By Mustapha Sesay in Makeni
Three local non-governmental organizations, with funding from the European Union, have undertaken a research to identify and address the causes of violence among children and youths in the country.
The organizations: Centre for Coordination of Youth Activities (CCYA), Search for Common Ground (SFCG), and Society for Learning and Yearning for Equal Opportunities (SLYEO), are mainly engaged in activities that border on women’s empowerment and youth advocacy.
Ngolo Kata, CCYA Executive Director, told representatives of youth groups at a regional summit held in Makeni, northern Sierra Leone, that the project was been implemented in the three border countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Kata explained that during the research phase of the project, they used young people to talk to young people in 10 districts across the four regions in the country in a participatory action research under the project title; ‘Engaging Children and Youth as Partners in Preventing Violence against Children.’
He said the research process was able to highlight so many issues that informed violence among the two groups of children and youths. He said they found out that most of the causes of violence hinge on poverty and illiteracy.
Kata said they were going to replicate the two-day summit in Bo and Kenema districts, and then hold national conference in Freetown All these gatherings, he said, are geared towards exploring different approaches to solve issues affecting the youths.
Joseph Jimmy Sankaituah, head of SFCG, while explaining the overview of the regional summit, revealed that the project was designed to last for 18 months. He said it started in 2014 with the global objective of contributing to the eradication of all sorts of violence against children.
Sankaitual also noted that the research conducted would allow development of a tool kit that would serve as source of information on both children and youths.
“That tool kit will serve as guide to provide information about violence against children and youths, but also to serve as training guide especially for those who are working in the sector,” Sankaitual said
Ibrahim Jalloh, Chairman of Bombali Youth Council, who doubles as the Chairman of the summit held in Makeni, spoke about the responsibilities of parents to their children at an early age, noting that violence at home was a major concern for children because they suffer the most from it.
“It is the responsibility of the parents to take care of the children and it is not even the responsibility of government to take the place of parents. So why exploit the children and prevent them of actualizing their potentials,” he asked, adding that youth marginalization was one of the major causes of the civil war and that youth unemployment was also captured in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report as a major issue.
He noted that youths were accused of being perpetrators of violence and useless. But he asked whether society had catered for them to transform their lives. He said some youths were probably not happy with their conditions. He pointed out that youths resorted to war in the 1990s because it was the only means available to them to address their grievances.
“If we look at commercial sex workers, ghetto youths and say the youths are not serious, it also begs the question, have we tried them? If society fails to create opportunities [for the youth] they would create opportunities for themselves,” the Bombali youth council chairman said.
Victor Sumu Fornah, National Youth Commission northern region Coordinator, said they owed a moral obligation to protect youths and children and to ensure that the project was fully implemented with results, adding that it was also good for the project implementers to take into account the sustainability factors with far reaching effects on the beneficiaries. He called on the representatives of the various youth groups to pass on what they had heard and learnt from the summit and said it was good to solicit the corporation of other partners to ensure that youth issues were properly addressed. He noted that there were grim statistics of youth that lacks almost everything.
Prof. Joe Turay, Vice Chancellor of the University of Makeni (UNIMAK), said the problem in the three West African countries was connected in many ways as indicated in the research report. Thus, he noted, the future of these countries depended on one another as was also evident in the Ebola outbreak. He pointed out that if society failed to provide for both youths and children, that in itself was an act of violence against the two groups.
“As a university professor, if my university is not creative and innovative, it is violence against the youths and children. If we can’t stand for the common good of our youths, it also is violence against the youths. If we can’t stand against corruption it is violence against the youths. The money we stole during and after Ebola could have provided books and pens for our children. These are the issues we should talk about when talking of violence against children and youths.” Prof. Turay said.
The research report details six broad categories of violence, which comprise violence at home, teenage pregnancy and early marriage, violence against women and girls, child exploitation, violence at school and universities, and social exclusion and youths unemployment.
“Violence at home was the most frequent form of violence mentioned by children. Beating and harsh punishments are very common at home and also at school in Sierra Leone. Children who don’t live with their parents are highly vulnerable to violence, particularly to domestic violence and child exploitation,” the report reads in part.
Over 600 individual conversations were conducted with children and youths across the two sexes, throughout the country.
The authors recommend in the report that child protection mechanisms should be created at community levels and that the operation of the Family Support Unit and Child Welfare should be enforced through training to put members of the unit in a better footing to recognize all forms of violence against children.
The report also called for a youth parliament to be established and supervised by the National Youth Commission so that it can handle youth-related issues in the country. This parliament, it says, should consist of youth representatives from all the districts in the country.
(C) Politico 21/04/16
