Popular Sierra Leone female activist and APC opposition party stalwart, Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden has told Jamaica that her countrymen and her Nation were now “World Leaders” in combating Sexual & Gender Based Violence (SGBV) for which she gave a huge amount of credit to the “vociferous advocacy” of the Sierra Leone First Lady, H.E. Dr. Fatima Jabbe Maada Bio.
Madam Blyden, a former Sierra Leone Minister for Social Welfare, Gender & Children’s Affairs, was speaking at the oldest University for Descendants of Black Slaves in Jamaica, the Mico University as part of a 3-part special Talk Series organised by the Marcus Garvey founded UNIA-ACL.
Dr. Blyden, whose event at Mico University, was broadcast LIVE with tremendous local media attention for it, spoke extensively on the need for Black Jamaicans, as former indigenes of Africa, to look back to Africa as the motherland and be prepared to go and help build Africa.
Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden spoke of the policy by Sierra Leone to grant instant citizenship to descendants of slaves whose DNA or other evidence can show, they originated from geographical parts of Sierra Leone.
During the exciting Questions and Answers session, many enquiries were made about Life in Sierra Leone. One such enquiry was from a female academic leader who said she was very much interested in relocating to Sierra Leone but wanted to know about threats of Sexual and Gender Based Violence against women.
It was in response to the question that Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden OOR eulogized her compatriots, especially the First Lady, as being World Leaders in combating SGBV. Blyden spoke of the HANDS OFF OUR GIRLS campaign, the Special Model Courts for Sexual Offences and the reduction in Impunity for SGBV Crimes.
Dr. Blyden also spoke of the Leadership Role of Sierra Leone at the United Nations that led the UN to last year declare November 18 to henceforth be a United Nations World Day for the Prevention of and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Violence. She cited of how the Sierra Leone First Lady had led the advocacy on that right on to the floor of the UN General Assembly.
