Supporting girls’ education in Sierra Leone during the ........Covid-19 pandemic: case study

GUINEA

SIERRA LEONE

GUINEA

Use the lines in this Glossary Box to add any tricky words or terms you come across as you read this case study . Ask 3 friends what these words or terms mean . If you still have questions, ask your teacher . Then, write your explanations after your tricky words/terms .

With funding (money) from Irish Aid, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) worked with the Government of Sierra Leone to make Life Skills lessons to air over the radio . These Life Skills lessons covered things like how to look after your mental health, friendship, gender equality and children’s rights .

When schools were closed because of Covid-19, these radio lessons helped to make sure that children in Sierra Leone could continue to get a good education . Each radio lesson was recorded by teachers using storytelling and songs and included the voices of young people to make the lessons more interesting .

GLOSSARY BOX

Irish Aid = Irish Government’s overseas development cooperation programme.

Government of Sierra Leone = the leaders chosen by the people in Sierra Leone to make decisions about how the country is run.

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) = people in the United Nations who work to make sure that everyone is healthy and well and have equal chances in life.

Women in Crisis Movement = a non-governmental organization (charity) in Sierra Leone which works for equal chances for girls and women.

NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN LIBERIA

As in Ireland, schools in Sierra Leone were closed in 2020 because of Covid-19. Sierra Leonean schools were forced to shut from the start of April until the end of June 2020 and did not reopen again until October 2020.

17-year-old Fatmata S. Kamara, from Mombolo Chiefdom, Kambia District was one of almost two million children and young people in Sierra Leone who had to stay at home from school. Like children and young people all over our world, Fatmata’s learning was interrupted by Covid-19.

“It was not something we were expecting, and it affected our schooling”.

1.5 billion children and young people all around our world were affected when schools and universities shut because of Covid-19.

Life Skills is a school subject in Sierra Leone. Can you think of a subject that you do that sounds like Life Skills?

Name one thing or person that helped you to continue to learn when your school was closed because of Covid-19?

The activities on this page can be done using the templates in the accompanying Activity Booklet available in the Teacher’s section on our website. Make sure to send us your finished work. You never know, your work might be included in one of the 2022 Global Goal Getters online magazines, by kids, for kids! See back cover for entry details.

Women in Crisis Movement staff member holding one of the radios distributed to girls in Sierra Leone. © Women in Crisis Movement

To make sure that all children in Sierra Leone could listen to the radio lessons, Irish Aid supported UNFPA and the Women in Crisis Movement to give 2,000 radios to girls from poorer families .

Fatmata received a radio from UNFPA and the Women in Crisis Movement. “The radio teaching programme was helpful when coronavirus came, and schools closed. I used the radio to listen to the news and it helped me with my studies. This helped me not to forget my education through the programme being aired weekly. I used to take notes whilst listening to the radio. I was interested in listening to science subjects most of the time.” Write a short script for a radio broadcast telling Fatmata and other children and young people in Sierra Leone about your learning at home during the Covid-19 school closures. Remember, radio is all about sound, so you could add sound effects by writing a description of a sound in brackets. For example, (phone ringing in the background) or (the sound of someone being admitted from the waiting room during a zoom lesson).

ON AIR

For many families in Sierra Leone and elsewhere, COVID-19 has meant job losses or less work, which means less money . The United Nations estimate around 11 million girls worldwide will never return to education after the Covid-19 school closures . This is because their families can no longer afford the cost of school uniforms and books, because the girls have to help their families by going to work to earn money; by minding younger brothers/sisters, cooking and cleaning; or, by helping out with the family business or farm .

When schools in Sierra Leone reopened in October 2020, Irish Aid, UNFPA and the Women in Crisis Movement knew it was important to support families who were finding it difficult to cover the cost of getting their children back to school. With funding from Irish Aid, back-to-school kits were given to 1,000 primary and secondary school girls in the districts of Kambia, Port Loko and Pujehun. Each kit contained a school uniform, a backpack, five schoolbooks, a mathematical set, pencils, pens, and a plastic folder.

School children with their back-to-school kits in Mambolo Chiefdom, Kambia District, Sierra Leone © UNFPA/2020/ John Sesay Fatmata was delighted with her back-to-school kit. She was excited to go back to school and to keep working towards her dreams for the future: “I want to serve my community by becoming a nurse”.

A kit is made up of the things that are needed for a specific purpose, for example, a soccer kit might include the club shirt, shorts, socks, boots, and shin pads.

WELLBEING KIT

Create your very own Wellbeing Kit with everything that children all over our world should have to make sure that they are happy, healthy and connected in a positive way to other people and our planet. List the contents of your Wellbeing Kit in the space provided, then decorate your kit with the icons and colours of the Global Goals that you think are most relevant.

WELLBEING KIT CONTENTS

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The activities on this page can be done using the templates in the accompanying Activity Booklet available in the Teacher’s section on our website. Make sure to send us your finished work. You never know, your work might be included in one of the 2022 Global Goal Getters online magazines, by kids, for kids! See back cover for entry details.