AdAmi Project founder Kirsty Wood and volunteer Emily Gilfillan who’s been supporting the setup of the project, recently returned from a busy week in Sierra Leone. Here, Kirsty and Emily give a brief summary of some of the highlights from the week.

Monday 1st October

Kirsty: after landing in Sierra Leone on the Sunday evening, we set off shortly after 9am for Bo town where our local partner MEANS is based. It feels great to be back in ‘Salone’, as the locals affectionately call Sierra Leone. This is a particularly special trip, as it will be the first time that we get to see the pilot project in action and I will also be introducing Emily to the country for the first time. It will also be the last time I visit before having a baby in February!

Emily: I’m so excited to be in Sierra Leone with Kirsty and I can’t wait to finally meet the girls and MEANS team in-person! I know I’ll be able to contribute so much more to the project once I’ve had the chance to see the girls in their community, visit their schools and listen to their stories. The MEANS team has also already done a lot of work in terms of reunifying girls with their families and negotiating their return to school so I’m looking forward to hearing their updates and planning our next steps together.

In the meantime, our 3.5 hour drive to Bo town goes quickly as we pass through a number of small towns, their handmade mud and brick structures nestled into a beautiful landscape of lush green grass and palm trees. I’m already impressed by everyone’s friendliness and am determined to learn some Krio (Kirsty’s already chatting away with our driver as though she never left!).

Kirsty: we arrive safely in Bo shortly after 1pm and quickly drop our bags at our hotel before heading to the MEANS office where the entire team awaits. The afternoon is an opportunity to get to know one another and to plan for the week ahead. We create an itinerary for the week. It’s a nice mix of planning and training workshops with lots of community visits to meet with the girls and young women being supported through the pilot initiative. It’s going to be a busy week but we can’t wait to get started!

Tuesday 2nd October

Kirsty: The AdAmi Project works with extremely vulnerable girls and young women in often volatile situations. We therefore take safeguarding extremely seriously and are committed to ensuring that we have robust safeguarding policies and procedures in place. In the morning, we run a workshop on safeguarding with the local team to explore the topic further and to highlight the role we all have to play in protecting project beneficiaries from harm. The team participates in a number of group exercises, including reviewing recent safeguarding incidents and categorising types of abuse. We conclude with a short exercise to start mapping out a “risk register” and safeguarding reporting procedures for the organisation. This will be finalised over the next month.

Emily: In the afternoon, we head to the nearby community of Gondama, where we visit a few of the girls in school, meet with their head teachers to learn about how the schools handle pregnancies and support returning mothers, and drop in at a local health clinic where one of our mentor’s works as a nurse.

Overwhelmingly, we heard that girls tend to be very young when they become pregnant, with poverty a core issue as their families can’t support their basic needs, forcing the girls to look to men for food and money. Once pregnant, the clinic’s midwife reiterated the challenges and lack of support the girls are faced with: “Many have relationship problems and are not being supported by the boy or man who impregnated them. As a result, many are stressed and traumatised and require additional emotional support.” One of the head teachers also commented on the need for local female role models, saying, “They need women to look up to, women who have completed their education, have a vocation and are living successful lives. When they see these women they will feel encouraged to study hard and become like them.”      

We finish the day by spending time with Katimu who’s 16 years old and has a five month old son, Mohamed. Katimu previously lived with her mother and siblings, but when they discovered her pregnancy, they abandoned her and left for neighbouring Guinea. The baby’s father also denied the pregnancy, leaving Katimu to fend for herself. As a result, she is currently staying with a friend, whilst the MEANS team helped to get her back into Junior Secondary School.

Katimu lights up when she describes how happy she is being back at school and having her mentor Bernadette (“my sister”) support her. Just like Bernadette, Katimu dreams of becoming a nurse: “I love nurses, they really help people in Sierra Leone. When we are sick they will make sure we are well before we are returned home. And when we are in labour they will make sure it is a safe delivery. That’s why I would like to be a nurse in the future.”

Wednesday 3rd October

Kirsty: a definite highlight of the trip was having the opportunity to visit Adama and Aminata in Kenema town. If you are familiar with the background of the organisation you will know that it was Adama and Aminata who inspired the set-up of the AdAmi Project. Sisters, they both fell pregnant within months of each other in late 2017 and on discovering their pregnancies, were thrown out of school and their family home with nowhere and no one to turn to for help.

It was great to see the impact that the AdAmi Project is already having on the lives of Adama and Aminata. Through our family mediation work they are now back at home with their auntie, where they are safe and loved. They are also proud to be back at school, much to the surprise of many of their peers! When we spoke with Adama she noted that: “I never thought I would be able to go back to school so I am very happy now. Some of my former peers used to taunt me and call me a drop out, but now when they see me in my uniform they are surprised and praise me for my efforts.” She is determined to take full advantage of the opportunity she has been given and to achieve the goals that she has set through her “dream plan” and weekly mentoring: “I am really committed to the goals we have set and I am going to score those goals!”

