Our organization prioritizes women’s empowerment and consider it a very critical arm of our operations. For us, women’s empowerment is a broad-based idea, but we focus on adult literacy, vocational training, counseling, providing support for women who are victims of domestic sexual and gender-based violence. Adult female literacy rate in Sierra Leone stands at 34.85% as opposed to the male adult literacy which stands at 51.65%. In the last four years, gender-based violence has decreased due to various interventions by the government of Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone ranked 182nd out of 189 countries on the UNDP’s Gender Development Index in 2020, and nearly half of the bottom 20 countries were in West Africa. The legacy of an eleven (11) year civil conflict in Sierra Leone, exacerbated widespread sexual violence and the changes in gender roles brought about by violence and displacement. Women have been offered limited assistance to deal with the health, psychosocial and economic consequences of sexual violence experienced during the war and the continued discrimination they face in the post-conflict phase. Furthermore, the failure to put in place mechanisms to prosecute perpetrators of Gender Based Violence has contributed to a culture of impunity around GBV-related crimes. As an organization, we are providing support to those victims to access justice by providing legal representation for justice to be served.

The current government has just passed into law the Gender bill and has made four strategic provisions. 30% seat for women in politics, 30% appointment positions for women, access to finance and gender mainstreaming and budgeting.