CARITAS SIERRA LEONE BO STILL FIGHTING AGAINST GENDER BASE VIOLENCE IN THE SOUTHERN REGION

CARITAS STAFF CROSSING RIVER TO POPULARIZE GENDER EQUITY AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT

Crossing the river Sewa to Madina, Bum Chiefdom, to engage key stakeholders and other community structures to popularize the GEWE policy and the importance of women in leadership as it is one of the major activities for the International Women’s Day celebration.

CARITAS SIERRA LEONE BO DONATE ITEMS TO FIVE OPERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

 On Friday 11^th September 2020, Caritas Sierra Leone donated 5 megaphones to DICOVERC, for social mobilization. On the same date, Caritas Sierra Leone also gave five hundred thousand Leones cash in each of the five operational communities namely; Burn, Jong, Yawbewo, Norgobabulum, and Kpadakemo as SILC support to women’s Action Group (WAG) and 5 solar lights to be used in five established safe space within the five operational communities.

CARITAS SIERRA LEONE BO WOMEN’S RIGHT  VIDEO

Project Description

In January 2020 Caritas Sierra Leone Bo implemented a $ 300,000.00 Peacebuilding project with Women In Crisis Movement, Catholic Women’s Association, Women Against Violence and Exploitation in Society funded by United Nations Peace Building Fund; Promoting women’s safety & Security for sustainable peace in Southern Sierra Leone. It is implemented in the 20 communities in the four districts of Southern Sierra Leone.

PROJECT TITLE: PROMOTING WOMEN’S SAFETY AND SECURITY FOR SUSTAINABLE PEACE IN SOUTHERN SIERRA LEONE

Project Location:             20 Target Communities total in:

• Bo District – 5 Chiefdoms
• Bonthe District -5 Chiefdoms
• Moyamba District – 5 Chiefdoms and
• Pujehun District – 5 Chiefdoms

Project budget: $ 300,000.00

Duration:            18 Months

PBF Programme: Gender Promotion Initiative

• The project aims to strengthen women community-based organizations with capacities in gender and advocacy for the reduction of SGBV.
• The CBOs will maintain community presence for sustained advocacy and provide legal and psychosocial assistance to SGBV survivors seeking redress while engaging men and boys on gender equality and violence prevention.
• It is the expectation that these efforts will lead to less impunity towards SGBV and more community efforts to prevent violence against women and girls which will lead to more peaceful and equal communities.

Outcomes:

• Outcome 1: Women CBOs in the Southern Region are vocal leaders in influencing local communities to prevent and report SGBV incidence.
• Outcome 2: Women and girls in communities with High SGBV rates are able to access basic services and empowered to make decisions that are taken into account by the public.
• Outcome 3: Men and boys in target communities contribute to conflict prevention and management and gender equality by serving as role models and catalysts for change in community behavior towards SGBV.

Outputs:

• Three women’s groups have capacities for identifying strategies to prevent and reduce SGBV and conflict Management.
• Women CBOs are trained in participatory advocacy approaches for conflict prevention.
• Women CBOs are supported for court monitoring, reporting, and providing psychosocial support to SGBV survivors.
• Basic health and legal services are available for SGBV survivors.
• Women are organized into Women Action Groups at Chiefdom levels to advocate for the elimination of Violence against women and girls.
• Women and girls participate in community meetings and take part in decision making.
• Men and boys in target communities supported to be influencers of behavior change towards reducing violence and inequality in families and communities.
• Men and boys are engaged as GEWE and conflict prevention advocates to address the root causes of violence and inequality.
• Male Community change agents for gender equality are identified and recognized

Key Concepts in the Project

• Peace: a state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom, freedom from civil disturbance, harmony, freedom from war or violence.
• Conflict: a process or situation in which two or more human beings or groups seek actively to threaten each other’s purposes, to prevent each other’s interests, even to the extent of injuring or destroying the other. “It is the deliberate attempt to op­pose, resist, or coerce the will of another or others.’’
• Conflict prevention: employing complementary diplomatic, civil, and, when necessary, military means, to monitor and identify the causes of conflict, and take timely action to prevent the occurrence, escalation, or resumption of hostilities.
• Gender: the attitudes, behaviors, norms, and roles that a society or culture associated with an individual’s sex, thus the social differences between female and male; the meanings attached to being feminine or masculine.
• Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: any act that is perpetrated against a person’s will and is based on gender norms and unequal power relationships. It encompasses threats of violence and coercion. It can be physical, emotional, psychological, or sexual in nature
• Gender Transformative approach: that promoting gender equality—the shared control of resources and decision-making—and women’s empowerment are central to an intervention. programs and interventions that create opportunities for individuals to actively challenge gender norms, promote positions of social and political influence for women in communities, and address power inequities between persons of different genders.

