War Child has been active in Sierra Leone since 2001. In 2003 a community-based programme was implemented. The programme aims to address psychosocial needs of children and youth by helping to rebuild peaceful child-friendly communities through a variety of creative, educational, recreational and cultural activities. The primary target group is children and youth, but the programme involves all people that play a significant role in the lives of children and youth. The focus is to get stakeholders within the communities to recognize the rights and needs of children and youth and to support them in fulfilling these rights.

In 2008 community-based activities were implemented in 23 communities (villages) in Bombali and Port Loko districts. In 6 of these communities groups of 30 youths (girls and boys) engaged in an educational project which included life skills, literacy/numeracy, and livelihood skills training. In some of the communities, the youths organized themselves in a cooperative, to generate income through agricultural activity. In the other 17 villages a full-fletched community-based project was carried out, as part of which participatory needs assessments and action plans were completed; community centres were built and the War Child team established and built the capacity of Child and Youth Support Structures (CYSS), groups of adults and children in the community who are responsible for the coordination of the project. War Child also assisted a range of Community Action Groups (CAG) to implement activities such as traditional dance performances, music festivals, creative games, sporting tournaments and public debates. As from 2009, the educational activities will become an integral part of the new community-based projects.

New in 2008 was the development of a more deliberate effort in advocacy for children’s rights. An advocacy strategy was developed which highlights the inadequacy of child support mechanisms that impede full respect of children’s rights. The strategy will be implemented in 2009, focusing on:

• People surrounding children - parents, caregivers, teachers, peers, other community members - ensuring they understand the importance of child rights and start displaying positive support that prevents and reduces child rights violations;
• Duty bearers at district and national level, to ensure that the most relevant structures which help promote and protect the rights of children in the communities – the Child Welfare Committees – are put in place and become functional.

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