Physical Health Sierra Leone Project #18299

Ebola Prevention & Support for Women in Detention

by AdvocAid

Ebola Prevention & Support for Women in Detention

Project Report | May 23, 2016
Looking ahead after Ebola

By Signe Roelsgaard | Development Associate

The last few months have brought so many reasons to celebrate that we feel like sharing it with all our lovely followers. As the Ebola outbreak is coming to an end, the laws and curfews imposed during Sierra Leone’s State of Emergency are gradually being lifted, and the disease prevention measures that we have supported in the prisons can be relaxed. It is therefore time for us to close down this project and instead direct our sponsors to our anniversary appeal ‘Celebrating 10 Years of Justice for Women’. We hope you will stay connected with AdvocAid!

Sierra Leone has been able to contain the Ebola outbreak since March, where the last patient was tested negative for the second time. However, a 42-day countdown must elapse in Guinea and Liberia as well before the outbreak can be declared over in West Africa. If no new cases emerge, this will happen on 9 June.

It is of course too early to lift all preventative measures, which is why we have continued to hand out Ebola sanitary items (such as Dettol, chlorine, soap, sanitary pads and buckets) in detentions and prisons, where just one Ebola case could very quickly transmit to other detainees. In March, AdvocAid celebrated International Women's Day with women and girls in eight correctional centres and remand homes, and on 26-27 April we went back to celebrate Sierra Leone's 55th Independence Day. On these events, we handed out a total of 671 Ebola and welfare packs.

AdvocAid has remained fully operational throughout the Ebola outbreak, representing women in conflict with the law and advocating for changes and accountability in the legal system. Still, with the entire country focusing on one thing – responding to the emergency – existing challenges have not been dealt with, and a dire need for legal aid remains. Many girls and women lost relatives and livelihoods during the crisis, and in the past year, we have seen too many of these women seeking out hazardous ways of providing for their families and ending up in conflict with the law as a result.

Help AdvocAid provide legal aid for another 10 years – Looking back at the devastating Ebola outbreak and ahead on AdvocAid’s next ten years of operation, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate. Yet holistic legal aid – customised to meet the specific needs of women and girls – remains crucial. Over the last three months alone, we have been able to assist 271 women, but as most post-Ebola resources go to the health and education sectors, funding for our work is increasingly difficult to come by. This leaves women and girls incredibly vulnerable in the legal system.

AdvocAid relies on generous people like yourself to raise funds for our legal aid services, and we are therefore hoping that you would consider donating to our anniversary project. Monthly donations especially will enable us to better plan our work and make it much more sustainable, but we’d appreciate any amount you can spare. Thank you in advance for your support!

Celebrating International Women's Day

Inmates with Ebola and welfare packs

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Feb 23, 2016
Facing Continued Challenges

By Joanna Howarth | Communications Lead

An AdvocAid client (distorted for anonymity)

Sierra Leone has once again been back on the front pages, for the tragic reason of having a number of new Ebola cases, taking the country back a step.

Last spring, the World Bank Group estimated that the three most affected countries (Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia) would lose at least US$2.2 billion in forgone economic growth in 2015 as a result of the epidemic. The World Bank has since reported Sierra Leone to be the most negatively affected country of the three, in terms of lost revenue.

$318 million USD has been mobilised by the World Bank for Sierra Leone’s response and recovery. In terms of response, it has been stipulated that these funds be to help communities cope with the economic impact of the crisis, and improve public health systems.

Whilst AdvocAid fully backs the need for funds to go to the health and education sectors and to rebuilding the economy – all of which have been crippled by the epidemic – no additional funds are making their way to the justice sector, which has been hugely impacted with courts not sitting, lack of lawyers in the rural areas, human rights abuses under the State of National Emergency and overcrowding in the prisons.

AdvocAid’s monitoring of the Correctional Centres has revealed that there’s an alarming number of women behind bars with vaginal infections from the lack of washing facilities and clean water – as hygiene supplies in country inflated in price, and attention behind bars moved to preventing an ebola outbreak, women’s personal health and hygiene has been compromised. AdvocAid is responding to this by applying for rapid funds to provide women with welfare items.