Problem statements

• Pervasive gender discrimination in statutory and customary law with regards to rights of women and girls in areas of marriage and inheritance indicate –
  • a structural basis for discrimination and women’s insecurity that is manifested in the high rates of violence against women and girls.
• The root causes of conflict in Sierra Leone can be attributed to poor governance and inequality.
• Structural issues including negative social norms, discriminatory legal frameworks, low levels of political participation continue to undermine the country’s ability to achieve equality and sustainable peace.
• The physical and psychological trauma faced by SGBV survivors affects their productivity, increasing their vulnerability to further abuse and infringes on their rights to safety and protection, which are vital in maintaining peaceful societies.
• Sierra Leone ranks among the 10 worst countries for gender inequality.
• Despite several ‘gender laws’ (domestic violence, sexual violence, etc.), the rate of sexual and gender-based violence is growing alarmingly
• 70 percent of the sexual assault cases are against girls under the age of 15 years.
• 3 Percent of SGBV cases reported to the police in 2018 resulted in convictions.

Project Rationale

• A gender transformative approach is more likely to reduce gender inequality and power relations.
• The empowerment and safety assurance of women and girls, requires transformative structural change across both public and private spaces, in rural communities and households.
• Rural women and girls are disproportionately affected, with the highest rates of SGBV recorded in north and southern regions of the country.
• The rising trends in SGBV incidences towards women and girls in the country are seen as a peacebuilding concern as it terrorizes and intimidates them from equal participation in civil society and political processes, resulting in inequality and discord.
• Addressing a key manifestation of violence in society, in this case, SGBV, which contributes significantly to imbibing the culture of violence, will have a cascading effect on violence reduction in general.

• Prioritizing the reduction of SGBV as a peacebuilding initiative is strategic as the results will cascade to improving power relations in other dimensions vital to sustaining peace.

ToC

• The Theory of Change:
  • IF women and girls are free from all forms of gender-based violence and its threats, THEN tackling sexually related conflicts; its prevention and management efforts by government and local civil society will be sustainable  BECAUSE structural changes would have been functional to support peaceful co-existence of women, men, boys, and girls.

Project Targets

• 3 Women’s Groups -Community-Based Organizations with a membership of 100 volunteers and staff.
• 200 women in 20 Village women’s groups to be established as Women Action Groups
• 80 SGBV women and girls (survivors)
• 100 Men and boys in 20 communities
• 20 Local/traditional leaders – advocacy targets
• 10 FSU Stations in the Region – advocacy targets
• 4 Ministry of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs offices – advocacy targets
• 3 Women’s Groups -Community-Based Organisations with a membership of 100 volunteers and staff.
• 200 women in 20 Village women’s groups to be established as Women Action Groups
• 80 SGBV women and girls (survivors)
• 100 Men and boys in 20 communities

• 20 Local/traditional leaders – advocacy targets
• 10 FSU Stations in the Region – advocacy targets
• 4 Ministry of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs offices – advocacy targets

1. Caritas Sierra Leone, Bo – Convening Agency
2. Women against Violence and Exploitation in Society
3. Catholic Women Association
4. Women In Crisis Movement

LIST OF DISTRICTS, CHIEFDOMS, AND COMMUNITIES IDENTIFIED BY CBOs

BONTHE DISTRICT

CARITAS SIERRA LEONE- BO

• JONG CHIEFDOM – LAUWA
• NONGOBABULUM CHIEFDOM – BAOMA KPENGEH/MOTIFO
• YORBEKO CHIEFDOM – TALIA
• KPANDAKEMO CHIEFDOM – MOTOI
• BUM CHIEFDOM -MADINA

PUJEHUN DISTRICT

PARTNER: WOMEN IN CRISIS  

• PUJEHUN TOWN – KPANGA
• SAHN MALEN – MALEN
• ZIMMI- MAKPELE
• BANDAJUMA SOWA – SOWA
• BARRI- POTORU

BO DISTRICT

PARTNER: WAVES

• KAKUA –NDUVUIBU
• VALUNIA CHIEFDOM- BAOMAHUN
• BAOMA CHIEFDOM – GEREHUN
• TIKONKO CHIEFDOM- LEMBEMA
• BUMPEH GAO CHIEFDOM – BUMPEH

MOYAMBA DISTRICT

PARTNER: CATHOLIC WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION

• MILE 45 (LOWER BANTA)
• GBANBATOKE (LOWER BANTA)
• KPEITEIMA (LOWER BANTA)
• MOTINGA (UPPER BANTA)
• MOKELEH (UPPER BANTA)

Cross-section of Caritas Bo Team and implementing partners during a 5days training on SGBV and conflict prevention and management.

Launching of the Project with representatives from The Sierra Leone Police, Rainbo Initiative, Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs, Legal Aid Board, Media Houses and implementing partners

Monthly meeting with Women Action Group in Pujehun District

Engaging male community actors in Bonthe District

Women Action Group leader receiving moile phone for E-Alert in Moyamba District

Distributions of Safe space items in Bo District