RESPECT International Blog

by Linda Caie

“At first I thought it was an animal – a beaten dog maybe. A strangulated wailing sound that filled the hotel lobby. A sound you could not escape, a sound full of bad news. I walked outside, following the direction of the wailing. There in the hotel garden, near the glittering blue pool and the flame trees a man in a red T-shirt was begging for his life. He was surrounded by soldiers – three of them I counted – crowding in around him, pushing and then punching and kicking. A dark trickle of blood flowed from a wound in his neck.”

This passage was taken from Rage and Brutality in Freetown written by Fergal Keane on life in the Sierra Leone capital under rebel attack in 1999.

During Sierra Leone’s civil war from 1991 to 2002, tens of thousands Sierra Leoneans died and more than two million were displaced, states the CIA – World Factbook. Now home to more than 27,000 refugees fleeing warring neighbouring countries, and with Sierra Leonean refugees starting to return home, Sierra Leone is working to rebuild itself and the shattered lives of its people.

However, this is no easy task. As John Miana Jnr, Executive Director of Aid Train Sierra Leone, explains: “[The] Government’s efforts towards the sustenance of peace and democracy is frustrated by the daytime attacks along streets/highways; the midnight knocks at sleeping doors, arson, rape, murder, political violence and other dangerous crimes at places of public entertainment including bars and restaurants. In all scenarios, young people conspicuously remain the perpetrators.

“In Sierra Leone today, the problem of young people’s development remains largely unaddressed and the problem can be squarely and undeniably ascribed to the un-sustainability of livelihood amidst conflict…In the case of the literate class, there are many young people graduating today from high schools, colleges and universities storming corridors of government offices and NGOs in quest for job opportunities, and for which they are given little or no consideration, despite their having academic qualifications.

“Some are unfortunately dropped at the height of interviews for deficiency of knowledge in certain domains such as computer (skills), project management, etc…furthermore, the situation becomes compounded with the problem of youth-dropouts in conflict situations or those that do not acquire any non-formal education, and roam the streets unemployed, not engaged in any professional trade either. This is in the case of the illiterate class.”

Aid Train Sierra Leone is a not-for-profit NGO that hopes to both get youths off the street and to develop their personal skills and capabilities through:

* conducting workshops, seminars, symposia and other socio-educational activities/programmes for youth;
* coordinating with government and local/international training institutions and agencies to advocate for internal and external training opportunities for youth; and
* coordinating and organizing socio-cultural and other activities including drama, sports, agriculture, arts & craft that can positively develop the minds of youths

Even in the midst of the civil war, the potential of Sierra Leone was recognized, as journalist Keane attributes to a man named “Fred”: “What a country this could be…With all its diamonds and fishing and these lovely people. It could be such a country.”

As a new organization, Aid Train Sierra Leone is seeking partners interested in helping the organization achieve its goals and give young Sierra Leoneans the opportunity to create the country it could be.