Sierra Leone News: Youth Commission launch Young Women Programme

Business

The first Lady Mrs Sia Nyama Koroma yesterday at the Miatta Conference centre on Thursday launched the Young Women Empowerment and Advancement Programme. Giving an over view of the programmes the Deputy Youth Commissioner Aminata Sillah said, the objectives of the programme is to empower young women in the country to enable them advocate for women’s right, to strengthen the capacity of young women to be able to make knowledge based sound decision, choices and engage in leadership responsibilities and to influence attitudinal change and transform negative mind set for communities. She said the program has two components with the first one dealing mainly with young girls in senior secondary schools. “This component is meant to provide a networking and mentoring initiative aimed at sharing experiences and best practices among teenagers nationwide, to reduce drop out and teenage pregnancy”. The second component the Deputy Commissioner said deals with young women in conflict with the law initiative, this seeks to interact young women in detention centers to promote access to justice, sexual and reproductive and health education and rehabilitation. As the Commission believes that “it is necessary to establish a holistic healthy environment for you women”. Stating that there is need to invest in the girls in school not only to give them the confidence but also help them make informed decision in this patriarchal society. In her keynote address, the First Lady said she is happy to be part of the programme for two reasons firstly because she is a mother of two “young women that are in the, like all of you present here, who can better understand your hopes, aspiration, desires challenges and frustrations; and secondly as a first lady whose passion is in representing the voices of the women of Sierra Leone both young and old”. She said women empowerment and advancement is not new to the country as there has been women in the past that have held senior offices in the country some years back, citing women like Her Worship Constance Cummings John, Madam Yoko and Madam Nancy Steele. Madam Koroma said that the situation of women is threatened by gendered roles imposed on them by society where they fill position as mothers and care-givers and in some areas they are housemaids or cleaners. The young people she said are also faced with lot of challenges in their communities especially life threatening diseases like HIV’AIDS, drug abuse alcoholism. She said women constitute 50.9% of the population of the country and the youths comprises one third of the populations “yet this segment of the population have unequal access to socio-economic opportunities. And as the youth, 70% of you are underemployed or unemployed whilst 50% of you are illiterate and unskilled”. The first Lady maintained that women are marginalised even in the agricultural sector which dominate and have little or no access to credit facilities, improved technologies, extension services and post-harvest technologies”. She called on the young women to make use of the opportunity given to them by this project and the international community and donor partners to empower themselves to achieve their goals, “I would like to call on young women to live up to our collective expectations and to strive for excellence in academic achievement… I would like to implore you to live by the ideals and objectives of this newly established Young Women’s Empowerment and Advancement Programme that seek to strengthen the capacity of young women.” Statements were also made by the Minister of Youths Affairs, representative from UN Women and UNFP. Monday May 16, 2016

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