By Abass Jalloh
The Foundation for Rural and Urban Transformation (FoRUT), which seeks to empower citizens to fight against human rights abuses and empower people, met with stakeholders from various communities in the Western Area in a bid to share their successes and challenges of their activities in the past year and plans for 2022.
The meeting was held on Wednesday 9th March 2022 at the Council of Churches Sierra Leone Hall at King Harman Road, Freetown, following the completion of FoRUT’s annual stakeholders' meetings in Port Loko District and Moyamba District.
Speaking at the event, the Chief Executive Officer of FoRUT, Boie Jenneh Jalloh said FoRUT is a learning organization that always supports communities to hold leaders accountable and that because they themselves serve as duty bearers, they too would have to be accountable.
She cited that, since the organization seeks to empower citizens and work against drugs, alcohol, and injustice, they wanted to become a strong advocate for people to be corrupt-free.
Presenting the achievements of the organization for 2021, the Programme Manager for Western Area, Patricia Jombo, said FoRUT succeeded in promoting advocacy for child rights through media campaigns and public speaking and debate in schools, all of which he said led to the formation of a coalition that addresses child rights abuses.
She added they worked with local authorities and initiated campaigns to change the minds of school-going pupils on drugs and other substance abuse. They have also introduced pregnancy care for homes and hospitals in partnership with health workers, and have undertaken hygiene and cleaning exercises in communities, and also formed bye-laws to settle minor cases. Jombo added that they also introduced certified and non-certified skills training.
According to Jombo over seven hundred and sixty-six million Leones (Le, 766,000,000) would be used in organising consultative engagements on child rights abuses, the construction of school facilities and training of members among others. They will also be constructing healthcare structures for lactating mothers.
Presenting the communication strategies that the organization is expected to use in the course of its activities, the Advocacy and Communications Officer, Alhassan Jalloh said that they have reached 14 of 16 districts.
He said 189 civil society members were trained last year on fighting corruption and that they targeted schools and marketplaces. He added that one of their core values is to improve mental health in Sierra Leone through mobilization and legislative reforms.
Jalloh said the organization would do mainstream and social media engagements, grassroots mobilization, lobbying with policymakers, networking, and capacity building, targeting men and women including Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
Speaking on behalf of the Headmen, the Paramount Chief, Alimamy Kargbo, said FoRUT is “a friendly organization that has been “very helpful” to the less privilege and has addressed teenage pregnancy, sexual harassment, disease prevention, and the fire incident that occurred at Wellington.
Representatives from MDAs, District Councils, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and Gloucester community commended FoRUT for transforming lives in communities. He said the workers have been “transparent and honest”, adding that the involvement of the communities should be important in terms of implementing development plans.
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