Supporting people living in Sierra Leone's slums

11 March 2012

In 2002, Sierra Leone emerged from a decade of civil war that devastated infrastructure and displaced the population. There are increasing numbers of young people living in overcrowded slums with limited access to education or vocational training. This, coupled with high unemployment, has lead to severe poverty and social exclusion.

This project, which began in 2007, targets vulnerable young people in two of the most deprived slums of the capital Freetown (Kroo Bay and Dwarzack). These include female headed households, those with a large number of dependents, ex-offenders, former child soldiers, young people with disabilities and school drop outs.

How we are helping
This project aims to transform the lives of disadvantaged young people and their communities by providing them with appropriate training in vocational skills, post-training support and educational and recreational activities.

You can see pictures of how we are helping here:

The project also addresses the broader needs and rights of people living in urban slums through community-based activities led by young people. Youth advocates are being trained in topics such as health and hygiene, HIV/AIDS prevention, human rights and peace building and are able to take these skills back to their communities to help in the planning and implementation of activities to address these issues.

With support from Y Care International, the YMCA is also helping local people undertake small slum upgrading projects, such as constructing latrine blocks and installing water pumps, to help improve the overall quality of life for people in the two communities.

What we’ve achieved so far:

• 800 young people have learnt a vocational skill or trade that will help them earn a sustainable livelihood – over a quarter of these are young women who have never been to school. An additional 800 young people will be trained over the next two years
• For the first time ever, both communities now have a permanent community centre which is acting as a hub for community mobilisation activities
• The establishment of savings groups, which both increase people’s ability to plan for the future thereby helping them gain greater economic freedom and serve as a way of mobilising the community, has been very successful with 873 members to date
• 147 young people are benefiting from literacy and numeracy classes, an activity planned to continue through to 2011
• Relationships have been established with Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and People’s Dialogue in Ghana, both organisations with extensive experience in this field. This has improved access to additional resources and expertise.