Increasing Girls Participation against FGM: Commit & Act Foundation-SL kick-off First Girl Conference

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson 

On Thursday, 21st April, 2022 the first ever Girls Conference begins at the Magburaka Boys School hall, in Tonkolili District, Northern Sierra Leone.

 

The two days long (21st-22nd April, 2022) maiden Girls Conference is organized by Commit and Act Foundation-(CAF), a non-government organization championing campaigns against Female Genital Mutilation for the protection of girls in the Bo, Bombali and Tonkolili District with funds from German Doctors.

 

In a powerpoint presentation delivered at the conference by Hannah Bockarie the founder and Country Director of Commit and Act Sierra Leone, she briefly reminisced on her journey with the foundation which she disclosed she has single handedly started in Bo in 2013 with the desire to proving assorted assistance to women and girls in Sierra Leone which she says she is very happy about now counting on the progress and lives its has impacted positively.

 

“Today we've  gathered to dialogue together with our girls from different towns and villages in Bo, Bombali and Tonkolili districts by extension from their parents and guardians who are all beneficiaries of our ongoing project named “My Body, My Rights” which is being supported by German Doctors.

 

“Among other invites present here are Sowies who had enjoined our campaigned against FGM for teenage girls since last February when they momentously signed a joint communiqué with us. Other key partners and line ministers we've been  collaborating with on our work are also here. 

“Many thanks to German Doctors and all other donors for trusting and  helping us to reach this far, we’re not stopping our work soon,” she assured.

 

She referred the purpose of the historic girls conference to the meaning of the conference’s theme: “Increasing Girls Participation in Addressing FGM” noting that "part of its objective is to also help the girls know their rights as well as allow them to contributes in the two days dialogue about their rights and bodies.”

 

On behalf of the girls that attended the conference, Nyahamia Luseni a SSS-II pupil attending ICOM Secondary School in Makeni and Susie Hannah Bangura a SSS-I Arts pupil from the Saint Joseph Secondary School for Girls in Makeni both expressed great delights for taking part in the first ever girls conference, presented a position paper in which they highlighted a number of positive changes ongoing in their lives as school going girls, thanking Commit and Act Foundation and partners for giving them the confidence to speak up and standing up against FGM,  bully, rape and other related Gender based violence in their communities.

Conclusively, the girls’ position paper calls for “additional support, enactment of bylaws at local levels to further protect girls which they say will help make their future as girls brighter.”

 

Fanta Daboh is the Country Representative of German Doctors in Sierra Leone, she commended the girls, their parents for letting them be impacted positively through the “My Body, My Right Project” for which she commended Commit and Act Foundation for a marvelous implementation, assured of German Doctors unending support and urged for both parents and other community stakeholders to enjoin them in the quests to making the future of girls in Sierra Leone brilliant.

 

Several stakeholders including local and traditional leaders, beneficiaries of the “My Body, My Rights Project”, the deputy Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary School, the Chief Dnoirector at the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs, the Family Support Unit Northern Region Coordinator among others graced day one of the historic Girls Conference that brought together a total of six hundred school going girls from Commits and Acts three operational districts in the South and Northern region of the country.

 

The various stakeholders in their respective statements at the conference commended Commit and Act Foundation Sierra Leone for “their outstanding and relentless efforts in combating the rampant practices FGM in the Bo, Bombali and Tonkolili Districts especially against teenage girls.

Also extols the foundation for “the continued financial aid they’re offering to parents and girls from vulnerable families, assured their continued partnership and support to the foundation’s work and called on government and partners to switch their interests to supporting Commit and Act Foundation to let them broaden their advocacy, educational and livelihood supports to other parts in the country.”