Newsroom / Press
If you’d like to feature AdvocAid in an upcoming news feature, are keen to run a story on our work, or would like to interview a member of our staff, please get in touch using our contact form, and select ‘News/Media‘ from the drop down options. We’ll be in touch as soon as we can.
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You can find all of our Press Releases and Announcements on the AdvocAid Blog, and follow the links below to read features and articles about AdvocAid’s work in the press.
Title: Focus on Africa
Publication: BBC World Service – BBC Sounds
Date: 27 August 2020
Interview with AdvocAid’s Programme Manager, Jalahan Amara Jakema, on the causes of women’s incarceration in Sierra Leone.
Title: Inside Sierra Leone’s maximum security prison for women
Publication: Aljazeera
A photo story showing AdvocAid’s work and providing insight into life in the Freetown Female Correctional Centre.
Title: Sex Workers in Sierra Leone
Publication: BBC World Service
The BBC World Service’s story on Sierra Leonean sex workers, featuring our Programme Manager, Julie Sesay
Title: Tipping the Scales for Women in Justice
Publication: UK Government Legal Department
Volunteering for AdvocAid, a charity providing legal aid for women in prison in Sierra Leone, in 2012 was a fascinating lesson in the strengths and weaknesses of human nature and the justice system in desperate circumstances. Sadly, in a poor country with a corrupt justice system – where the police were living off the money made from unlawfully charging for bail – my experience was that the vast majority were not behind bars because they had committed a crime, but because of poverty and a lack of understanding of their legal rights.
Publication: Awoko
Justice Nicholas Browne-Marke has said that women are not offenders of crime compared to their male counterparts who are found in conflict with most serious crimes. He noted that women are at times trapped in the law due to their vulnerability and low self-esteem caused by lack of education, among others. Justice Browne-Marke made this statement at AdvocAid Sierra Leone’s one day Duty Counsel Legal Aid workshop at the British Council Seminar Room, Tower Hill.
Publication: Awoko Newspaper
As their mandate is to strengthen access to justice for women and Girl-Child in Sierra Leone, AdvocAid yesterday (26th October 2015) launched a Television Drama Series titled “Police Case 2” to raise more awareness on civil right activities in the country. Police Case Season 2 mainly focuses on bringing out issues related to violation of peoples’ rights and justice…
Publication: All Africa
Head of the Sierra Leone Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has told a galaxy of policy makers in the justice sector that the issue of bribery still remains a major concern in the fight against corruption. Commissioner Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara was speaking last Friday (23 October) at the formal launch of the ‘Pay No Bribe for Bail’ campaign initiated by AdvocAid Sierra Leone to seek justice for women and children in conflict with the law…
Publication: Namati Justice Prize
The Namati staff who evaluated the entrants were enormously impressed with the high impact of this program working with women in prisons in Sierra Leone. AdvocAid’s work is highly scaleable, realistic, and delivers results. It employs a dynamic range of tools, including legal aid, legal education and a holistic approach to the needs of women in prison in a low-income setting like Sierra Leone…
Publication: Penal Reform International Blog
Women have a number of difficulties when they come to face to face with the legal system in Sierra Leone. To try to tackle some of these issues, the Sierra Leonean organisation − AdvocAid − is using popular media, from police dramas to music, to educate women about their legal rights if arrested or detained and improve their chances of a fair hearing. Here, Simitie Lavaly, AdvocAid’s Executive Director, introduces some of their recent initiatives…
Publication: The Guardian
On Monday, AdvocAid, an NGO that works with women and children in detention in Sierra Leone, was called on to help a woman threatened with prison for her behaviour outside a Freetown hospital. The woman, angry at being told to wash her hands for the 11th time that day, had refused to use one of the ubiquitous buckets of chlorinated water before entering the building…
Publication: Voice of America
As Ebola cases have decreased in Sierra Leone, there is concern about how the crisis has affected the justice system. Longer jail times and what some say are unfair arrests have occurred.A state of emergency, which includes certain restrictions of movement, has been in place in Sierra Leone for almost a year. But because Ebola cases have decreased, some restrictions have recently been lifted.
Publication: BBC Outlook (audio)
Title: Law in a time of Ebola
Publication: New Internationalist
When the Ebola epidemic escalated in Sierra Leone around June 2014 we wondered if we should close down our legal aid organization, AdvocAid. Many international NGOs were evacuating their international staff and many local NGOs started to restrict their activities. We decided to continue to operate and to see how, as lawyers and paralegals, we could best respond to this national emergency.
Publication: IRIN
Many Sierra Leonean women who are unable to repay small debts end up in prison for want of decent legal representation after their creditors report them to the police, meaning that civil disputes turn into criminal cases.In 2006 when AdvocAid began offering help to women imprisoned for debt defaulting and other offences…
Publication: BBC World Service (audio)
‘MK’ had spent six years on death row in Sierra Leone and resigned herself to a life behind bars.
Publication: Awoko Newspaper
The Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone yesterday started a two- day National Conference on the theme: Advancing Legal Aid for Women’s Rights in Commemoration of International Human Rights Day on December 10.
Publication: Standard Times
On 29 September 2010, after four years on remand, FK, a female prisoner at Pademba Road Prion in Sierra Leone was dramatically sentenced and released from prison all in one day. FK’s tragic story started in August 2006 when she was arrested for murder after her partner of many years died in unfortunate circumstances
Publication: Tom Bradley Blog
I visited an art exhibition here in Freetown in mid-March that was put on by AdvocAid, a charity that helps to support female prisoners in Sierra Leone. The artwork was produced through a series of workshops by the prisoners themselves….
Publication: Pademba Library Blog
A blog written by Stevie Russell, a librarian from University College London assisting AdvocAid on a pro bono basis with this exciting project.
Publication: Awareness Times
As part of activities ahead of the World Sight Day and World White Cane Day on the 14th October, 2010, inmates with eye problems were given free examination and treatment by a group of health care providers. Leading the campaign at the prisons was AdvocAid…
