Amina* is a 34 year old fish trader in Freetown. She buys fish in large quantities, dries them and then takes them to the provinces to sell on village market days.
To boost her fish business, in February 2020, she took a Le 1,500,000 loan (approx $140) with 5% interest from a money lender in her community. She agreed to pay back the loan within six months.
Unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic hit Sierra Leone soon after. Responding to the crisis, the Sierra Leone government declared a 12-month long state of emergency and introduced new measures including reducing the hours for market traders, lockdown periods, restrictions on travel between provinces, and a nationwide curfew.
Because of these new restrictions Amina could not travel to other provinces on market days, so she could not sell her fish. Her business collapsed and she could not pay back the loan as planned.
The money lender reported Amina to the police and she was arrested and detained for three days at the police station. During our regular police station monitoring, AdvocAid’s paralegal met Amina and advocated for her to be granted bail. To secure her release on bail, our social worker conducted family tracing and arranged for Amina’s father to stand as a surety for her.
AdvocAid worked with Amina to resolve the matter by developing a payment plan which was agreed upon by all the parties involved and the money lender dropped the charges. AdvocAid also supported her with a small grant to start up her business again.
By working to resolve minor disputes, such as disputes over small debts, away from the criminal justice system, AdvocAid’s paralegals are able to find swift resolution and justice. This eases the burden on the criminal justice system in Sierra Leone and means women and girls are not spending months in pre-trial detention while they wait for the case to be heard in court and possibly receiving further lengthy sentences if they are found guilty.
* name changed to protect her identity