Self-Sufficiency for Young Women in Sierra Leone

Thursday, March 29, A.D. 2007

Church World Service (CWS) is one of Week of Compassion’s primary implementing partner organizations. We work very closely with our Church World Service offices all around the world, and last year funded a project in the West African country of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is a country struggling in the aftermath of a brutal war. As the society slowly heals, one of the ways CWS proposed to be a part of that process was to help young Sierra Leonean women between the ages of 16-30 become more self-sufficient. Young women who had been previously unemployed were offered an opportunity to invest 20 hours per week to learn basic tailoring and other vocational skills. Each student was charged a very small registration fee to help cover project costs and to increase their commitment to, their sense of investment in, and their ownership of their vocational education.

Thus, along with CWS and the local YWCA in Freetown, Sierra Leone, we helped to enable 22 single women, young girls and/or single mothers to more successfully meet their own basic needs and the needs of their dependants, improve their quality of life, and enable them to more fully participate in society. We set up a sewing program managed by the YWCA. The Contract Sewing Program calls for the YWCA to contract with other organizations and groups for sewing services and products such as uniforms, aprons, and children’s clothing. While in the YWCA Contract Sewing Program, each young woman is paid on a “piece rate” basis, dependent on their production.

Participants are being taught basic tailoring skills and other vocational skills that will enable them to earn a minimum of 100,000 Leones per month (US$38.00) after one year of training. Trainings are facilitated in a clean work environment at the YWCA. The young women are given their own sewing machines during the training period and are expected to work 20 hours per week, with mentoring and close supervision to ensure quality production.

The Center was officially opened on September 16, 2006. The actual vocational training was preceded by teaching English and mathematics. Students who have math skills can better compute measurements needed for both sewing and weaving as well as handle their finances when they establish their own businesses. English skills will hopefully give them access to a wider market for their business. During the month of November an awareness-raising workshop on HIV/AIDS was also conducted to enable students to learn about the devastating impact of the disease, how it is transmitted, and its prevention.

The original program design specified that tailoring should be the main activity. However, in order to meet the demands of the current market, activities such as weaving (there is a demand for woven products), arts and crafts, tie dying, and bead and crochet work were added to the curriculum. The students were quick to learn the skills of crocheting, arts and crafts, and especially weaving. As a result, many of the students are currently earning an income from the sales of their work.

It is incredibly exciting to receive reports such as this one from CWS and the Freetown YWCA and to see how our gifts to Week of Compassion truly do make a difference. I can’t think of greater gifts than self-sufficiency and a restored sense of self and dignity. The lives of some young women in post-war Sierra Leone will never again be the same.

Thank you!

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