Youth Action International

Youth Action International is a growing network of young people using grassroots techniques to develop and implement programs that help alleviate the suffering of children affected by war or living in difficult circumstances and to empower them to reach their full potential. Learn more

Sierra Leone

Youth Action International - Sierra Leone
The Pat & Rowland Rebele Center for Women
8 Peter lane
Brookfields
Freetown, Sierra Leone

email: yeanoh@peaceforkids.org
Telephone: 011 232 33345498

Youth Action International’s office in Sierra Leone is working primarily on programs that empower young women who have been affected by war. YAI’s Sierra Leone office maintains a Center for Women, which provides workshops on small business enterprise, counseling and loans to women living in slum areas in Sierra Leone. The center also works on influencing government policy that will be positive towards women and bridge the gender eduction, political, and economic gap

In addition, the Sierra Leone office works with local youth groups to host empowerment workshops and skills training programs.

2008 PROGRAMS

Support for the Waterloo Refugee Camp: YAI will provide school materials and teacher training to schools operating in Sierra Leone’s internally displaced camps. The program is geared at ensuring that refugee and displaced children have access to education and education materials.

The Milton Margai School Library: Will complete its project to build a library for Freetown’s only school for the blind. Youth Action International has already collected braille books for use in the completed library.

Workshops on Small Business Enterprise: More than 500 women in some of Sierra Leone’s poorest communities will benefit from our workshops on small business enterprise. The women will be trained in skills to develop and maintain a successful business.

Scholarships: Youth Action International will continue to maintain two scholarship programs in Sierra Leone. One provides scholarships to pupils graduating from the the Milton Margai School from the blind and enrolling in regular secondary and high school. THe second scholarship benefits young women in slum areas in Freetown.

Democracy program: Women are usually under represented at Sierra Leone’s voting polls. In 2008, YAI will work to encourage the participation of women in mid-term elections.

Completed in 2007

Hosted five workshops on small business enterprise
Awarded micro-finance to women
Providing scholarships to students from Sierra Leone’s only school for the visually impaired
Brought together experts from eight American universities to develop plan for the Center for Women
Created teacher training manual and daily program schedule for Center
Organized strategic planning meeting to solicit input from local experts

Country Staff

Yeanoh Conteh, Country Representative
Donald Kalokah, Program Officer
Vanessa Ulasi, Accountant
Mohamed Kanneh, Asst. Program Officer
Josephine Sessay, Office Manager

Learn more about Sierra Leone

Population: 6 million
Population under 14: 44%
Population below poverty line: 68%
Sierra Leone has been ranked last in the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index for over ten years. Essentially, this makes Sierra Leone the poorest country of the planet.

Country Profile

BBC Country Profile

News Articles

YAI BLOGS

Is Kony really interested in peace?

Posted by memory, May 9, 2008

A cross-section of observers, traditional and religious leaders, local and international media stormed Ri-Kwangba last week to witness the historical moment were Joseph Kony, the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) leader was supposed to sign the final peace agreement. The rest of the world held its breath to witness the day that northern Uganda would finally get to normalcy after 20 years of conflict between the Government of Uganda and the LRA rebels.

Journey to Uganda - by Heehwa Choi

Posted by memory, April 29, 2008

“Aren’t you nervous?” my dear friend carefully asked me when I told her that I’d be visiting Uganda. That’s how my parents reacted at first. I told myself it is not because Uganda is part of Africa that they are worried for my travel. Traveling to new places is always uncertain to some extent. However, I couldn’t deny that part of me was more worried than usual. What would I see? How would I feel? What should I expect? Am I mature enough? Above all, the question was ‘why would I want to go visit Africa’? I cannot tell Uganda story leaving out the influence of Kimmie and Youth Action International. I actually met Kimmie at Northfield Mount Hermon High School where Kimmie graduated from.

Peace in Uganda?

Posted by memory, April 19, 2008

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an Acholi-based opposition group led by Joseph Kony has been fighting first against president Museveni’s government, and currently against other Acholi peoples. The Acholi are an ethnic group who live in Northern Uganda. Though Kony, leader of the LRA reportedly believes he has been chosen by God to overthrow president Museveni and establish a government based on the Ten Commandments, and a purified Acholi race, the LRA has yet to explain its goals or put forth any sort of political agenda.
Continue reading

Death in Uganda

Posted by Abigail, September 3, 2007

I wasn’t promised an African sunset. When Kimmie Weeks invited me on a humanitarian mission through post-conflict countries, what came to mind were the stunning landscape pictures my friends had brought back from the ranch in Kenya. It was how I had envisioned this beautiful continent. Streaks of red and orange, firing up the night sky of deep blue and purple: a kaleidoscope of color. Instead, I found another kind of sunset. I found the African people wasting away, dying brutal, horrific deaths at the hands of war, disease, and poverty. I found the sun setting on their lives. Not fading into the night with brilliant lights, but being shredded into a nonexistence wracked with pain and suffering. Continue reading

Notes from West Africa

Posted by Nina, September 3, 2007

I traveled to Liberia and Sierra Leone with Kimmie Weeks during the summer of 2006 to assist him and carry out research for YAI. I am originally from Tanzania and was excited to visit west Africa. I was confident I would adjust to Sierra Leone pretty quickly, because hey, it was still Africa wasn’t it? And I’m half African. Continue reading