By Simitie Lavaly | Executive Director, AdvocAid
Overview
On behalf of all of the women and girls supported by AdvocAid, thank you so much for the donation you have made towards AdvocAid’s literacy and numeracy project over the past few months. Since your donation, Sierra Leone has faced numerous challenges caused by the Ebola epidemic, including the national closure of educational facilities and reduced access to prisons. Despite this, we are delighted to have been able to continue classes in Makeni and Kono Correctional Centre’s, as well as hold a graduation ceremony in Freetown for literacy graduates.
In detail
On 14th November 2014, we held our annual literacy and numeracy graduation ceremony within the Freetown Female Correctional Centre (formerly prison). The occasion was an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the 33 graduates, who despite being behind bars gave their best to acquire literacy and numeracy skills during the 2013-2014 academic year. There were 14 students graduating from Level 1 (for illiterate students), 16 from Level 2 (early primary school level students) and three from Level 3 (junior secondary school students and above). The classes are being run through our Sierra Leonean partner organisation, EducAid.
The manager in charge of the female correctional facility, Ms. Margaret Robert, has stated how important a feature the classes are within the prison calendar. Over the years, she has seen the classes’ help many female inmates learn how to read and write.
In Sierra Leone, the mean number of years of schooling is just 2.88. Just 43% of adults are literate and only 9.5% of women aged 25+ have had any secondary education. All too often, the women we support in detention are illiterate and as a result, hugely vulnerable. By providing them with basic yet vital literacy and numeracy skills when in detention, we’re ensuring that they’re released as stronger women, better equipped to build a brighter future for themselves.
Here are what some of our graduating students have to say:
“As a child I was sent to primary school but never took it seriously and so dropped out at class 2. But today, I can count and spell my name. I can even write and when I’m released I can help my children with their homework” says Aminata, a Level 1 student serving a five year sentence in prison.
“Being illiterate is tantamount to blindness. You have eyes but cannot see and most certainly you cannot understand basic events around you. Thanks, to this class I can now see. Today, I can spell, count and even read. I am so grateful to AdvocAid” says Mariama, a Level 2 student serving a 7 year sentence.
“I went to school and stopped at JSS 3. Initially, I had negative perception of the class and thought I knew everything and so did not want to be a part of the class. Reluctantly, after several attempts at convincing me to enroll by the teacher I agreed to give it a chance. I soon learned that it was fun and it helped reduce my stress. I have learned a lot of things I did not know before. I would like to seize this opportunity to plead to AdvocAid and their partners to help provide more books and materials for us. We need a library as some of us are well educated and could read novels, text books and the likes” says Hannah, a Level 3 student serving a 15 year sentence.
Alongside the classes, we secured a small amount of funding from the British Council in Sierra Leone to paint educational murals on the walls at the Female Correctional Centre in Freetown. Some of the murals depict the phonetic sounds of the alphabet, whilst others outline the Bangkok rules on standards for treatment of female detainees, helping to ensure women know their rights.
If you’re able to, please consider continuing to support our literacy class project so that people like Aminata, Mariama and Hannah can continue to learn, despite being behind prison walls.
For more insight into the context of our work through pictures, please visit tombradley.wordpress.com/tag/advocaid/
You can also find out more about our work, and day-to-day operations via www.advocaidsl.com, www.facebook.com/AdvocAidSierraLeone and www.twitter.com/advocaid.
Once again, thank you from everyone at AdvocAid for your generosity. You really are helping to make women in Sierra Leone stronger.
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