Gift of Advocacy (Digital Download)

How your gift has helped Laughter Africa children in the past:

Just one example of our recent advocacy work was during the 2023 Sierra Leone election.  

On 12th April 2023, the Network for Street Children Sierra Leone held a press conference to mark the International Day for Street Children. The conference was about “Keeping street-connected children Safe Before, During and After the Election.” 13 media houses attended the conference including Television, radio and newspapers.

We had four main speakers; the President of Children Forum Network (CFN); The Director of Gender and Children’s Affairs from the Human Rights Commission Sierra Leone; The Admin Officer at the Family Support Unit (FSU) of the Sierra Leone Police; and Henry, an old boy from Laughter Africa

Henry, who has stayed home since his reunification, made an appeal to all street connected children not to get involved in any election violence. He discussed some examples of election related violence that he witnessed on the streets: 

“During the last election in 2018, I lived on the streets and witnessed lots of election violence. I lived around King Jimmy, Ecowas Street and the Government Wharf areas. Every few days during the election period (October 2017 until March 2018), different politicians would come and give the street children 10 leones each to support them in political rallies. My friend Lahai used the 10 leones to buy some drugs and get high. During the rally he got into a fight and was hit over the head with a bottle. Lahai was injured and then he was arrested and spent over 3 weeks in a police cell for election violence until Laughter Africa managed to get him released.”

One of the most touching things that happened during the conference was when all the speakers and media made a pledge to protect children during the election. It was a hugely powerful moment.

In addition to the press conference, Isata, Laughter Africa's Head of Advocacy and Henry appeared on radio and tv across Sierra Leone including Culture Radio and SLBC radio.  To hear one of the radio shows, please visit here. To see some of the news coverage from the press conference, please click here. To see a Vox Pox made especially for the day, click here.

Another example of our advocacy work is our sexual violence support workshops which took place between October 2021 and July 2022 in eight communities including Susan’s Bay, Funkai, Lumley, Portee, Waterloo, Grafton, Aberdeen and Tombo. The workshops were about preventing sexual violence towards street children and supporting those that experience it as well as launching our helpline. Our target was to reach 500 street children, and between 2021 and 2022 we reached 4000 street children and 238 community stakeholders. The children have been making use of the phone line to seek support and guidance. Just one example of how successful the training programme has been is in June 2022 one of the girls from Susan’s Bay came running to us at the Interim Care Centre. She had been thrown at a door, beaten, stabbed in the back, and bitten on her face by the father of her child. We supported her with medical treatment and accompanied her to the police station, which led to the police pressing charges. Whilst the occurrence of violence is shocking, it is at least heartening to see progress on justice being served.

In July and August 2022, we started to implement the recommendations suggested by the community members and the street children from the sexual violence prevention trainings including holding 5 more community trainings in Waterloo and Lumley. On Saturday 24th September 2022, we trained 15 community advocates who live in their community, offering the street children a safe space to go to immediately after they have been sexually assaulted. The session involved training on the survivor centric approach and role play. We also gave the advocates ID cards, megaphones and lots of posters for their community. One of the advocates told us that the reason why she joined the training is because she was raped when she was a child by her cousin but no one believed her. She wants to make sure that something like this never happens again. She doesn’t want another child not to be believed ever again. We also held a press conference to introduce the new community advocates. 6 media houses were invited including Radio, television and newspapers. To see one of the TV reports about the training, watch from 37:10 here (keep your eyes peeled for Isata Samura, the head of communications for Laughter Africa, who was interviewed for the television programme).

Other examples of our advocacy work include our efforts to promote the International Day for Street Children on 12th April every year.

In 2021, the street children wrote, sung and directed a pop song and video called “Street Pikin Dem.” You can check it out here but just to warn you it is a very catchy song.

In the past we have carried out consultations with the street children about the National Strategy on Street Children which the Sierra Leone Government recently introduced. Altogether we had 112 street children take part.

And finally…..we love supporting the street children of Sierra Leone, but we'd be happiest if they never took to the streets in the first place. Unfortunately, many children think running away from home will fix all their problems, which is why we've been ramping up our prevention work. Who better to help educate at-risk children about the reality of street life than former street children themselves. They created and starred in a variety of short plays, dances and musical acts about their experiences, and performed these for the community in Susan's Bay. It was an amazing showcase of talent and we are hopeful it will make children think twice about turning to the streets as well as increasing the community's compassion towards the plight of children on the street. To see a video of the day, please click here.

We have chosen the focus of our next advocacy campaign for the year(s) ahead: to repeal the loitering law. A local NGO has brought a case to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) asking them to repeal the pre-colonial loitering law in Sierra Leone. The loitering law has a huge negative impact on the lives of street children and if the loitering law is repealed then this will make life better for generations of future street children.

To see our advocacy work in action, please watch a documentary all about the work of Laughter Africa here.