Stories from Sierra Leone: Joseph's Story

My name is Joseph, and I am a teacher and the link to AMNET at my school. As part of my role, I am the one who coordinates AMNET’s efforts at school: organising the school club, talking to students about gender and sexual-based violence, delivering training for them, facilitating their contributions to the radio discussions that AMNET hosts, and I also take them to meet with children from other schools.

We explore sexual and gender-based violence in all aspects of life. When it comes to sexual and gender-based violence, before AMNET’s intervention, there were lots of cases of teenage pregnancy, violence against women, and other issues of injustice towards women. All the issues are very serious.

Because of AMNET, a big part of what we are telling the girls and their communities is that everyone has rights. Even if someone in our community is weak or vulnerable, that does not mean we can take advantage of them.

We encourage the girls to tell their parents about the things they learn with AMNET because, in lots of cases, their parents aren’t educated and don’t know these things either. The teachings that we are sharing because of AMNET are getting out there to the communities, and it is spreading. We also encourage the girls to spread information about rights and sexual and gender-based violence to other households in their communities. We say, ‘make sure you talk to three or four other households’. This work takes time, but we are doing it. We are seeing success.

It has been about two years since we started working with AMNET. Since their intervention, we are not experiencing the same levels of gender and sexual-based violence. Our girls are in school. That is the impact! Education is flowing!

I hope that the future is brighter for Sierra Leone and our girls. I think about the fact that my children and their children will not have to face the problems that we have seen. The problems in our communities are reducing, and that is the future we are looking for.

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