By Kenneth Thompson
Action Aid Sierra Leone in collaboration with Action Aid International Secretariat has concluded a five-day human rights based approach training of youth activists in the country at the civil service training college in Freetown. It is the sixth key change promise made by ActionAid. The other keys include training youth on land and agriculture, management, governance, tax justice, education and youth empowerment.
Speaking at the opening of the training, one of the trainers, Mary Ndritu said they were working to capacitate the estimated five million youth population of Sierra Leone, adding: “we are here to help mobilise and capacitate young minds so as to help them become knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS issues, good governance campaign issues, and human rights issues as well as advocating effectively on them”.
The Kenya-born trainer gave a brief framework of the course including a discussion on who should be considered a youth and why, what youth should be engaging in, youth empowerment, good governance campaign, HIV and AIDS sensitisation programmes and solidarity.
ActionAid Country Director, Mohammed Sillah welcomed and thanked the two trainers from East Africa, Mary Ndiritu, and George Lazaro for their contribution to the work of ActionAid Sierra Leone. He said his organisation had agreed that youth issues were going on with the main objective of empowering young people in the country; hence the five days of training and discussion programme. Sillah said that part of the package in the training involved field visits to other civil society organisations, including the Centre for the Coordination of Youth Activities (CCYA) and other “vibrant civil society organisations in the country” to share their experience to the trainee youth activists.
At the start of the training forum, participants were encouraged to write their hopes, challenges and fears on the job, and they were guided by the trainers on how to achieve their hopes, face the challenges and subsequently overcome their fears, which they would evaluate at the end of the training as they work in the country.
Participants were shown a human rights video which depicted forced early marriage, teenage pregnancy, and the effect of the massive spread of HIV, abandonment and other kinds of domestic and sexual violence. It was climaxed with participants suggesting ways to tackle problems in contemporary Sierra Leone.
Some of their suggestions included the need for a massive popularisation of the three gender bills so that women across all strata in the country could know their rights and opportunities, and react accordingly when they are violated. Also, they suggested that HIV sensitisation programmes should be scaled up, and most importantly, government was urged to spend more money on youth and youth-related issues.
Meanwhile the Governance Coordinator of ActionAid Sierra Leone, Christian Lawrence said that the training would involve young people in their programming, and how to ensure they were empowered to advocate on certain issues of national importance. He said the training aimed not only to sharpen the skills of Action Aid youth staff but also that their ACTIVISTA Network and national partners were part of the five-day programme. The training, he added, was born out of the strong realisation that in Sierra Leone, youth were not paid enough attention to. He lamented that with all the structures in place for the welfare of the youth, their conditions were still deplorable “that is why we decided to come onboard to see what we can help do together with government”. He stressed that youth should not just be presented with packages, but should also be incorporated from the beginning into programmes designed as packages for them, to ensure that they also plan, manage, and execute programmes relating to their own affairs.
Lawrence called on the ministries of education and youth to lobby government so that more funds could be allocated towards youth programmes and development, especially to the Youth Commission so the commission could meet the needs and desires of young people.
The training was concluded with the issuance of certificates to the trained activists who were urged to disseminate their knowledge gained to colleagues in their respective organisations.
(C) Politico 30/10/13
