By Maeve O'Gorman | Development Intern
Unfortunately, in Sierra Leone, when women are released from prison they can be shunned from their community due to the stigma attached to being a prisoner in Sierra Leone. Abandoned with few belongings and no home to go to, ex-detainees can be pushed further into poverty, making it more likely that they will re-offend. For this reason, AdvocAid provides welfare packs for women when they are released, containing clothes, food, medicines and sanitary items, and can give small transport grants to allow women who have simply lost contact because of distance return home to their families. So far, we have raised enough to provide two welfare packs to ex-detainees, but more needs to be done!
We also support women’s efforts to learn new skills by providing them with small loans to purchase beads to make jewellery, bags and other accessories. These goods are sold outside the Correctional Centre, allowing the women to be future-focused, and prepare financially for life after release. The women who take part in this business are invited to join our Go-Bifo group (meaning Moving Forward in Krio). This group of women preparing for release and ex-detainees support each other in selling their items, and meet up regularly to discuss life after prison. The Go-Bifo women also provide AdvocAid with input in programmes we run that affect them, ensuring that our projects are focused on what our beneficiaries need. AdvocAid recently ran a Women’s Rights Film Night, where we sold some of the Go Bifo women’s produce. Everything was whipped up and sold in no time, a great boost to the women’s confidence in their work.
In 2016, we raised almost $25,000 through GlobalGiving. It is still vitally important that we keep this momentum from our 10th Anniversary year going, if we want to support more women and girls to stay out of prison once they are released. With funders allocating less money to Sierra Leone in these post-Ebola times, private donors are more important now than ever before! Please forward this report to your contacts and encourage them to donate to this, or one of our other GlobalGiving projects.
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