Transforming the lives of Adolescent Girls through the AEMAG Project
ActionAid's support to Adolescent girls in Bo district through funds from People's Postcode Lotteryle
“Action to Empower Marginalized Adolescent Girls” project funded by players of People’s Postcode Lottery has been implemented in two phases for over two years in Sierra Leone, geared towards the empowerment of marginalized adolescent girls both in and out of school.
The project supports the education of girls in Western Area and Bo district in Sierra Leone. It also perfectly resonates with the Government’s “Free Quality School Education” program and the “Radical Inclusion Policy”, which creates a platform for girls to access education regardless of their circumstances.
The direct participants reached over the two-year period are 600 girls in school across 10 communities in Freetown and Bo. These girls get empowerment sessions facilitated by school mentors trained by ActionAid. They are also supported with learning materials and other necessary items to ensure they stay in school. There is other over 200 girls supported with skills training in tailoring, hairdressing, and catering. They receive start-up kits to prepare them to practice of their skills.
Many girls in Sierra Leone encounter discrimination, inequality, lack of access to education and other social and cultural challenges, which sets them aback in terms of empowerment and self-reliance; this is often exacerbated by poverty.
Battu, Kadiatu, and Saffiatu have been part of the AEMAG project and have experienced significant improvement in their lives through the support of Players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Once, they found themselves bounded by the common thread of adversity, each with unique struggles that resonates with the situation of many other girls in the country.
12-years-old Battu’s story is stringed with parental loss at an early age. Orphaned by the Ebola Outbreak, she hawked farm produce for her grandmother to meet their daily needs. She was also separated from her brother and had no opportunity to go to secondary school.
“My mother died during Ebola outbreak and my grandmother is the only family I have now. I hawk cassava leaves and other food stuff for my grandmother so we can be able to survive. I daily go through many hurdles, and I’m sidelined because of I don’t have a mother, I don’t go to school and because we are poor. I got separated from my little brother who was sent to a relative in another village because our grandmother can’t afford to keep both of us, that also has been difficult for me to cope with,” she said, with tears welled in her eyes.
She longed for education and got that chance when she crossed paths with the implementing partners of the AEMAG Project in Bo, ActionAid Sierra Leone and COME SL. She got enlisted for the project and “Now I’m no longer provoked or marginalized. I live a dignified life among my peers as I have decent uniform to put on just like every other girl and all my school supplies and money for lunch are being provided through this project. I thank People’s Postcode Lottery for supporting me and I hope that they continue to invest in my education,” she expressed with joy.