February 15, 2021
BY: Sulaiman Stom Koroma
In Sierra Leone, women and adolescent girls face widespread and rooted structural violence and marginalization, especially in the slum communities. According to Gender Inequality Index, Sierra Leone is ranked 179th, reflecting the significant inequalities that women and girls face in communities. Lessons from the Ebola epidemic have proven that women and girls are more at risk of not only contracting the disease but bearing the psychological and economic effects of disasters mainly because of their nurturing role where they have to care for themselves and their families. It is no secret that women and girls always had to bear the brunt of the inequality syndrome whether in terms of access to service delivery system, domestic violence, representation, economic dependency among others. With the current situation (COVID-19), we recognized that women and girls are lot more at risk to domestic violence during lock-downs and other restrictive measures put in place to fight COVID-19.
According to Sierra Leone police crime statistics, reported cases of domestic violence and gender-based violence increased by almost 50 percent this year to over 8,500, but actual figures are believed to be much higher as most cases go unreported as result of fear and compromise.
To help in solving this problem Women for Women Foundation has been promoting the safety of young women and adolescent girls against domestic violence in Murray Town, and other nearby communities by way of Supporting community engagement and awareness-raising among parents, guardians & TRLs through dialogue sessions on the importance of investing in adolescent girls and women on the need to end Domestic Violence in Murray Town community
According to Kadiatu Koroma the Fonder of Women for Women Foundation, Between October and February, they have held series of training for stakeholders in those communities such as Member of Parliament, Councilors, Chiefs, Women Leader, Youth Leader and Religious Leaders, this event she said was conducted at the Murray Town Community “The training geared towards providing capacity building for stakeholders on the effect, policies and preventive measures in order to enable them perform and act in their roles and responsibilities as stakeholders and make swift responses to issues of violations of Domestic Violence and Sexual and Gender Based Violence in their various communities”. She said.
Kadiatu Koroma continued that, their community training gave comprehensive insights into the relevance of the project, especially focusing on the importance of investing in a girl child, protecting women and girls’ safety and other circumstances that normally precipitate the occurrence of teenage pregnancy, child marriage and other forms of violations, and the mitigating measures. “During the training, it was emphasized that their engagement as stakeholders is benched upon their capacitation on the acts and governments position with respect to ending domestic violence and to openly act and condemn issues of domestic violence in their various localities” Kadiatu states.
As a way to provide adequate understanding and expertise to the training content, facilitators were drawn from relevant sectors in the country, such as Family Support Unit of the Sierra Leone, and Children’s Welfare Ministry.
The Fonder said that, the engagement was not only limited to community meetings, a cumulative of 100 pieces of IEC materials (stickers) with domestic violence safety message were developed, printed and distributed in strategic points within the project location (Murray town). The messages were extracted from the Ministry of Gender and Children’s and Children’s Affairs safety and awareness raising messages. The IEC materials were printed in different sizes and had different safety and awareness raising messages. The IEC material were printed in different safety inscription like stop domestic violence against women and girls, and the 116 hotline number.
“The 100 stickers with domestic violence safety, preventive and ref-feral pathway messages were placed in strategic locations like markets, schools, junction, Mosque and churches in the Murray town slum community. Those places were selected because they were crowded, and are mostly visited by residents within the community. This awareness-raising strategy also contributed to enhancing over 2000 residents knowledge in domestic violence preventive methods”. She ended.
According to Mariama Bangura one of the participant in the program she said that “To me the training gave a comprehensive insight into the relevance of the project especially focusing on the importance of investing in a girl child, protecting women and girls’ safety and other circumstances that normally precipitate the occurrence of teenage pregnancy, child marriage and other forms of violations, and the mitigating measures”. She said
She continued that, the training was also premised in essence of keeping the young women and girls on the same platforms on the protection and safety of women and girls. She said that the training served as a way of measuring the knowledge in terms of actions taken by Government in implementing laws, protection of women and girls’ safety against domestic violence.
Harry Mohoi is a representative from the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs he spoke to participants about policies of the government which promotes the rights and safety of women and girls. He also sensitized participants on the importance of reporting for early treatment if one experiences sexual or domestic violence.
Mr Henry John, was from the Sierra Leone Police he elaborated on the importance of the Family Support Unite and community members should make good use of the FSU at all times. He advised participants to call the 116 line or report to the nearest police station in their communities for any sexual or domestic violence crime.
The Women for Women Foundation is a Community Based Organization that was founded to provide knowledge and create awareness about domestic violence and other community violence against women in their different communities. This first phase of their project was supported by Plan International Sierra Leone.
