Sierra Leone: Save the Children calls for voices of children to be heard

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The Director of Advocacy and Communication at Save the Children, Ramatu Jalloh, on Saturday 26th October 2019, said “We believe this is the time for their voices to be heard as children,” Jalloh stressed. She made such a plea during a two-day engagement courtesy of Save the Children in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children Affairs with the Children’s Forum Network (CFN) at Family Kingdom on rebranding child advocacy in the country. According to the Director, child participation is lacking in advocacy campaigns in Sierra Leone, which is making headway in other parts of the world. She pleaded to the government to listen to the children, as they have to face them with sensitive issues, which have been affecting them. A lot of issues were highlighted during the two-day engagement, key amongst which has to do with violence against children, child marriage, teenage pregnancy and children affected by the justice system and in conflict with the law. Jalloh said this is the appropriate time for children to raise awareness on the aforementioned issues by reaching out to the schools, communities and also engage decision makers in the country. “We will do our best as Save the Children, as a child focused organization in order to solidify the partnership with CFN.”

The President of the Children’s Forum Network, Mariam Samai, maintained they are very determined and prepared to do advocacy with regards to issues affecting their colleagues. Samai said such experience gained will help them a lot to do their advocacy work. She said they were faced with a lot of challenges over the years, which have been hindering their work, “but we are now more than ready to fight for our colleagues on issues affecting them.” Rashida S. Kamara from the Ministry of Social Welfare Gender and Children Affairs said as the line Ministry dealing with children they will continue to protect the rights of children and also create the necessary platforms to bring out issues affecting them.

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