RESPECT is growing everyday, everywhere!
PPEN Sierra Leone Programs
Education
The education sector was one of the worst hit during the decade-long civil conflict. Hundreds of educational facilities were destroyed, implying many children were deprived of their right to education. With the advent of peace, the need to rejuvenate the educational sector becomes eminent.
PPEN-SL embarked in rejuvenating the education sector in 2 of the worst hit districts, Moyamba District in the Southern Sierra Leone and the Western Rural Districts of Sierra Leone. The following strategies were used.
PPEN-SL has established study groups, debate and quiz competition in schools in the two districts of operation with funds from Plan Sierra Leone.
Respect Sierra Leone and Respect International, PPEN-SL has established pen-pal exchange clubs in several schools in its districts of operation.
Human Rights
In a country emerging from a decade of brutal war, human right violations could be eminent as a legacy of the war. PPEN-SL has been engaged in identifying the root causes of and providing solutions to child right abuse. In 2004 PPEN-SL in collaboration with Plan Sierra Leone, Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs conducted a 2-week training workshop on human right promotion involving 30 community representatives. Sexual abuse, child exploitation and domestic violence were the issues specifically looked at. The community representatives (including school teachers, religious leaders, traditional rulers) were trained so that they can pass on what they have learnt to their respective communities.
In order to ensure that communities abide by human right principles, PPEN-SL organizes a massive sensitization campaign through dance drama. This initiative has proved appropriate in ensuring that human right issues are communicated to individuals. PPEN-SL animators have been assisting in identifying human right violations in target communities and suggesting appropriate measures to be taken to address such issues. PPEN-SL is also facilitating the formation of pressure groups in communities to ensure that all human rights are observed according to the human right convention.
With the awareness imparted in PPEN-SL's communities of operation, human right violations have been drastically reduced.
Peace Building
With the end of the war in 2002, many IDPs began to resettle. For many war-affected Sierra Leoneans, the end of the war does not herald total peace since the aspect of peace lies in the minds of people. Many people have lost loved ones and their property to the war and are traumatized. To consolidate the hard-earned peace in the country, there is the need to effect strategies that would heal the trauma in people. Against this background, PPEN-SL formulated and put into practice certain strategies to address the trauma of the war in people.
Games and sport
In the fostering of Peace in Sierra Leone, games and sport is playing a commendable role. Through this initiative, PPEN-SL has been able to bring people together thereby fostering unity.
With funding from Right to Play International, PPEN-SL has been able to promote football in its operational communities in Eastern Sierra Leone. With the help of the community support, PPEN-SL has constructed football fields, supplied footballs and other recreational materials and conducted under-17 football matches between communities. However, in as much as PPEN-SL is trying to promote peace through games and sports, it is inadvertently developing sporting skills of many persons and also increasing awareness for the need of sports in many communities.
Dance drama
With this initiative, PPEN-SL has been able to foster the hard-earned peace. With support from Respect International, this organization has established dance drama clubs in its communities of operation in eastern Sierra Leone. The essence for the formation of these clubs is to sensitize and educate people of the need to respect each other as a way to consolidate the peace. With the help of the community, PPEN-SL has succeeded in staging many plays on peace and reconciliation, child abuse, human right issues and HIV/AIDS.
Agriculture
As Sierra Leone is tending towards food security, the need to promote the capacity of farming communities to embark on agriculture has been part of the agenda of the national government and humanitarian agencies operating in the country. Upon his election to power in 2003, the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, in his i naugural speech, spelt it out clearly that by the year 2007, no Sierra Leonean should go to bed hungry. Against this background, humanitarian agencies together with the Ministry of Agriculture have been working round the clock to ensure food security.
In a bid to foster sustainable development in this period of transition as the country moves away from emergency to development, PPEN-SL is embarking on supplying seed rice to farm families in Moyamba District in Sierra Leonean. In 2004, this agency handled a caseload of over 500 arable and cash crop farmers in 25 farming communities in 3 chiefdoms in the district. It is expected that this number will increase in 2005 considering the enthusiasm with which farmers want to embark on agricultural production.
