Creating and Expanding Opportunities for the Empower of Adolescent Girls and Boys Through Gender-Transformative Engagement.
Restless Development Sierra Leone is implementing an integrated package of interventions that is empowering communities, parents, caregivers and adolescent girls in shifting behaviors, social norms and practices supporting child marriage. The package comprises of the roll-out of the positive parenting curriculum, life skills education (using the life skills modules developed by the National Secretariat for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy and Child Marriage and the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education), and UNICEF’s UPSHIFT curriculum.
Community Advisory Board:
The program is working with members of Child Welfare Committees and religious leaders from 60 communities under the Community Board through monthly dialogue sessions on various themes around child protection resulting in the issuing of public statements to ban child marriage and follow up on the community action plans.
The Community Dialogues/Engagement
This project component is organized at district and community levels, capitalizing on existing relationships with district stakeholders, community structures, and networks. Community, traditional and religious leaders, parents, caregivers, community health workers, teachers, and social workers have are participating in an intergenerational and youth-focused dialogues, to garner community support in addressing harmful socio-cultural and gender norms that perpetuate violence against girls. Issues bordering on girls’ safety discussed in the Safe Spaces with adolescent girls and boys, and during the parenting sessions, requiring the attention of community stakeholders will are been brought forward by mentors, facilitators, and adolescents for discussion. Trained community young people / youth volunteers led the development of action plans which are being utilized to mobilized by stakeholders and actioned at community level.
