Aminata Panny Turay
Save the Children Sierra Leone and partners have inaugurated the Foundation Project Steering Committee. The Foundation project will contribute to the exercise and reproductive health and rights faced by marginalized women and girls in society.
The project according to the Programme Director at Save the Children; Dr. Modupeh Tiawo is to be implemented in 40 communities in 15 chiefdoms in Kailahun; noting that adolescent pregnancy, child marriage and SGBV are very important issues in Kailahun District and Sierra Leone. She furthered that they aim to work with adolescents, adults, religious leaders, traditional leaders and government particularly Health, Gender and Children’s Affairs, Basic and Senior Secondary Education and Social Welfare Ministries in the district. She added that it will bring together a multi-stakeholder platform to from the different sector to address and strengthen the sexual and reproductive services of adolescents.
Dr. Modupeh Tiawo also said they will be supporting the health facilities in all of these communities to renovate health facilities with structural defects. She also said that they will be supporting the provision of quality sexual reproductive health training, review of natural policies to ensure that the policies are actually meeting the needs of adolescents in the country.
One of the Committee Representatives, Fatmata Davies said that their role in the implementation of the project is to go back to the communities by engaging adolescents not only on awareness raising but also to understand how to access health facilities
The project will be delivered through a consortium implementation team including Save the Children, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Plan Parenthood of Sierra Leone and other partners to promote local ownership and sustainable outcome.
According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey of 2017, many adolescent girls in Sierra Leone face risks and vulnerabilities which often result in early marriage, childbearing, sexual and gender-based violence, unintended pregnancy, and HIV.
The committee members will contribute to the implementation of the project. The strengthening adolescent’s girl’s sexual and reproductive health project is a 6 -year project running from the 27th July 2021 to the 30th June 2027. The objective of the project is to ultimately increase decision- making by in – school and out – school adolescents girls on their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and rights and the use of SRH services.
