As part of its activities to commemorate the international women’s day in Sierra Leone, LEGAL LINK has on Tuesday March 8, 2022 hosted the 1st Girls Empowerment Seminar and also launched the Freedom Project for women and girls in Sierra Leone, at the Africell American Corner, Bathurst Street in Freetown.
This year’s theme for the International Women’s day celebrations is “Gender Equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.”
The Girls Empowerment Seminar therefore gels with the global theme as it created a leadership and inspirational forum that is geared towards capacitating young women and girls for their career and leadership aspirations by giving them the platform to meet with key stakeholders who have profoundly contributed to the development of Gender mainstreaming in the nation.
Significantly also, during the event, women and girls were given the opportunity to explore their creative abilities as well as share those challenges that have continued to undermine gender equality, access to education and their rise to leadership positions in the country.
Various pupils from different secondary schools in Freetown took part in the girls empowerment seminar. Some of the schools that were represented include Modern High, International School, Methodist Girls High School, Freetown Secondary school for Girls, St Joseph’s Convent, Vine Memorial, Model Secondary school etc to name but a few.
Female students from Fourah Bay college, University of Sierra Leone also took part in the Girls Empowerment Seminar and made significant contributions to the subject being discussed.
Various senior secondary school representatives also made presentations during the seminar on the challenges facing women and girls in Sierra Leone and proffered recommendations for action.
Motivational and insight messages were also passed on to the girl participants by the interns of LEGAL LINK regarding their journey towards academic success and how they can surmount the challenges encountered on the way.
In addition, the day also marked the launching of the Freedom Project For Women And Girls In Sierra Leone.
While launching the project, the Executive Director of LEGAL LINK, Rashid Dumbuya Esq emphasized that the Freedom Project is a project that seeks to provide specialized legal services for women and girls who are victims of early marriage, forced labour, sexual and gender based violence, female genital mutilation, human trafficking, domestic violence, sexual exploitation etc.
He explained to the plenary that LEGAL LINK will be providing support to victims in the form of advocacy, education and training, lobbying for legal and policy reforms, prosecution of offenders, counseling and pyscho-social support to victims as well as documentation and report writing of incidents.
At the end of the Empowerment Seminar, many of the participants thanked LEGAL LINK for bringing up such a timely and brilliant initiative to help protect and promote the rights of women and girls in Sierra Leone.
By Stephen V. Lansana