Background
AdvocAid supports justice, education and reintegration for female detainees, and their children, in Sierra Leone.
Founded in 2006, the organisation’s aim is to strengthen access to justice, including an increased ability to claim rights,
for women and to empower them as active citizens through the provision of education, welfare and post-prison support.
Legacy of Conflict
Sierra Leone continues to face the devastating social and economic effects of an 11-year conflict, which ended in 2002.
Despite peaceful elections held in 2007, the country continues to sit at the bottom of the Human Development Index.
Basic state structures and services have long been neglected and the majority of Sierra Leone’s citizens struggle to meet their
daily needs on less than a dollar a day.
Recent Posts
- Urgent Press Release: UNCONSTITUTIONAL DETENTION OF ALLEGED ELECTORAL MALPRACTICE SUSPECTS BY SIERRA LEONE POLICE
- AdvocAid's work featured in IRIN news report
- 10 Reasons Sierra Leone Should End the Death Penalty
- Sierra Leonean Civil Society Organisations Denounce Executions in The Gambia
- Welcoming Derek Achatoh - our new legal intern
- Sierra Leone Externship Blog now live!
- AdvocAid presents at the International Human Rights Funders Group Conference
- Monitoring Trip to Makeni
- Celebrating 10 years of Peace
- AdvocAid Client Formerly on Death Row Discharged at Re-Trial
Donate
- $5 – helps us to fund various welfare items for girls, women and their children in prison such as soap, sanitary towels and baby items.
- $25 – helps us to assist vulnerable detainees and their children with medical support where the prison is unable
- $50 – helps us to provide ex prisoners with start up grants in order to successfully begin their lives after release from prison (such as starting small business, finding accommodation etc)
- $100 – helps us to fund a literacy class for 1 month in 1 prison
- $150 – helps us to fund a paralegal’s salary for a month, providing crucial legal advice and assistance to women in police stations, prisons and courts.
- $800 – helps us to fund a lawyer to provide legal representation to vulnerable women who are detained and cannot afford legal services.
Case Study
Kadie's Story
Kadie’s story is not a simple story. It is, in many ways, a story tied to that of Sierra Leone. However, her story does show that having the time to take simple steps is sometimes all that is needed to make a vast difference – in this case the difference between languishing for years on remand and that of a new life attending school.
Sia's Story
Sia lives in Lunsar, Port Loko, three hours from Freetown. She was sentenced to six months imprisonment for the theft of ear phones. Despite her conviction, Sia maintains her innocence, arguing that she found rather than stole the items.
Kumba's Story
Kumba was arrested in March 2005. She was twenty years old and an orphan. Her younger brother was living with some extended family members who were treating him poorly. Kumba decided to assist her brother in the only way she knew how, by taking him away from the abusive situation to another family member.
