26 April 2016: AdvocAid is celebrating Sierra Leone’s 55th Independence Day with girls, women and staff in the country’s Correctional Centres and Remand Homes, highlighting the continued need since Independence to improve detention conditions for women and girls.
AdvocAid staff, alongside representatives from human rights organisations and government institutions, will be visiting Correctional Centres and Remand Homes in Freetown, Makeni, Kono, Kenema, Bo and Port Loko. AdvocAid provides legal aid, legal rights awareness and welfare support to women and girls in conflict with the law in all six towns.
The visits will involve the distribution of Ebola prevention materials, celebratory food and recreational games; additionally, at Bo Correctional Centre, AdvocAid will be supporting the rehabilitation of a water well, due to a critical lack of access to water. Although Sierra Leone received the all clear from Ebola on 17 March, there continue to be cases in neighbouring countries, and the Correctional Service must continue to safeguard its inmates and staff from an outbreak. The Ebola prevention materials have been generously funded by a grant from GlobalGiving.
As well as celebrating 55 years of independence, these events will commence AdvocAid’s 10 Year Anniversary celebrations. AdvocAid’s Executive Director, Simitie Lavaly, comments:
AdvocAid started working with women in prison 10 years ago, so we see today as a day for joint celebration in Sierra Leone – 55 years of Independence, and a decade of working with the Correctional Service to support women and girls in conflict with the law. We are delighted to be sharing this day with the women and girls that we support, as well as our colleagues across the Correctional Service. We hope that today will continue to raise awareness of women’s rights in prison, while ensuring they can join in the celebrations with the rest of the nation.
In the 10 years since AdvocAid was founded, they have provided 3,634 women and girls with legal advice, assistance and representation – one woman a day for a decade. Over a million more have been reached with their legal educational outreach work, including edutainment TV series Police Case.
Alongside hands on legal aid and legal education, AdvocAid have played a key role in highlighting the need for social and welfare services within Sierra Leone’s prisons. In the past two years, they have provided 1,322 welfare packages to female inmates and painted murals depicting the minimum standards for the treatment of female detainees onto the walls of the Freetown Correctional Centre.
Through the employment of a qualified social worker, they have provided inmates with counselling, family tracing and family reconciliation services. 203 women have graduated from their literacy and numeracy classes since January 2014. Such activities serve to strengthen the rehabilitation services provided to women behind bars, who often face a deep stigma upon release, that can result in being forced out of their communities.
AdvocAid’s co-founder and board member, Sabrina Mahtani, said:
While we have a lot to celebrate, we must also use this day as an opportunity to highlight the daily plight that women in Sierra Leone still face, 55 years since Independence. Too many of Sierra Leone’s laws are archaic and remain discriminatory against women, whilst the lack of accountability against Police Officers for their often gender-biased enforcement of the law, leads to too many women being detained unnecessarily, or remaining in pre-trial detention for months longer than they should. We have come a long way in the 10 years since our foundation, and I hope that the next 10 years will be even more fruitful in ensuring education, empowerment and access to justice for women and girls.
AdvocAid will hold a number of events throughout their tenth year, including the establishment of a legal aid fund, fundraising galas in both Freetown and London, the production of legal educational murals on the walls of five Correctional Centres and continued celebrations within Correctional Centres and Remand Homes.
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