BigThink

Posted by Saul Garlick, Executive Director

Over the years, students in developing countries have found SMRC on the web and opted to establish chapters on college campuses in their home country. This happened in Sierra Leone and below you can read the inspiring and moving story of why SMRC-SL came to be, and what it has achieved.

By Moses Beamie Seiwoh, SMRC-SL Leader

SMRC-SL was started and inspired by acclaimed youth activists, survivors of the Sierra Leone Civil War. At age nine, after nearly being buried alive as a result of disease, hunger and suffering, I pledged to spend mine life helping children. At ages 16, we successfully lobbied in the Sierra Leone’s Children’s Disarmament Campaign, an effort in the disarmament of approximately 20,000 Sierra Leonean child soldiers.

While at university I continued my vision and invited other youths to partner in the mission. SMRC-SL focuses on Sierra Leone that has faced the worst situations of all – they are beyond the need of international emergency services, but not yet advanced enough to have a self-sustaining commercial economy. Our country faces the daily realities of hunger, and a lack of basic needs such as clean water, safe schools, parks and medical care. 

We inform young people in industrialized countries about the plight of the world’s poorest children and channel their desire to create positive social change. We create tangible opportunities for young people to take action.

Sierra Leone is emerging out of over a decade of civil war.  The conflict, which lasted for over a decade, developed into one of the most gruesome civil wars seen in the sub-region. Young women and children were the most vulnerable victims. They were routinely raped, maimed, and drugged by warlords. Commanders used some as sex slaves, while others were sent into dangerous battles as combatants.   Across the country, basic infrastructure was destroyed and foreign investments ceased to exist causing thousands of jobs to be lost.

The war ended in 2002 with the support of the international community. The governments since then are struggling to tackle widespread unemployment and poverty.  According to the World Bank (WB) and the Human Poverty Index (HPI), Sierra Leone is the lowest ranked country on the Human Development Index (HDI) and the seventh poorest country on the Human Poverty Index (HPI).     Women are by impacted significantly by these numbers. The World Bank notes that less than 37% of Sierra Leonean women are educated and a vast majority is unemployed. 

With no education and very little other opportunities, women are forced to turn to prostitution for survival. Many of the women take their children with them and force children as young as eight to become prostitutes.[1]  These conditions have led to an alarming increase in teenage pregnancy, abuse, HIV/AIDS, and other STDs.

The Student movement for Real Change-Sierra Leone interviewed close to 100 women living in these areas. The conditions of the women were the worse we had seen on our multi-country assessment in Africa. Of those interviewed, 98% of them were unemployed and or illiterate, 80% of their kids were out of school because of lack of resources, 70% had engaged in some form of prostitution, 60% had been physically abused within a year of speaking with us. They had access to no government services, or opportunities to help them break out of poverty. In conclusion, the conditions of these women were beyond dire.

Upon completion of the survey, it was clear to us that our goal for Sierra Leone would be to create a special center to provide rehabilitation, basic education, vocational training, and for women. The ultimate goal of the proposed project would be to empower at least 100 women every year to break out of the cycles of poverty they face.

The empowerment of women is not a new mission, but it is one that has not been fully pursued. In 2000, 191 United Nations member states wrote and pledged to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The drive to end illiteracy and reduce the gap in gender disparity was a part of this commitment. Member states recognized the critical role of universal education in building a blueprint of a better world. World leaders cited the elimination of gender disparity in primary and secondary education as the first step toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Through the “25 by 2005” campaign, the global community committed to intensify efforts in 25 countries to maximize the number of girls in school by 2005. The “25 by 2005” goal is the first test of the world’s commitment to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Unfortunately, many countries are falling short of the 2005 target for gender parity in education.

SMRC-SL shares the belief that education plays an essential role in socio-economic development and democratic governance. Education is a vital catalyst in ending the cycle of poverty and violence; in ensures that everyone can contribute to their communities socially, politically, and economically. We also believe strongly that poverty in Sierra Leone can be crushed if opportunities are provided for the poorest people to gain access to resources and training to become economically self sustainable.
Student Movement For Real Change-Sierra Leone (SMRC-SL) is a nonprofit working to rebuild war-torn communities. The organization establishes safe and healthy environments for women and their children by providing for their core needs and developing new community infrastructure. SMRC-SL is run by a network of young leaders who are defining a new approach to delivering. humanitarian aid. By leveraging the use of local materials and employing local people, YEI-SL maximizes the economic and social impact of programs which include building schools and playgrounds.

Kroo Bay, one of the poorest areas in the centre of Sierra Leone’s beachfront capital Freetown, is a squalid slum so littered with rubbish that the paths are made of compressed plastic, cans and toothpaste tubes, and patches of bare orange earth are a rare sight.

Swarms of mosquitoes breed in pools of slimy green water, pigs and children play together in mounds of refuse. In one of the two rivers that flows past the densely packed tin and wood shelters, a bloated dead dog bobs on the surface just upstream of where people wash their clothes.

Kroo Bay’s shockingly low life expectancy is even lower than Sierra Leone national average of 45 – a major factor contributing to the country ranking last in the UN.

It rains six months of the year in Freetown and the city is one of the wettest places in the world. Kroo Bay lies at the bottom of the steep hill on which the city was built.

People living in Kroo Bay have learned to adapt to the constant invasion of water, for example by building their beds on stilts practice which means they sleep above the putrid water, causing respiratory infections.

There is no point just addressing the symptoms of the problem. Last year, The Student Movement for Real Change –Sierra Leone was able to raise $ 300 to Send four underprivileged

Kids in Kroo Bay community in Freetown-Sierra Leone, I just come got an e mail from one of my friends I met in Boulder, Colorado last summer, say he will pay to send three kids to primary school in Kroo Bay community in Freetown-Sierra Leone next academic year.