A window of hope

1 August 2008

Kroo Bay is a slum community situated on the coastline in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. For a visitor, it’s like the end of the world; it is at the receiving end of huge tons of garbage from the business and residential areas of the city.

Kroo Bay has a young population of approximately 5,500. A major street traverses the community, linking the central business district and the west end, where the city’s classic car owners drive daily with no acknowledgement of the appalling conditions of the community.

Even at a quick glance the community is obviously facing serious environmental and sanitation challenges that pose high health risks to its people, especially children. There are very little or no sanitary facilities, and just four major water points serve Kroo Bay’s inhabitants. The only health centre is in desperate need of rehabilitation. In the rainy season, residents experience sleepless nights to fight a menacing flooding situation. The situation seems to be worsening year in year out, to such an extent that only a single rainfall can cause displacement of inhabitants.

The houses are closely knitted together, precluding children from having space to play. Humans and pigs (which are reared free range), compete for limited space and resources. Taking a walk around the community, one has to be careful to avoid stepping on human faeces.

There is a high level of prostitution among young women and speculations of promiscuity among many young people, which is evident in the health centre records showing the number of cases of STIs. One young woman, Aminata, tells me that she was engaged in prostitution, it was the only way she knew how to survive. But now she’s taking part in our vocational training and she hopes things will change.

I’ve also noticed from my regular visits to the health centre that there’s a high rate of teenage mothers. Becoming a mother at a young age brings an end to young girls’ schooling.

Most residents are unskilled, leaving them with limited job opportunities, such as shop boys and load carriers. Many children and young people end up working as petty traders. Some have to pay for their own schooling as their parents have little or no financial resources.

The YMCA of Sierra Leone is implementing a 4-year project ‘Transforming Young People’s Lives’. The project will involve the erection of a community centre, providing vocational training opportunities, building capacities of young people to take the lead in the development of their community and support slum upgrading activities. At the moment, construction work is in progress with the participation of the community. Potential young trainees are also being registered for vocational training courses. In addition, community members have mobilised themselves into savings groups under the umbrella organisation ‘Slum Dwellers International’ (SDI) which has a membership of twenty-five countries in Africa, Europe, and Asia. SDI supports savings and loan scheme groups in different parts of the world for people living in urban slums.

The YMCA project has signalled a new sense of hope in the community. The community centre will transform the social landscape, by creating opportunities to organise social functions and creating links with the outside world through the internet. More young men and women will gain new skills that will make them more marketable and enable them to support themselves and their families.

Kroo Bay is well known in Freetown. Many people believe that the easiest solution to the Kroo Bay situation is to evict and relocate the residents. However, the answer lies with the inhabitants who, from my interaction with them, claim that they have sentimental attachment to this locality. This means that the community has taken on a complex, yet unique character of its own, which the residents are proud of. Any attempt to evict the inhabitants will face stiff resistance. It’s a well known saying in Kroo Bay that ‘rice cooked in Kroo Bay can only be eaten with sauce prepared in Kroo Bay’. That is to say, only those who live in Kroo Bay know how to tackle the challenges of the community. The people of Kroo Bay - especially children - could be described as the unluckiest in the world, but with the intervention from non- governmental organisations, such as the YMCA, there is a window of hope.

By Gibril Turay, Community Development Worker, YMCA Sierra Leone.