Job training for 100 girls in Sierra Leone slums

Transform Africa, together with the local community in the slums of Freetown, designed this project to empower 100 teenage girls who are marginalised single mothers and are facing significant challenges to feed and clothe themselves and their children.

These vulnerable girls have dropped out of school due to the poverty of their parents and therefore lack basic skills for employment or self-employment. As a result they are among the extremely poor in the already poor slums of Freetown. In addition, being girls in a patriarchal society, they suffer multiple deprivation and discrimination, which leaves them more and more vulnerable and poorer.

The project has since been working with tutors at the slums-based YDM Vocational Training Centre to design appropriate courses so that the teenage girls can gain marketable skills which they will use as gateways to increased incomes and improved quality of life.

The government of Sierra Leone has fortunately agreed to pay staff salaries at the vocational institute to train the young girls. This is a big step as it means that some costs have been addressed. In a bid to target the most vulnerable in an already vulnerable environment, we carried out a survey for the beneficiaries that are most in need in the slums so that they will be among the first to be targeted as soon as the project starts. Another positive development is the enthusiasm and cooperation we have received form the local chief and community leaders. They have in fact committed themselves to provide a free hall so that beneficiaries can carry-out practical vocational skills training. However, since the launch of the project we have been trying to raise funds but have failed to do so; as it stands now, we have not yet started getting donations from the GlobalGiving website.

We are therefore requesting our donors to generously contribute to this worthwhile project. We hope that we will continue getting donations through the GlobalGiving website.