Gender Equality Sierra Leone Project #36466

Help 100 women in Sierra Leone escape poverty

by Peace Child International

Help 100 women in Sierra Leone escape poverty

Project Report | Aug 7, 2019
Update from Sierra Leone

By Adriana Poglia | Chief Executive

Hello,

I'm writing to tell you about the incredible difference that your donation to Peace Child International has made over the last year. Thanks to you, we have trained 100 illiterate young women living in Ebola-affected areas of Sierra Leone. You have given them the skills and confidence they need to start a business of their own. In this way, you have made it possible for them to afford food and medicine for themselves and their families and they can now afford to send their children to school.

We've analysed the data from the training and this is what we've found:

The statistics show that over the last year, thanks to you, the training participants' income has increased on average by $125 per month. This is a 255% increase on their pre-training income of just $49 per month.

Thank you from everyone here at Peace Child International for the incredible role you have played in changing the lives of some of the world's most vulnerable people.

If you would like to find out more about our work or would like to support us further, please go to www.peacechild.org

Best wishes from everyone at Peace Child International

Links:

http://www.peacechild.org

Permalink

May 21, 2019
Transforming lives in Sierra Leone

By Adriana Poglia | Chief Executive

Hello,

I got back from Sierra Leone yesterday and thought that you might like to hear about the incredible impact that your donation to Peace Child International is having.

I met with a group of illiterate young women a few days ago who, thanks to your donation, had taken part in training to develop the skills, experience and confidence they needed to start and develop their own business. The impact that your donation has made is incredible.

What was really striking was the huge increase in income that the young women have already had as a direct result of the training. One girl called Bintu told me she never dreamt she would be able to do a business training without being able to read and write. Bintu is just 25 and a widow as her husband died from Ebola. She had never been to school or had any training or support in business. She has two children and, thanks to your donation, is now earning enough to pay for her eldest child to go to school. She hopes business will improve enough to enroll the second child next year. She’s said for the first time since her husband died she is respected in the community and is consulted about things that are happening. She was amazingly inspiring.

Another young women who had recently taken part in the training said she used to need her son to do her finances. Now, she has a way to check he is doing it correctly and understand it herself when he is not here. It has made her independent and confident in her abilities. I think one of the most empowering aspects is that these women are no longer made to feel inferior. They now have the tools, self-belief and confidence to escape poverty.

I also went and visited a group of illiterate young women who completed the training four years ago. It was amazing to see the long-term impact the training has had on their lives. The training had been truly transformative for them. They have set up a farming cooperative from proceeds of their business. None of them worked before and relied on handouts... now their husbands come to them for help and they join in the ‘men's’ community meetings! This is something that is very rare in Sierra Leone and shows how the training is truly empowering these women and playing a huge role in improving gender equality in Sierra Leone.

Thank you again so much for your support. If you would like to know more about our work or are able to support our work again in any way, please do get in touch with me at adriana@peacechild.org

My very best wishes,

Adriana

Permalink

Feb 19, 2019
Update from Sierra Leone

By Peace Child International | Project Leader

Thanks to your generous support we are excited to report that the training of 100 vulnerable young women has now started in two small rural villages in Sierra Leone called Nganyahun Sawura and Nganyahun Buuma in the chiefdom of Nongowa, Kenema. These rural and remote villages are still recovering from the devastating impact of the deadly Ebola outbreak of 2014.

The young women in these villages have little or no education and have not had any training or support until now. The majority of the young women we have started training have, until now, been selling on the streets whatever goods they can find. They rarely make any profit and struggle to feed themselves and their families. Through this training, you are now helping them to learn vital business skills which will ensure they can create their own, sustainable business. They will learn to identify opportunities in their local environment and scale their businesses to ensure they can generate a sustainable income all year round. This sustainable income will transform their lives. It will allow them to afford food for themselves and their families, send their children to school and afford vital medicine.

Our programme manager in Sierra Leone, Alpha Beretay told us:

"The women have just started the training and are incredibly enthusiastic. They are finding the visual training tools that we have specially designed for young people with little or no education, really easy to understand. The young women see a promising future in the training which will help them to meet their household and livelihood needs and they are so happy to be selected".

The Chief of the villages where we have just started running the training said: “I am very excited and proud that the training had been brought to my village. I am looking forward to seeing the impact of the training on the lives of the young women and the community as a whole.”

We are excited to see the long term impact of your kind donation and hope you are proud of your contribution to this very worthwhile programme. The training is expected to take three months to complete so we will be in touch again with an update on the women.

Thank you from everyone at Peace Child International.

Links:

Peace Child International website

Permalink

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.