Community based organisation Future Focus Foundation (FFF) operating in Kenema and Kailahun districts has graduated and provided startup kits to 50 young people in the two districts who are mostly early school leavers and teenage mothers. They were given a 10 month training in market skills like tailoring, welding and carpentry with funding from Tools for Self Reliance UK implemented by FFF in a project titled: ‘Promoting job opportunity for young people in Kenema and Kailahun districts’.
Also with funding from High Way One Trust (HOT) FFF supported 20 teenage mothers against sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) and the setting up of four girls alert clubs in four schools in Kenema to be anonymously reporting to appropriate stakeholders on violations against girls that occur in schools and communities. Through another HOT UK funding through Child Hope UK, FFF is implementing a project titled: ‘Girl Education Empowerment Project’ (GEEP) for 20 beneficiaries in Kenema under the vocational component.
Inside the livelihood and economic empowerment component, four savings groups were established and supported in Nongowa Chiefdom with each receiving a Le1 million startup grant to boost the savings scheme. In his statement, Project Support Officer FFF, Alphan Kelvin Massaquoi said the organisation is not only taking care of the teenage mothers but also providing a daycare facility with medication and three meals a day for their children while in training, adding that at the end of the day they collect their children for their respective homes under the CRECHE facility.
He said 10 of the teenage mothers also went through the tailoring and embroidery training at Giehun Town in Luawa Chiefdom, Kailahun District. Satta Dauda of Giehun during the graduation ceremony thanked FFF and its partners for the support to their children, adding with this FFF empowerment they will be self-reliant at all times.
She appealed for more support saying there are hundreds of other children in the district in need of such support. The Team Leader FFF, Sylvester Sedie Kallon, in his statement thanked the girls’ parents for their encouraging support by allowing their children to go through the courses.
He disclosed that prior to the training FFF empowered 100 rural women via Adult Education in Niawa, Small Bo and Nongowa chiefdoms. Each group of 30 beneficiaries of the group savings loan scheme received tools, metal boxes, calculators, ledgers, seed grant of Le1 million and other support. Also, FFF has been supporting the COVID 19 fight response with face masks, Veronica buckets, megaphones blaring automated COVID-19 preventive messages, cash donation, food and nonfood items to DiCOVERC through District Coordinator Vandi Kondovoh and Logistic Manager Augustine Sannoh.
He said Future Focus Foundation also supports the Family Support Unit of the Sierra Leone Police with fuel to trace and arrest perpetrators of child marriage and sexual penetration in Nekabo community, Nongowa Chiefdom. The foundation is part of the school monitoring group during public exams in the district, he added.
By Saffa B. Moriba in Kenema