By Abduali Fasineh Dumbuya
For women to have one voice in their activities, UN Women Sierra Leone in a one-day consultative meeting with a network of women’s rights groups and activists has called on women’s groups to merge forces in a united front that will represent the voices of women and girls in Sierra Leone.
The deliberations of the meeting were made public in a radio interview with the Organization’s Head in Sierra Leone, Setcheme Jeronime M. Mongbo, and Programme Specialist, Baindu Massaquoi on the 16th of August 2023.
Mongbo said they will continue to support the government and other stakeholders in order to pin down gender imbalance difficulties among women and girls in the country.
“To sustain success in compelling issues among women and girls in the country, we have to come together as women and strongly address our pressing issues. After all, women are one of the key contributing factors insofar growth and development of the country is concerned, “she said.
According to her, consultation is the best channel to enable women’s rights organizations and individual activists to align thoughts and form one movement that represents the voices of both women and girls in the country.
She noted that the challenges include those of financial nature that women face that are heaping pressure on women’s rights groups and organizations, affecting the achievement of their goals. Among others, she added that the lack of gender equality programmes is a cause of concern too.
“This is all the more compelling reason for us to hold consultative meetings with women’s rights groups and individual activists to lend their expertise, with the view to forming one movement that will represent the voices of women and girls across the country,” she said.
Speaking on the impact of the movement, Baindu Massaquoi said the essence of the movement is to form a formidable voice of women to advocate on burning issues affecting their lives and livelihoods, saying other countries have succeeded in it, and it is more likely for them to achieve success as well.
She mentioned resource mobilization and documentation as some of the challenges affecting women's organizations that ought to be addressed immediately. She referred to the aforementioned challenges as enormous.
Meanwhile, the Government and people of Sierra Leone on Tuesday 28th February 2017 joined UN Women at the official Launch of the He-for-she Campaign at Parliament.
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