By Septimus Senessie in Kono
Alocal civil society organisation operating in the eastern region, Dignity Now, has awarded Le180 million grant to 30 youth and women’s organisations in the region that promote democracy and the rule of law.
The beneficiary groups are based in the three districts of Kailahun, Kenema and Kono which make up the region.
The presentation was done at the District Barracks Office in Koidu Town, Kono. It’s part of a two-year pilot project which started in 2014 and is expected to end this year. It is titled: ‘Consolidating Democratic Practice in Eastern Sierra Leone through Civic Education’ and it is funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF).
Dignity Now came into existence in 2002, at the end of the eleven years civil war, focusing on the promotion of human rights, democratic governance, livelihood and the protection of the environment for sustainable development.
Head of the project and member of Dignity Now, Emmanuel Quee, told Politico that the awardees include 15 youths organisations and 15 women’s organisations with each receiving a cheque of Le60 million from the selected chiefdoms of Fiama, Nimikoro and Gorama Kono in Kono District; KissiTongi, and Kissi Kama in Kailahun District; and Dama, Koya and Guama in Kenema District. He said the grant was part of a whole process that involves motivating and capacitating the groups financially after they had undergone several Civic Educational trainings on democratic processes. This, he said, would enable them to hold accountable their elected leaders in their various communities.
The project also aims at encouraging youths and women in these communities to participate in development efforts by occupying positions of trust and representing their communities in the local administration, council, as well as at parliament levels.
Quee noted that the project targeted the east of the country because of the decades of social, political and economic neglects and deprivations its people had faced from both the present and previous governments, “despite its huge natural endowments of human and natural resources and its agricultural viabilities among the other regions of the country.”
Democracy, Mr Quee told Politico, was not merely about voting for leaders to represent them but also to hold them accountable to deliver on their promises. He explained that it entailed the provision of social services to electorates for the good of all and to maintain law and order in the society.
Paramount Chief SahrYongaiKontandeMbriwaof Fiama Chiefdom, while thanking Dignity Now for the support, remarked that for a country to develop it must invest in its youths and women, whom he described as the “hub of development.”
The Public Relations Officer for Paramount Chiefs in Kono District, PC Mbriwa vowed to create the enabling environment for both youths and women to be part of key decisions making bodies in his Chiefdom Council so that they can be able to tap their potentials in the development of the chiefdom.
On behalf of the beneficiaries, the Chairlady of one of the beneficiary groups, Konda Young Women for Positive Activities, Edith SiaJafoi from Gorama Kono Chiefdom, thanked their benefactors and promised to utilise the grant for the intended purposes.
(C) Politico 04/05/16