Hearing the hope and excitement in their voices as they talk about their ambitions for the future is amazing and truly captures the spirit and purpose of the AdAmi Project.

Emily: Before leaving Kenema, we also visit Mamie at a vocational training centre where she is studying to become a hairdresser. Mamie shares with us that prior to meeting the MEANS team a few months ago, she was forced to engage in sex work to survive. At only 18 years old and with a young daughter, she was certain that her dream of becoming a hairdresser was out of reach.

However, Mamie now has a stable home living with her aunt and is so excited to be pursuing her dream. She hopes to one day open her own salon so that she can earn an income and be independent, whilst also offering employment to other girls in need.      

It is such an inspiration to see Mamie overcome her past with joy and determination to achieve her goals.

Thursday 4th October

Emily: I have been looking forward to this morning’s workshop all week as we discuss all-things mentoring! For the past three years, my day job has been to work on a mentoring programme that supports women entrepreneurs in low-and-middle income countries around the world to build confidence, develop skills and grow their businesses. As a result, I’ve been closely involved in setting up, and creating training materials, for the AdAmi Project’s Mentoring Programme.

Today, I’m keen to take a closer look at how the programme is progressing, whilst also facilitating a training workshop on mentoring techniques and best practices. It’s important that the mentors feel equipped to create a safe and empowering space where the girls can confide in them, build their confidence and create a realistic plan to achieve their goals.  

To get us started, we did a SWOT analysis of the programme to identify any key strengths and weaknesses, while also look at opportunities to improve the programme and potential threats that could prevent us from achieving our objectives. Following that, we delved into utilising mentoring techniques, such as probing questions and active listening skills, and separated into groups to practice through role play. Finally, we wrapped up the session with an introduction to goal setting and discussed how SMART goals are helpful to breaking down both short-term and long-term goals into manageable steps.

Kirsty: we did one final community visit in Bo town this afternoon, where we had the the opportunity to meet Abibatu with her mentors Deborah and Theresa. We have spoken to many expectant and young mothers during the week and they share very similar stories and experiences - the majority have been thrown out of their homes, abandoned by their families and partners, thrown out of school, and left to fend for themselves. If they are one of the lucky ones they have managed to get some support from a friend or extended family member, usually in the form of shelter and food.

Abibatu was just 15 years old when she ended up living on the streets. There, she was forced to have sex in exchange for food. She soon became pregnant and the man responsible ran away and refused to take responsibility. She continued to live on the street until she gave birth to her son Joseph in March. Soon after, she was identified by the local team as a girl in urgent need of support.

Thanks to the support of the AdAmi Project she is now living with an extended family member and back in school. She appears happy and hopeful, and so grateful for the second chance she has been given. Speaking with passion about how her life has been transformed she notes that: “If not for this programme, I would still be a school dropout…I believe that we have to go through challenges to succeed in life and I’m up for the challenge!”

Friday 5th October

Kirsty: well, the week is drawing to a close and it’s hard to imagine that it was only five days ago that we arrived in Bo - we have managed to cram in so many things! Before we depart back to Freetown, we spent the morning with the local team taking stock of where we are as well as looking ahead to what we want to achieve over the coming months and year.

I am so proud of how much has been achieved in such a short time and with so little resource, particularly funds. This is a true testament to the dedication and commitment of the volunteers who have worked so hard to get the project up and running in the UK and Sierra Leone. Through our pilot project 25 girls are now receiving weekly mentoring to build their confidence and self-esteem, and to work towards life goals. Many of these girls have benefited from family tracing and mediation work and are back at home with their parents or other extended family members. They are also all back at school or at vocational training centres, working towards their educational and employment ambitions.

Of course, there is still so much to do and we remain committed to building our programme over the coming months to ensure that our interventions are truly holistic and transformative. One of the key challenges that has been highlighted is that many of the girls do not have reliable childcare for their children whilst they are at school. We are keen to address this as soon as possible to ensure that it does not affect their schooling or even force them to drop out. During the morning we started mapping out an idea of launching a “Grandma Care scheme” (name still tbc!), whereby we link the girls with elderly women in their community who can serve as volunteer childminders, as well as acting as an informal mentor to the girls.

We also recognise that many of the girls are struggling to earn enough money to care for themselves and their children, particularly now they spend much of their day at school. We spent time sketching out ideas for a business training and start up initiative, where we can support the girls to set up group enterprises so that they can earn an income.

It can at times feel overwhelming to look at all the things that needs to be done, but we both left Bo that day feeling more determined and hopeful than ever that we can and will achieve our ambitions through the AdAmi Project!