By Victoria Lin | Development Intern
Post-prison reintegration poses a great challenge for many women in Sierra Leone. Many formerly incarcerated women are disowned by their communities and face stigma from their own families upon release. The reality that many liberated women return to is often poverty, no family support and children to look after.
We have been working with Marie* to ensure that she was equipped to transform her life after her release from detention. In early April, when she was three months pregnant, she was arrested for fraudulent conversion and obtaining goods by false pretenses. She owed $550. The initial arrest occurred at the height of uncertainty and tensions surrounding the COVID-19 crisis in Sierra Leone, when the government had first declared a national state of emergency. At this time, no cases were being taken at the magistrates courts so Marie’s case was unable to move further along. Marie spent three months at the police station in pre-trial detention.
No one in her family showed up to help. AdvocAid paralegals persevered with her case and, in late June, secured her release. Once she was released, she was provided essential psychosocial support by AdvocAid’s social worker. Because her husband had abandoned her and her children, she had very little support to pick her life back up. She had no accommodation and was staying with a police officer after her release. Marie* was provided with a small business start-up grant from AdvocAid which she uses to start a food business selling homemade cakes. This business is currently enabling her to support herself and her six children.
Marie is now living with her children and hoping for a brighter and better future. She stopped by the AdvocAid offices recently to show us the products that she was selling.
AdvocAid is continuing to monitor her case and provide support to her throughout her pregnancy. It is with your help that AdvocAid is able to continue this kind of post-prison support to recently released women and young girls in Sierra Leone. On behalf of the women and girls we work with, we thank you for your generous donations to AdvocAid.
From Monday September 14th - Friday September 18th, GlobalGiving will be launching the Little by Little Campaign, during which GlobalGiving will match donations up to $50 at 50% from a funding pot of $50,000 in matching funds. Fundraising opportunities like this are a unique chance for AdvocAid to access funds that can be used flexibly where they are the most needed.
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*Names have been changed to protect the individuals’ identities.
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