Kidsave’s team in Sierra Leone had an exciting quarter! From March to June, with support from Kidsave, our partner organization, Integrated Development Initiatives – Sierra Leone (IDI-SL), successfully reunited 58 kids with their biological families or kin across 22 communities within the Bonthe, Pujehun, Kenema, and Kailahun districts.
One of the families reunited was Fatmata and Patrick, siblings who had lived together in an orphanage in Kenema after losing their mother to Ebola in 2015. They were reunited with Patrick’s father, Sheku, in the Penguya village. The children were overjoyed to be with Sheku, a retired teacher, and they are looking forward to beginning their new life together in their new home, community, and school.
Similarly, Albert and Mary, double orphans who lost both their parents to Ebola, reunited with their only living aunt, Kadiatu, who had returned to their village. The children, who had not been with a family member since 2015, were so relieved to be with their aunt after living in the orphanage for so long.
When Kidsave and IDI-SL reunite the children with family and kin or place them with adoptive families, there is a ceremony and celebration to welcome them back into the village. During this celebration, our teams provide training to the families and community members on how to properly care for the children. This quarter, many district stakeholders and community members attended the ceremonies and expressed their gratitude to IDI-SL and Kidsave for working together to reunite the kids who otherwise would have continued spending years in orphanages without families or being part of a community.
In addition to our reunification efforts, our work in Sierra Leone focuses on capacity building within the communities. Over the past few months, we have trained 44 case workers in 22 communities within Bonthe, Pujehun, Kenema, and Kailahun districts. These community volunteers gained knowledge and skills on gender-based violence case management to provide healing and hope for survivors. Training topics included an overview of gender-based violence case management, the Women and Girls Protection Empowerment approach, guiding principles of survivor-centered case management, intimate partner violence, child protection case management, and self-care.
Kidsave and community partners also organized ten gender clubs in ten schools and educated 100 students and 20 teachers within the Bonthe, Pujehun, Kenema, and Kailahun districts on gender-based violence, which has been an increasing issue within schools. Key training topics included sex and gender, violence, gender-based violence, human rights, and referral protocols. Establishing these clubs is a step towards creating a safer and more inclusive school environment for everyone.
Economic empowerment has been another essential aspect of our work in Sierra Leone. We recognized early on that reuniting families was only part of the solution. Ensuring that these families could financially sustain themselves was crucial for lasting impact. Over 75 family members participated in workshops on basic business skills and financial literacy, and 58 women received micro-loans to promote financial sustainability and boost food production.
We also organized training for beneficiary women’s groups in Kidsave’s reunification program and provided them with hand tools, seeds, and farm equipment and training in farm management and pest control. Over fifty families were given this agricultural training and support and loans of seeds to help them start the harvest season.
We are encouraged by how successful this quarter has been in Sierra Leone, and we look forward to seeing how much can be accomplished in the rest of the year! As we look ahead, we remain committed to ensuring each child in Sierra Leone grows up in a loving, supportive, and economically stable family.
