“I will even talk to the President!” Suzan told us. "I am a role model for girls in my school.”
Suzan is an 18 year old girl in her last year of school. She was in especially good spirits when we spoke because she just completed her end of year exams.
Suzan wasn’t always this confident and outgoing. Sierra Leone, where she has lived all her life, emerged from a particularly brutal civil war in 2002. Progress since then has been slow. The West African nation struggles to overcome low rates of literacy and most neighbourhoods are mired in poverty. Suzan’s school is short on supplies and many children have no electricity at home, and can’t afford candles to study by. Unable to afford school fees, their parents send them off to find money any way they can. “This leads them to bad practices – some of them go after men for money” said Suzan.
Despite these serious challenges, with a safe space to study and a supportive group of peers young people can escape the poverty trap and build a more positive life for themselves.
War Child works with a passionate local collective called Artists United for Child and Youth Development (AUCAYD). Suzan’s school nominated her to participate in our Education Connection program, where she was trained to become a student leader. She helps run weekend educational programming, and takes part in music and drama events.
“War Child and AUCAYD have helped me to discover my talents, how to be a role model, how to speak in public.”
Suzan wants to do everything she can to help young girls to manage the problems they are facing in school. She has been encouraging them, trying to help them have confidence in themselves. “I tell my girls to never say never, you can do it” and feels she has made a difference. “My girls are good, they are speaking to teachers now, I am proud.”
The programs that War Child and AUCAYD are providing for young people in Sierra Leone are working, but in a country where the average age is just 19, the need is immense. Donations from Canadians like you can help War Child reach more children.