PROGRAMS
Youth Livelihood & Governance Project
“Supporting Youth Livelihood and Governance in Bombali district including Makeni city in Sierra Leone”
YASiL’s mission is to improve the socio economic status of disadvantaged youths through vocational and technical skills training and participating in local decision making in post Ebola communities.
Core Project Activities:
Youth Livelihood Supports
• Vocational, Business Management and Life Skills Trainings.
• Post Vocational Skills Training Support (including starter kits) to help trainees to either establish their own micro-enterprises, or undertake work placements with employers.
Youth Governance Supports
• Awareness raising and civic education training to young people.
• Civic Education through Peer Education Processes.
• Advocacy, leadership and community mobilisation trainings for young people & youth civil society organizations.
• Monthly Radio broadcasts on Governance, Accountability and Youth Issues.
• Local Government Engagements to understand and respond to citizen needs related to youth employment and vocational education.
• Youth led Peace Building and Anti-Violence Campaign activities.
and Youth led Ebola Virus Disease response campaign
Enhancing female youth’s participation in governance processes:
Negative cultural beliefs and political socialization has for long excluded women from participation meaningfully in governance processes that affect their lives. Hence, the axiom, “Female youths are to be seen and not to be heard.”
This notion is to be challenged if female youths are to be given the opportunity to grow and equal rights in decision making and other issues that affect their lives.
Slum Project
Project Name: Transforming Young Peoples’ Lives in Makeni slum Communities.
Overall Objective: To bring about a demonstrable improvement in the lives of vulnerable young people and their families living in urban slums, focusing on young people as catalysts for community development
Specific Objectives:
• To provide quality skill and post training support for 430 disadvantaged young people’s affected by Ebola virus outbreak, to help them either gain employment or establish their own micro-enterprise;
• To provide basic literacy and numeracy and/or recreational activities for at least 200 out of school young people per year;
• To improve the quality of life and conditions of at least 4,000 young people in the slum communities through targeted advocacy, community mobilization and capacity building activities led by young people.
Child and Youth
Protection and Welfare:
The protection and nurturing of children and youths is a priority in the YASiL. Children and youths rights violations are common and easily noticeable in the identified chiefdom communities.
The YASiL seeks to design community based programmes that would minimize the abuse of the rights of children and youths. This will be followed by prompting the setting up of community-watch groups to monitor child and youth rights violations and take community actions as appropriate.
Environmental/Ecological education
Environmental issues are of great challenge to Sierra Leone. This is evidenced by the alarming deforestation and environmental pollution that is equally threatening to Sierra Leoneans and the International community present in Sierra Leone. The project will involve:
Establishment of wood-lots in severely threatened communities:
Training on the construction of mud stoves for women. This energy saving devise will help in the reduction of fuel wood for cooking and for other domestic purposes.
Adult Literacy/continuing programmes:
lliteracy is pervasive among young people who constitute 45% of Sierra Leone’s population.
The YASiL seeks to engage in literacy programmes especially for female youths.
Justice In Action
In 2011, the YASiL became deeply touched by the injustices faced by children and Youths in the justice system, more especially what obtained in the cells and other detention facilities in the North. This issue became a very serious concern and YASiL’s mission is to intervene.
AIM
Justice in Action (JIA) Campaign is aimed at improving the conditions and prospect of children and youth in conflict with the law by effecting positive changes in law, policy and practice. The campaign also provides an opportunity for young people to voice their opinions on what they consider to be the main Youth Justice issues and to make recommendations for improvement through:
• Empowering children and youth to increase their levels of participation in local and international government structures.
• Providing children and youth with the skills to engage effectively with decision makers and policy makers and
• Lastly, supporting children and youth and local YASiL’s to raise awareness on children and youth Justice Issue and is being run by a battery of dynamic YASiL youths in their respective countries.
Agriculture Investment
Among the programme thrusts of YASiL, the management seeks to embark on agriculture in the Makarie Gbantie, Mapaki and Safroko Limba Chiefdoms, Northern Sierra Leone. The principal objectives of the YASiL Agricultural Investment are four folds:
• To increase the revenue base of YASiL over time,
• To complement effort towards food security drive in Sierra Leone,
• To promote community participation in the Makarie Gbantie, Mapaki and Safroko Limba communities and its environs,
• To empower young farmers with improved agriculture techniques in order to improve their nutritional status and enhance self sustainability through farming activities.
To enhance implementation of the Agriculture project, 12 of acres of land have been acquired by YASiL for upland farming. Two permanent farm staff will be employed for the implementation processes are Farm Caretaker and Block Extension Supervisor. The Block Extension Supervisor will provides timely technical assistance, other professional services and periodic supervision and monitoring to farm caretaker and contract farm labourers. In the future, YASiL will establish a commercial farming for 25 acres to plant to oil palm (permanent crop) and 15 acres of cassava (root crop). The land will also be planted to pineapple, banana and plantain which account for less than 4 acre. It will embark on value-added commercialization of cassava in order to supply the proximate market and consumers with a variety of preferred cassava products.
In promoting community participation, YASiL Agriculture Investment need partners to provide daily and periodic contract employment for more than 650 youth males and females (farm labour). To a greater extent, it will enable most young people to easily access money at time of YASiL farm operations for their households and their own farm operations. In this regard, most young male and female the project host community and its environs will have acquired and adopted improved crop production practices under the supervision of the Block Extension Supervisor attached to the project. Through the implementation of this project, YASiL will be recognized by the Government of Sierra Leone as a partner of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security.
