Transcript of Kirsty's speech

Hi I’m Kirsty and i’m the founder of The AdAmi Project, and i’d firstly just like to thank you all for being here on this special evening. And thanks to Alastair Moore for putting together this wonderful film about the work of the AdAmi Project.

It’s with great sadness that we had to end the film on such a sombre note, marking the passing of Adama’s son Alex. Alex passed away earlier this month with suspected malaria. At just 9 months old, I’m sure you will all agree that it was a life taken far too soon.

It was Adama and her sister Aminata, who you heard from at the beginning of the film, who inspired the set up of the AdAmi Project. To give you some background - I lived in Sierra Leone between 2006-2010 and first met Adama and Aminata when they were just 6 and 8 years old in 2009.

It was in late 2017 when I heard the news that they had both fallen pregnant within months of each other. They had been thrown out of their family home that they shared with their aunty, and they’d also been thrown out of school. Aminata was in a particularly bad way - the man who had impregnated her was denying all responsibility and had ran away. She was homeless and she’d also become very sick and was unable to access or afford healthcare. Unlike in the UK where there are social services to support girls in these types of situations, there is no such support available in Sierra Leone. So with an old colleague and trusted friend, we began to reach out to local organisations who might be able to help. And frustratingly very few, if any, were available who offered tailored and targeted support to young girls like Adama and Aminata.

Using some of our own resources we provided some basic support to the girls. We spent time with the aunty and negotiated for their return home, and we also worked with Aminata to make sure she was getting the health care that she needed, including regular antenatal checkups.

During the weeks and months where we were supporting them we quickly came to realise there were many other girls living in their situation, and who were desperate for support but were unable to access it. It was there that the idea of the AdAmi Project was formed, and just in case you were wondering where the name AdAmi came from, it’s just a merge of the names Adama and Aminata.

As you will see tonight, I am quite heavily pregnant, i’m eight months pregnant and I always think back to how I felt when I first discovered I was pregnant. And I must say even though it was planned it was simply quite overwhelming and terrifying at times, and I say this as a 35 year old woman, who’s married and in a secure relationship, job, with a home and supportive friends and family.

So imagine how it feels to be a 14 or 15 year old girl living in a remote village in Sierra Leone, and you’ve just discovered you’re pregnant having been raped by your teacher. And despite telling your family of the circumstances of your pregnancy they are angry with you and they blame you, and throw you out of the family home. And you’re also thrown out of school. And the teacher who impregnated you, he goes free. He’s still teaching and you see him walking by in the village every day, and he continues to be considered an upstanding member of the community. Whereas the community look at you and stigmatise you.

You feel alone, you feel scared. And your dreams of finishing school and training to become a nurse, or a doctor, lawyer or a teacher suddenly feel far out of reach. Sadly this is the situation that many of the girls we work with find themselves in when they first join the programme.

During one of my visits to Sierra Leone last year I met one particularly confident young mother called Fatmata. And I asked Fatmata, Fatmata what advice would you give to other young girls who are pregnant but are scared and don’t know what to do. And she said, well Kirsty, what I want to do is give them all courage hats, I want to place these hats on their head and tell them that here is a hat that will give you courage and strength, and I will tell them that despite the challenges they are facing things will get better. They just have to have faith and hope, and they just need to persevere.

The idea of this courage hat, it’s an analogy that I really loved and something that’s really stuck with me and something which in many ways we’ve tried to incorporate into the AdAmi Project. Because we’re not just about providing practical skills and tools such as providing scholarships or funds to set up small businesses, but we’re also there to provide the girls with these invisible courage hats. Helping them to find the courage to continue and to persevere, and to help them find the confidence and self esteem and belief in themselves to pursue their life goals, dreams and ambitions. Of course having a child so young is a set back, and will present challenges, but it doesn’t need to be the end of their hopes and ambitions.

Tonight is a really special evening - it’s our showcase event where we’re able to show off some of the work that we’ve achieved to date and our ambitions for the future. It’s really important to note that none of this work would have been possible, and nothing that we’ve achieved so far would have been possible without the commitment and time and expertise of the volunteers who’ve given so much over the last year.

Everything you’re experiencing tonight from the canapes you’re eating to the film you watched to the handouts you’re holding, have been designed executed and made by the volunteers who are part of this project. So thank you to all of them for everything they’ve done to get the AdAmi Project to where it is today.

Finally just to thank you all for being here tonight on this special evening. I hope that it’s inspired you to support us. There are so many ways of getting involved, not just by making a financial donation but volunteering your time and expertise to spreading the word about our work. We’ve got the venue to 8.30pm so we encourage you to stay and have a drink with us, and speak with myself or other members of the committee to find out more about how you can get involved.

So it just leaves me to say a huge thank you again, and let’s all raise a glass to the future of the AdAmi Project.