools to support themselves, Sabrina Elba said.
Since then, the Elbas’ efforts on Sherbro Island have expanded to include the Hope Power Project, a three-year initiative aimed at electrifying and wirelessly connecting the island. They see it as a foundation for future green development—ultimately transforming Sherbro into a self-sustaining, renewable-powered “eco-city.”
“Do we want to continue throwing concrete [up] and putting calluses on our world, or do we want to build structures and cities that actually nourish our world?” Idris Elba said. “What are we going to teach the next generation about how to build and develop? And can Sherbro be a blueprint for that?”
Through their efforts, Idris Elba hopes to show other public figures like himself how “you become more than just this celebrity putting their name to something—you become a member of a working engine.”
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