Girl Child Network Sierra Leone
Empowerment of Girls in the Home,School and Community
Programs
Girls Empowerment Programs – This is a department that implements empowerment programmes for girls through three strategic programmes, namely:
Girls Empowerment Clubs
Established in schools and communities, these have been set as the rightful platform for girls where they engage in a diversity of empowerment programmes and activities in order to realize their full potential and to stand against all atrocities targeted at them.
Girls’ clubs are strategic in that they are the heart and creative center of the organization.
Advocacy, Lobby and Law Implementation
Most of the problems girls face have resulted from the absence of a girls friendly society with policies, laws and socio-economic structures that promote and protect girls’ and women’s rights.
Programme ensures such a society and the eradication and minimization of obstacles that hinder the development and empowerment of girls and women
Information, Documentation and Dissemination
The vulnerability of girls and the failure by communities to reduce this vulnerability and to respond to their plight has emanated from lack of information that promote the realization and enjoyment of girls’ and women’s rights.
GCN Sierra Leone developed a culture of documentation and dissemination of information from girls to stakeholders & vice versa, as well as its best practices.
Girls Empowerment Villages
These will be strategically positioned across Sierra Leone and serve as information dissemination as well as service provision and relief centers for abused girls through mitigation & case management.
The goal is to give a sense of hope to abused girls who, through their rehabilitation, are transformed from victims to survivors and leaders.
Girls at Risk Support Unit
Having realized that there are other girls who miss GCN Sierra Leone’s training of empowerment and end up in risk situations,
GCN Sierra Leone devised this program to respond to the needs of such girls and also capacitate communities to respond to their plight during difficult situations.
It institutes the Survivor Protection & Support strategy that seeks to urgently address the concerns and the plight of girls at risk, particularly sexually abused, orphaned and vulnerable girls.
The main objectives of the Girls at Risk Support Unit are as follows:
– Increasing access to education for orphaned and vulnerable girls
– Increasing access to basic needs items for girls from poor families
– Provision of 24hour emergency operation for survivors of abuse
– Representing reported cases of girl child abuse in the courts and referring them for further legal support
The Girls at Risk Support Unit is made up of two subdivisions, namely Case Management and Education and Basic Needs programs.
Case Management Program
This program is responsible for abuse cases follow up, rescue missions, police, court and hospital escorts as well as home visits and reunification of survivors of abuse
Education and Basic Needs Program
This program is responsible for the reinstatement and retention of girls in school through provision of school fees and related educational needs.
