By Joanna Howarth | Communications Lead
On behalf of all of the women and girls we have supported over the past three months, thank you for your support towards our Ebola prevention project. We are delighted to have seen the number of Ebola cases reduce week-on-week within Sierra Leone, and last Friday, the State of Emergency regulations on public gatherings was lifted. However with between four and seven new cases still recorded each week, a large amount of work is still needed to get to Zero Ebola.
Since we were last in touch, we have been busy with both our sensitization work, as well as distributing prevention materials to Correctional Centres, Courts and Police Stations. In July, our Kenema Programme Officer, Jalahan, donated preventative items to the Kenema Central Police station including: one gallon rexo-guard, one multipurpose surface cleaner, 1kg saba powder soap for cleaning the cells, two hand sanitizers and four rubber buckets for the inmates. The supply will be repeated next month (excluding the buckets). Such trips have been repeated across the other towns in which we have a presence including Magburaka Magistrate Court (April) and Port Loko Correctional Centre (May).
A large part of our ongoing work during this crisis, is to provide legal aid to those affected by legal changes implemented during the State of Emergency. Unfortunately, we have seen a large number of women affected by needless arrests due to police misunderstanding the new laws, or abusing their position of power.
One such example is that of Isatu, a market trader at Lumley market in Freetown. A couple of months ago, she says the police raided her food stand and beat her, as they say she was operating past the curfew for business hours. Isatu says it was 20 minutes before the mandatory closing time. She was in prison for one month before AdvocAid could get her released on bail. You can read more on this case study on Voice of Africa News.
Sadly, such cases like these are not isolated; AdvocAid’s Paralegals have been working closely with the police stations to ensure these women receive the legal assistance they need, and that the State of Emergency is implemented in a law abiding manner.
When we last reported to you, we told you about how we’d dispatched Paralegals to monitor Police Stations in each region in which we operate during the March 27-29 lockdown, to ensure there was legal support on hand for those detained during the three day period. Since then, we have produced a report on the findings from the lockdown, detailing what people were arrested for, the intervention’s provided and the recommendations to ensure human rights are upheld during such future lockdowns. You can read a copy of the report here.
With the ongoing support of people like you, AdvocAid will continue to work on the frontline of Sierra Leone’s Ebola response, working to ensure the country’s police and judicial systems not only function but do so in a law abiding way.
Whilst the Ebola crisis is featuring in the headlines less and less, it is continuing, and support and intervention will be needed long after the last case has been declared. Sierra Leone has suffered dramatically. We would be incredibly grateful for your ongoing support in ensuring Sierra Leone’s women and girls maintain their legal and human rights during the State of Emergency. Thank you for any support you can offer.
You can read more about AdvocAid on our website, www.advocaidsl.com and keep up to date with our daily activities via www.facebook.com/advocaidsierraleone and www.twitter.com/advocaid
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