Legal Aid & Support for 450 Women in Sierra Leone

Finding sureties, or finding people to be responsible for someone being released from correctional custody while they await trial, is an important aspect of AdvocAid’s work. During our work in 2020 we found that a number of women, like Mariatu*, struggled to meet the bail conditions required for their release, often due to the lack of family able or willing to stand as surety.

While she was heavily pregnant, Mariatu’s husband abandoned her and their three children to live with his new girlfriend. Struggling to feed herself and her children, Mariatu went to beg her husband to help care for his family. Her husband refused to return home or provide for his family. Distraught and jealous, Mariatua stabbed the girlfriend on her side during an argument.

Nine months pregnant with twins, Mariatu was arrested for wounding with intent and detained in a police station for 14 days. She was later transferred to the Kabala correctional center where she gave birth to a boy and girl. Unfortunately, she remained detained with her twins throughout the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sierra Leone. In October 2020, AdvocAid was able to convince the magistrate to reduce her bail conditions. Her bail conditions required a single family member to stand as surety while she awaits trial. In part because of the stigma, no one, including her husband, is willing to do so.

Mariatu is still at the Kabala Correctional center with her twins. AdvocAid continues to provide welfare support and we continue to work to secure the release of Mariatu and her twins. With your support AdvocAid will continue to hold more legal education sessions this new year to increase communities’ knowledge on legal rights processes including the importance of standing as surety for women like Mariatu. 

*name changed to protect her anonymity

This will be the final report for our longest running project on GlobalGiving. We have nearly reached our funding target (thanks to all of our wonderful donors!), and as we have launched our 10 Year Anniversary Appeal, we have closed down this project. Instead, we hope that our followers and recurring donors would consider supporting our anniversary project ‘Celebrating 10 Years of Justice for Women’.

In the three years, this project has been running, AdvocAid has increased its outreach significantly. In 2013-15, we provided free legal aid for 2,741 women and girls in conflict with the law – that is nearly three cases every day!

With the help of people like you, we continue to deliver vital legal representation, education and rehabilitation services to vulnerable women, girls and children caught up in Sierra Leone’s often unjust legal system. In the last three months alone, we provided 271 women with legal assistance, gave welfare packs to 36 women and taught 96 women in our literacy and numeracy classes.

One of our most recent clients was 20-year old Mariama, whose case ended in an unexpectedly positive way.

Imprisoned over a wedding dress - Mariama is five months pregnant and already a mother of one. She was hoping that her boyfriend would propose to her, so she took her sister-in-law's wedding gown without permission - hoping that she could convince him to marry her. In the meantime, she left the dress with a friend for safekeeping.

Mariama's boyfriend did not agree, however, so she decided to return the dress. But when she went back to her friend's place to pick it up, both friend and dress had disappeared.

Mariama's sister-in-law found out and reported her to the police. Unable to pay for the missing wedding gown, Mariama was sentenced to 18 months in prison or to pay a fine of Le 400,000 ($67) and compensation of Le 3 million ($500). Our paralegal tried to find someone in Mariama’s family who could urgently pay the fine, but as he was unsuccessful, Mariama could not meet the bail requirements. Despite AdvocAid’s plea for alternative sentencing, she was imprisoned without consideration of her pregnancy.

Under normal circumstances, this could have been the end of that story. However, the Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs heard of the issue, and he made sure her fine was paid. After four weeks in detention, Mariama was released, and she now has time to find a way to pay the compensation.

Let’s ensure another 10 years of justice - We applaud the Minister for making the right decision in a case that was beyond tragic. Sadly, most imprisoned women are not as lucky as Mariama, and it is not uncommon for young mothers to have their children placed in foster care or even being incarcerated with children below the age of two.

We work to ensure that the legal system is prepared to accommodate the specific needs of female inmates and we see this as crucial in ensuring access to justice for women and girls. Yet after the Ebola outbreak, funding for legal aid has become increasingly difficult to come by, as most of it goes to the health and education sectors. This leaves women and girls in the criminal justice system even more vulnerable.

For ten years, private donations from people like you has enabled AdvocAid to provide holistic legal aid services to women and girls like Mariama – as the only organisation in Sierra Leone! Please help us continue our work for another decade by making your next donation to our anniversary project.

*The name of our client has been changed to protect her identity.

Links:

• Read more about AdvocAid's work
• Donate to our Anniversary Appeal