By Rebecca Wood | Executive Director
Many incarcerated women in Sierra Leone are shunned by their families and ostracised by their communities, due to the social stigma associated with detention, even for a short period. On release, women often don’t have enough money to travel to their home village or town, let alone support themselves. They have lost of all of their possessions and income, and are vulnerable to coming into conflict with the law again. Yet in Sierra Leone there are limited options for rehabilitation or post-prison support.
One way AdvocAid has supported current and formerly incarcerated women is through skills-training, including jewellery and handicraft making. In December, AdvocAid was able to provide additional materials, such as cloth, thread and beads, to women in correctional centres producing items such necklaces, earrings, beaded purses and beaded flip-flops. This will enable them to produce more items to sell and increase what they can earn.
AdvocAid further supports these women by selling these items on their behalf and returning the revenue to them. Items are sold from AdvocAid’s office and regularly bought by local supporters. In addition, this month AdvocAid was able to arrange a stall selling these jewellery and handicrafts at ‘Ma Dengn’, an annual festival celebrating Sierra Leonean culture. Through the stall, AdvocAid was able to sell over SLL 1,000,000 (about £100) worth of items made by current and formerly incarcerated women. In a country where the monthly minimum wage is SLL 500,000 (about £50), this is a fantastic sum to raise.
On behalf of the women and girls we work with, thank you for your generous donations to AdvocAid. For all new recurring donors signing up this December to support AdvocAid, Global Giving will provide match-funding from month four onwards. For example, if you sign up as a recurring donor during December to donate $10 a month, Global Giving will match this donation from April onwards and AdvocAid will receive $20 a month.
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