AdvocAid has continued to provide critical free legal assistance throughout the duration of the epidemic, and continues now, as the need shows itself more than ever. The impact of the virus will be felt most keenly by the country’s most vulnerable: women forced further into poverty; orphaned children; children taking on family responsibilities having lost parents; girls who dropped out of school forced into commercial sex work to make ends meet…

Between June 2014 and November 2015, AdvocAid has provided legal assistance to 1,340 girls and women. This has been possible with the continued support of individuals such as you, understanding the critical need to continue to invest in the justice system during health outbreaks. Our thanks and sincere gratitude.

AdvocAid faces a number of challenges within 2016 – ongoing funding is our main one, as funds for the justice sector are diverted elsewhere. We’d be very grateful if you’d consider making a regular gift to AdvocAid, to ensure we can continue our operations working with girls and women in conflict with the law. Thank You.

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Nov 24, 2015
Sierra Leone declared Ebola Free!

By Joanna Howarth | Communications Lead

Celebrations in Freetown; Photo by Tom Bradley

Since we last wrote to you, Sierra Leone has been firmly in the press for all of the right reasons – on 7 November, following 18 months, the country was declared Ebola free.

With your support, AdvocAid was able to keep operating throughout the whole period, and ensure that there was no outbreaks in the courts, police stations or prisons – all of which were extremely high risk due to the high turn-over of people (over half of whom have not been convicted of any crime).

We also campaigned hard against human rights violations that resulted from the new laws imposed under the State of Emergency. Read more about this in one of our previous reports.

We wanted to use this report to provide a glimpse of our reach during the 18 month Ebola epidemic. Over this period, AdvocAid has…

Provided free legal support to 1,822 women and girls. If we’d ceased operations, as so many NGOs were forced to do, these women and girls could still be behind bars now for offences as small as abusive language
Distributed packages of Ebola prevention materials, including hand wash buckets, Dettol, gloves and soap to over 23 institutions including courts, police stations and correctional centres
Delivered 12 training sessions to vulnerable women – including market traders and commercial sex workers – on the new State of Emergency laws and how to stay safe from Ebola
Delivered 179 welfare packages to women behind bars – with travel restrictions, many women have received no visitors when in prison during the epidemic - our welfare packages provide them with sanitary and hygiene items, that are not available from the prison

Our social worker has led a lot of AdvocAid’s Ebola response – her monthly reports provide feedback on the receipt of the Ebola prevention materials over the course of the epidemic, including:

“At the central police station, the L.U.C received us and was very happy to receive the Ebola prevention materials.”

“In the provinces, I presented Ebola prevention items in Bo and Kenema at the same time as conducting monitoring. I met with the Judges and Magistrates in Bo and presented the Ebola prevention items to the Magistrate at the Magistrate Court. They were pleased with the presentation and encouraged us to be visiting and sensitizing the women in the Provinces.”

“We donated the items to the Kenema Court officials. They were also pleased to see us and received the items with thanks.”

“At the Correctional Centres and Remand Home, inmates and officials were pleased to welcome us. We were welcomed with a song at the Kenema Correctional Centre. The inmates received the welfare items sent with appreciation”

In the spirit of Sierra Leone’s colourful and vibrant character, we say ‘Bye Bye Ebola’ with hip hop!

Thank you all for your support during this incredibly difficult period for Sierra Leone; a period when we have lost 3,955 people to the disease. Sierra Leone needs public support as much now, as it did during the Ebola epidemic.

We’d be grateful if you’d consider making a donation to our Legal Aid project, to ensure we can continue providing support into the New Year. We are anticipating an increased number of women will need legal interventions in 2016, with so many households losing their main income earner to the disease, over 12,000 orphans created, and ongoing human rights concerns - particularly that of pregnant girls being refused access to school (school-age pregnancies increased during the epidemic).

Thank you.

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